Summer Student Review

My internship was very enjoyable. I was able to get highly involved in the day to day work of the team here, as well as being very involved in the social aspects of the company. These ranged from company wide events, such as a 5 a side tournament, to smaller events like go karting, which were organised within the office. I felt that we were able to fit into the team easily here, and everyone was friendly and generous with their time. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my summer internship here.

I felt very valued by my colleagues. This became more evident as the internship progressed, and so did my skills and work. It was very much a case that people entrusted me with work, and expected me to be able to provide it to a high quality, which not only encouraged me to do so, but gave me the confidence to learn quickly and to get on with everyone here. As well as my work, I think I was a valued member of the team in terms of social activities here. I took part in sports events and also most of the social events that I could.

In our first week here we were given extensive training to help us get to grips with the mathematical methods we would need to perform the calculations we would be doing in our time here. As well as these sessions, at any point I felt I could ask my colleagues and supervisors for help and they were always generous with their time. Throughout the programme we were given a few assessed tasks to complete, and shortly after we had completed them were given detailed and constructive feedback.

Day to day we were kept very busy. As the programme went on, and we became more skilled at the work, people gave us more to do, often on shorter time frames, and often more complicated examples. This was excellent as it meant we were hardly every sitting around doing nothing. In the times where we had less work, however few and far between they were, I felt that I could always ask my colleagues if they had anything that needed doing, and they would always oblige me and give me work to do.

Personally I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement. I was given a lot of work to do independently, lots of it very numerical and complicated, and was also given a few larger projects to work on. On many occasions I was allowed to send out the work that I had done to clients myself, thus being able to take responsibility for them. I also spent a lot of time personally communicating with Investment Managers. I was given a couple of projects to work on from scratch, and this showed me that my supervisors were willing to put a lot of trust in my abilities, whilst probably wanting to test me to see what I could produce. I enjoyed this a lot.

The biggest skill that I have learned here is paying great attention to detail. Dealing with very large amounts of data, and working through very complex calculations, without wanting to make mistakes has been one of the most demanding elements of this placement. This will help me with my studies as it will allow me to stay on top of my degree studies, and also to avoid making costly errors pressure situations such as exams. I think that time management is also a large element that I have improved here, and again, this will help me not only to stay organised at university but to do so throughout my career.

The general atmosphere in the office was very friendly. People were always willing to help at a moments notice and I never felt unwelcome. People worked hard to make me feel part of the team and it didn't take long for me to feel that way. The people I was working with on a daily basis were all quite young which helped me to get on with them as we had lots of common things to talk about. The office was always very calm and relaxed, and everyone would always stop and talk to each other which was a nice touch.

The placement was very well organised. We had a two day firm wide induction on our first two days at the company to get us used to the systems and ways that the company operated. When we got to our local offices we were given a timetable which outlined the full 8 weeks, including any assessed task as well as our mid and full term reviews. These reviews were informal sessions in which we could discuss how we were getting on, and ways in which we could improve, as well as any things we would like to discuss about the programme.

The company seems like on that I would very much like to work for. Everyone here is very friendly and generous with their time, and their is a lot of opportunity to do extra activities outside of work. There is a very well defined career path here which is an appealing factor, the exams and the qualification process lend themselves very nicely to a hierarchy within the company and it takes away the unknown element of your career. There is a lot of support for the exams and studies as well and this is an appealing factor.

There is not much of a nightlife in the area that I worked. It was in Amersham just to the west of London. Amersham is quite a small town and is surrounded immediately by small villages and countryside which means that there are only really pubs here. An obvious benefit is that the metropolitan line runs to Amersham train station and so Central London and the nightlife there are very much within reach. We are also quite close to High Wycombe here which is another bigger town which has more to do.

In my time here I have been very heavily involved in activities outside of work. I took part in a firm wide football tournament, I also took part in a golf tournament that was competed amongst local offices and was a very relaxed and enjoyable affair. I have gone go karting with my team, as well as weekly lunches on a Friday and fortnightly team lunches on a Monday. In our second week we were invited to a boat party on the Thames with the other interns from the offices in and around London, the company paid for our tickets and this was an excellent experience.