西瓜视频

I believe everyone has some preconceptions about companies, even more so with companies in the Banking/Financial Sector. I myself thought that, for instance, employees have to come in suits, at 9 sharp, leave after 6. However, while this might be true for some teams, it is not even close to the attitude of the people I worked with. It was surprisingly good!

Similarly to the above, I did not think I would be accepted by my colleagues so easily. They were and are very friendly, and the people I worked with valued my thoughts and so called "expertise", while also giving suggestions to improvement in the quality of my work.

I have been in close touch with my manager throughout the internship. She helped with the initial difficulties of setting up my environment, went to great lengths to ensure I understand the project I am working on, and helped me prepare my presentations. A word of advice, think about WHY you are doing something!

It depends on the day, but I was generally busy throughout all the working hours. There were days where I stayed a couple of hours over schedule (out of my own choice), and days where I would stay less, because I was going to the gym afterwards (for example). The more the people I was directly working with were available, the more I stayed, as I was more productive.

Since the beginning I have been given full responsibility over my project, in that I managed reporting progress, confirming it with my manager, asking questions, getting colleagues to review my code, etc. It felt fulfilling, because it gave me an impression of what it would be like working there full time (on a smaller scale).

I worked exclusively with a "home made" language from Goldman: Slang, so I don't think the Slang specific skills and training will be extremely useful in my degree and beyond (they are transferable though), unless I return to Goldman (which I would like to do). However, my design choices, interacting with a big system on which thousands of applications depend, code quality, debugging, and social skills will be vital to my professional development.

People are friendly, like talking about their projects (and answering your questions!). We used to go for tea or hot chocolate every now and then (in the floor kitchen), where we got to know each other better or talk about our projects. One of the most surprising things was how much I enjoyed the office. We also play board games every monday and friday lunch, and I love it!

It was very well organised, with a 3 day orientation with various talks and introductions to the firm's technology. We also had a full day visit to Bletchley Park, and one for volunteering (I chose a farm), which was very interesting and refreshing. However, my office was away from the main one, so I lost a lot of time travelling to/from it. I would have enjoyed it more if we had slightly fewer talks, or at least having them packed together.

There were several opportunities to receive training in both back and front end technologies. The firm has also partnered to several platforms, such as Pluralsight, which allowed me to follow various courses online (generally before/after work, or at home). I can hardly think of any things they could improve on.

Given my very positive internship experience, and the project i have worked on, I would love to return as a graduate hire. While I do not know how good a fit I would be in other teams, my team seems to be equally satisfied with me.

We had various opportunities of getting together, and we often went for lunch together or met and played ping pong/table hockey. We also had a picnic and a bbq, which allowed us to interact outside of office. I felt that the social scene was active enough, but not extremely so. Just right for me.

Cost of socialising in the area around the office is generally expensive (being central London). So having some drinks/a decent meal could easily turn into a 20-30 pound spend. But if you enjoy things such as wasabi, or the canteen food (which is good), with 7-8 pounds you can get a very fulfilling meal. I am not aware of cost of living, as I was too scared to even look it up. It must be very expensive. But I think it is similar to other firm's offices.

Not sure, as I am not the type to party (at night). I also have some health issues which required me to wake up at ~ 6am, so staying until late was not an option, as I wanted to perform well. There are a lot of people in bars/pubs, so I guess it is good enough. But personally, no idea.

Yes, there are almost weekly social events, with teams generally organizing separate ones among themselves. There are also various clubs, basketball, football, golf, etc.