Summer Analyst Review

Thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I met lots of new people and the regular events and social activities organised by HR to helped me to build relationships. The working environment was intense but really friendly and exciting. 10 weeks went by so quickly!

Welcomed immediately by the team and throughout the internship I was given work by most members of the team. They were happy to give up their time for me to sit with them and learn from them. You have to build up a level of trust, and as time went on I was given more work as people began to expect things from me.

Given the nature of the work, management do not have much time to help you, but they gave me work to do and provided me with regular feedback. It is up to you to organise your own mid-reviews and end-reviews. For the main project I was working on, 3/4 people in the specific team often gave up their time to help me on it and go through my work.

This is entirely up to you how hard you want to work and will only be busy if you ask for more responsibility. The analyst on the desk gave me early responsibility and I added to this as the internship continued. In the morning I was the busiest, sending out daily reports and documents. In the afternoons I worked on various projects I was given and sat with various people. Given the nature of the work, it is hard to add value as an intern, so you have to look for ways to help the team where you can. This sometimes means that you do not have much to do, other than your long term projects.

Again this is entirely up to you and how much you want to push yourself. I was given responsibility to send out daily and monthly reports to around 60 people. I also did a presentation in front of around 25 people towards the end of my internship.

It depends. The skills I gained were mainly specific to the job, but some of the skills could be applied to my degree. For example my VBA programming and Excel skills improved a lot during the internship. The flexibility to explore different divisions gave me a broader perspective of the different roles.

The atmosphere was intense, noisy, fast-paced and exciting (it was on the trading floor). It was always buzzing with activity. The team was really friendly and welcoming and everyone is always willing to talk to you. In the busier periods people can get stressed, but given that the summer months are generally quite quiet, the atmosphere was quite relaxed and fun - so people generally had a lot of time for you.

The internship was organised really well on the whole. There were weekly events where senior figures talked to all of the interns and there was an opportunity for Q&A and networking after these events. There was also weekly lunch events set up, specific to your role, and senior members of the firm spoke to us. You were given the option to pick your 3 favourite desks before the internship, and the majority of people were given one of their choices. There were also a few social activities organised by the firm.

Before we entered the office, we had a week long training and introduction programme. This involved team activities, general overview talks on the firm and networking. We also had 3 days of technical training that was specific to your role. This was really helpful upon entering the office, as it taught me new skills and helped me brush up on knowledge before starting work. We also had a half day of presentation skills training that was useful.

This depends on your performance during the internship. A lot of interns were given full-time offers on the back of the internship, as is the way with most banks. To be hired full-time without an internship is becoming increasingly uncommon in banks, and it is almost regarded as essential nowadays. You have to do a presentation near the end of your internship based on a project you've been working on, and your full-time offer is partly based on this.

Yes there was a good social scene. We went out most Friday's together and had drinks and dinner after work on numerous occasions. Because there was 20 interns in my division, the group was quite close-knit and got on really well. There are lots of places to socialise in Canary Wharf and London, and because we all finished at reasonable times, there was lots of occasions to go out together. Also at wider firm wide events we could talk to other interns and build our relationships this way.

The internship was in Canary Wharf in London, so most people lived in the local area. It is obviously expensive living in London and you have to sacrifice distance of commute against price. I lived in student accommodation that rents out to interns during the summer months, this was a reasonable price and a reasonable commute. Other interns lived closer for cheaper, but you have to be quite lucky with this.

I lived in Bethnal Green, so I lived close to Shoreditch and other places were only a short tube ride away, so there is always lots of nightlife. This is one of the perks of living in London as there is always something going on. Also at Canary Wharf, there was a big screen outside which showed lots of things, for example Wimbledon. There were also some free evening concerts outside Canary Wharf which were quite fun to go to after work.

To some extent. I went for the occasional after work drink with full-time staff. I played football with my desk near the start of the internship which was a good way to form bonds with the team. There were regular events organised by HR. For example there were a fair few networking drinks where you can meet lots of different people from the Bank. Also at events organised during the week, we had the chance to network with the speakers. We also had a corporate responsibility day where we helped to clean a local park.