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The internship involved a large amount of mundane work. However the results that one can witness from their role within a larger initiative can prove rewarding. In this regard the internship, as a short term role, provided the appropriate satisfaction that you can expect to garner from a such a brief space of time.

All of my colleagues were immensely generous with their time and made me feel extremely welcome and valued within the team. I was able to ask any individual any work related question and be sure of a considerate and measured response. I felt appreciated by the team for the work that I did and enjoyed working with them.

There was considerably less interaction with personal managers than there was promised. Whilst this was usually due to the commitments that the senior management have, it was still disappointing. However the managers were supportive and encouraging when you were able to pin them down. I felt more accountable to other members of the team than to my manager/ supervisor.

Most of the time I found myself with little to do. Whilst they do encourage you to find your own work, unfortunately there is little of that to go around interns due to the lack of training that we had. In spite of this I was given daily tasks to add value to the team, however after a week or so these tasks would take me a fraction of the original time and I would find myself with nothing to do again.

I had a certain amount of responsibility including delivering key reports. This increased over the course of my internship and I noticed obtaining greater responsibilities as time went on. Having suggested a number of initiatives I was able to make my own responsibilities by initiating new methods for processes.

The skills I learnt were soft skills such as time management and pragmatism. I did not learn many technical skills which would help in the financial sector more broadly. I became marginally more proficient in Excel however I did not receive any training beyond being taught how to do the small number of processes that I was involved in.

There was a gentle, relaxed but never fun atmosphere. Employees are free to chat and take short breaks however overall the office is quite subdued. It was never hostile or uncomfortable.

There seemed to be a lack of communication between the recruiting team and the senior management who were often absent from meetings or events that had been scheduled. There is no recruitment officer permanently on site and whilst the recruitment team were very kind and understanding, it did not feel as though the management team knew what to do with the interns.

On the one hand everyone was so generous with their time that I was able to learn a number of things from colleagues. There were also a number of online tuition courses to be taken, some compulsory and many more optional. These were interesting and useful however in terms of face to face personal development/ training, there was almost none.

The firm are very supportive when it came to keeping interns on board in some capacity after they graduate. We were encouraged to consider where within the company we would like to work going forwards and efforts were made to accommodate us.

Not particularly due to the location of the office, however all the interns attempted to meet up a couple of times outside of work hours.

Edinburgh is an expensive city during August although the social facilities perhaps warrant slightly higher prices as it is a vibrant and fun city to live in.

Edinburgh has a good nightlife on many nights of the week.

Whilst this was mentioned to us, that there were sports clubs etc. It was not something that was particularly followed up to us or encouraged.