
This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement Î÷¹ÏÊÓÆµs/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
I loved the internship and found it incredibly interesting and exciting to be immersed in all things finance and current affairs on the trading floor. The only downside would be that it was quite exhausting to give 100% for 10 weeks!
I found that all the people I was surrounded by were very enthusiastic about their job and incredibly eager to share their passion and knowledge with interns, which made it very easy to settle in and enjoy the work.
I was given plenty of support and guidance by my manager - he was more than happy to meet up with me weekly to discuss my progress and detail what he expected from me. Also, I had a few additional meetings with him where I discussed some concerns of the internship, in which he immediately set aside time to help me which was very appreciated.
I definitely feel like I had the perfect balance on the internship. I was lucky to not be set too many individual tasks by my manager and instead had quite a lot of free rein to work shadow people on the team and set tasks for myself where I could test the knowledge I was picking up. This meant I felt like I was constantly doing things and engaging, without feeling stressed by constant deadlines and performance.
I understandably was not given much responsibility as I was on the trading floor and therefore was not qualified to help with anything significant the team were doing!
Whilst I do not do a finance related degree, I still picked up invaluable skills. On a more personal level, I learnt how to network effectively, how to push myself out of my comfort zone and challenge myself and how to work effectively in a team environment. On a more technical level, I learnt how to use excel proficiently, learnt how to build graphs and curves of different trading products and thoroughly developed my mental maths ability and logical thinking skills.
The Company
The atmosphere was naturally great on the trading floor, with a lot of buzz and excitement every day as various news pieces and data releases came out. I was lucky that my team were particularly outgoing and chatty with each other but also with the respective sales and structuring teams. The atmosphere definitely added to the enjoyment of an already exciting job.
I think the internship was very well organized. I sat on the same desk for 10 weeks, but had weekly sessions where I learnt about different products I was not exposed to on my desk. There were also plenty of networking opportunities and talks throughout the summer organized by HR, which allowed for an even broader understanding of both the firm's business and also important current developments in the financial markets.
We had a week of training before we sat with our desks, on top of having received training material online in the months leading up to the internship. This was invaluable in making me (from a non-finance background) feel more prepared and less nervous for the summer. In addition, the weekly sessions were fantastic in developing both skills and knowledge required for excelling in the industry.
Subsidised Canteen
Sports and Social Club
Subsidised/Company Gym
Company Parties/Events
Healthcare/Dental
I was lucky enough to get a job with them, which was an easy decision to accept as I had absolutely loved the specific role I had been doing. I also felt it was the perfect firm to be doing the role at. Not only was it obvious that there are fantastic opportunities for progress and mobility but more importantly, the people were so genuinely passionate about the job and eager to teach others - a work atmosphere I was eager to join.
The Culture
Yes there was and I went out for drinks with my team on multiple occasions. It was also particularly social between my fellow interns and we often socialised one or two week nights together every week. This made the internship much more enjoyable, as you had friends on the floor to catch up with at lunch or even to ask questions and learn from them.
I paid roughly three thousand pounds for a small studio apartment in Angel, which was obviously expensive but fairly manageable with the fees we were being paid throughout the summer. In terms of socialising, the drinks and food in the surrounding area were fairly average, not too expensive or too cheap.
Nightlife was ok in terms of nice pubs and bars to socialize in, however most of my fellow interns ventured elsewhere once it got much later.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Banking
London
October 2017