Summer Intern Review

It was overall a good experience. Minor sources of stress but excellent people to help you out.

There was never any issue in this sense. I feel like my efforts were approprietly appreciated.

Almost flawless support. The only drawback being that usually senior management is very busy and hard to get a hold of.

Quite busy most of the time; busy mostly with figuring things out. As a new comer it takes weeks if not months to get accustomed to the inner workings of the firm so what will keep you busy if you're in a placement that only lasts that long.

I was given enough responsibility to learn about the company and the system, but not enough to feel under pressure. A mindful manager will understand that taking up such a role can be quite stressful and the lack of experience certainly does not help so generally interns are given small leraning tasks. Towards the end of my placement I moved onto more "real" projects.

It definitely gave me a new perspective when it comes to organising myself and my time. I have take un useful habits like writing things down, keeping a work journal, being aware of a schedule, juggling with tasks and deadlines. And also a lot of soft skills that will surely come in handy such as how to network, how to talk to your superiors or to the management, how to handle stress and so on were developed here.

The office is exaclt like you'd expect an office to be. Work stations, people talking on the phone, vast amounts of coffee, formal attire. It can get a bit dull sometimes, there is a distinct lack of colour or personality, leaving only the worker's smiles as a decoration.

Organisation is definitely something that is done more or less flawlessly around here. Sure there is perhaps some trouble in the way that higher initiatives make it down to the implementation level, but that's natural in a company of this size. Everything is fluid, nothing gets stuck because of beurocracy even thought there is a lot of it - which I find impressive.

It was made clear form the very begining that as an intern my main responsabilities should be to develop, learn and figure out if this is what I want to do for a career. The people in charge of recruitment put up a lot of networking events for us to attend as interns to get an idea of what the industry is like, what the people working here are like and so on. Overall I feel like quite a bit has been invested in me personally but also in my peers.

It is quite appealing, although so are many other things such as academia, other industries, start ups... In the end it's down to individual preference. I will probably come back to work here after I graduate, but I am yet to decide if I want to build a lasting career.

Yes, all of the social events (and there were quite a few) had very high attendence rate. It was a great opportunity to get a feel for how other students are approaching their formation and development or how they integrate their degrees with their careers. It always helps to see how other peers handle situations you might find yourself in at some point like "Do I want to work here first?", "Do I want to do a PhD maybe?". Seeing other people's takes on these big questions can definitely be halpful and social events are the time and place to get these insights.

Living in London can be quite challenging if like myself you are used to living in a small town, but it gets easier with time. Costs were never a main concern as the payment is always area-appropriate. A lot of the people working here have ridiculous commutes built into their daily routines, so that's something to look out for. Also you'll find that most often, the more people are around you, the easier it is to feel lonely and isolated. Again, it is essential to network and make connections whenever possible.

The nightlife in London is pretty active, as you can imagine. The prices and the fact tha you have to be up early make you think twice but nothing much else in the way of having a good time. There is public transportation available at night, so it's all good.

Yes! The company itself provides you with opportunities to get involved in charities and extra activities. As part of my placement we had to do what is known as "Corporate Responsibility Day" where we went out and got our hands dirty doing charitable work (we built a walking path in a park). There are many other programs available, you need only ask.