Souther European Marketing Placement Review

I truly believe that the internship that I have just completed was brilliant and it gave me the opportunity to incredibly develop on a professional and personal level.

I could not have asked to be surrounded by better people. Since day one, my manager established a sense of respect that I would have never expected. I was never treated like 'the intern' by my team or anybody else in the Company, and I was always given an increasing level of responsibilities and independence. When they say that the biggest asset of M&G is the people, it is a bit hard to believe it from the outside, but after a while you can genuinely perceive and feel the culture. And it's this culture which actually makes it so unique and valuable. I had the opportunity to realise that even more when my team hired two new joiners: whereas one was perfectly fitting within the picture, the other was struggling to understand and appreciate the M&G values and atmosphere and after a while was asked to leave. This made me appreciate even more the Company, especially because it is part of an Industry which is known to be cruel and to look at people as numbers. Now, I do not have that much experience elsewhere, but I feel confident to say that M&G is one of a kind.

I was given support and guidance at every step and at the same time I was encouraged, by example, to be gradually more independent. If there is one thing I would suggest in order to make the best out of this opportunity, it's not to extremely rely on others. And by this I mean, to try to look for information and data by yourself and then ask for help. I know that there are no stupid questions that you could ask, but, based on my experience, this approach will encourage and accelerate your learning process. I believe you should try to find that perfect combination between being independent but responsible, e.g. try to research where data are, but do not submit something of which you are not 100% sure. It took me a while to get the right balance, but, once I did, I became more confident about my work.

My schedule got busier and busier with the increase level of responsibilities and time. I have never had an 'empty' day, even though at the beginning I was given smaller and easier tasks which were quite fast to deliver. Nevertheless, I had very busy periods sometimes, especially when my manager or my colleague went on holiday and we had very strict deadlines. Anyways, I would personally suggest to utilize your time at the best. If you realise that you are not that busy in the first week/weeks, try to research or network. M&G has a great online platform available to employees as well, which it is a very good way to productively employ your free time at work.

As mentioned before, the level of responsibility was gradually increasing, but I was always treated as any other new joiner. I was involved in every meeting and my opinion was always taken into account. Towards the end, when a new permanent employee joined the team, my manager even asked me to do the training for him, which was a clear proof of trust from my team and a great chance for me to recap and reflect on what I had learnt and to acquire a leadership role with a person who is even older than me, which was challenging but a good learning opportunity.

Since I am writing this review on my last day, I couldn't practically test this, however I am very confident that this experience was positive, productive and formative and it will be helpful in my professional and personal life.

As mentioned before, the atmosphere was great and friendly. Everyone I came across were very supportive and approachable, always available to find time for a cup of tea or a coffee break with you. The flat structure is a quite important aspect of the M&G corporate structure.

Regardless the fact that my placement was a bit different in terms of length of time compared to the normal scheme, it was very well structured. I appreciated the training that we were offered and enjoyed the several social events that were organized for us. I had the chance to bond with the other interns to the extent that we always went out together after work and we still keep in touch.

On a general level, M&G Investments offered very good training/information sessions in the first weeks of the internship.

I would genuinely love to work for this firm in my future.

Absolutely. With a small group of interns, we used to always go out after work. Same with my colleagues, we went for drinks quite often as well as lunch together.

Since I have been living in London for the last two years, I was quite used to the costs involved. As everybody knows, it is an expensive city but it pays off.

It's full of pubs and restaurants, so not too bad.

We had quite a few, as mentioned before, like pub quizzes, drinks, lunch, and I even attended the M&G Retail Summer soiree at the British Museum.