Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed my internship at Citi. I had the opportunity to discover the finance industry and all the products of the bank as I interned in Corporate Banking.

All the team was really keen on explaining to both me and a fellow intern everything we had to know to be effective, both in terms of hard (software, industry knowledge) and soft skills.

My staffer was always happy to review my work, and really wanted me to understand where what I was doing fitted in the whole process of bringing additional revenue to the bank.

I personally hate staying at work doing nothing, and I was happy in a team in which I always had a interesting project at hand. The hours were long but I always felt like I was staying late to do something really important to the rest of the team.

Responsibilities are always hard to come by when you're an intern, all those who tell you the opposite are liars. But I guess the key is to take as many initiatives as possible to build trust with other team members.

I would tend more to see my studies as a way to build skills for my future professional career, so my answer was always going to be biased. But I really learned. A lot.

There was a very good atmosphere in the office, and we often had a drink next to the office, admittedly before sometimes going back to the office to finish the last piece of work due for the next day.

The summer internship is really institutionalized at Citi, and we always truly had the impression that the firm was genuinely interested in what could bring to it.

We had a full week of training before the internship started, and several training sessions of an hour or so with our team during the internship. The team was always ready to consider that I was here to help but that I couldn't do it efficiently if I didn't understand what I was supposed to do, which sounds like common sense but really isn't for some companies.

The company hires a majority of the interns, and the internship is really about whether there is a good fit between the corporate values / general atmosphere and the personality of the intern.

I made some really good friends during the internship, and Citi was organising networking events for us to meet and get the chance to speak to interns in other divisions.

Canary Wharf is not famous for being the cheapest place in London, but ultimately it was ok, especially considering the fact that the internship is paid.

Nightlife is better found in other parts of London, but the DLR and the Jubilee line took us there quickly whenever we needed it. And Canary Wharf has its share of bars before thinking about later in the night.

The long hours do not really help you to get involved in activities outside of work. But the building is a nice place to be, and you get your fair share of social life within such a huge organisation.