Intern - Women's Immersion Program Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Nomura. I am really taken aback by the sheer amount I learnt during my time - only two weeks - at the firm. The program was very well structured and at all times I felt like I had a purpose and work to be getting on with.

Every single employee that I met was more than willing to help and putting aside some time in their very busy schedules to sit with me and let me shadow them. I got on incredibly well with my team and by the end of my time I felt like they were not only colleagues but friends too!

The program certainly verified my desire to pursue a career within finance and I am confident that everything I learnt both on the desk and in the classroom will prove very useful over years to come.

The general atmosphere during my insight was friendly and welcoming. Everyone was eager to help!

Clearly lots of time was spent organising training and development activities. We were required to complete some online modules prior to starting the internship and these certainly proved useful throughout. Having basic understanding on concepts prior to the internship allowed me to understand more complicated concepts as I made my way through the process and to understand some of the Finance terminology and acronyms that were thrown around whilst sat on the desk.

Obviously on a two week internship there are only so many responsibilities I could take on and so in regards to what it would be like to hold a full time role, until you join a grad program it is difficult to gauge exactly what it would be like. Having said this, my team talked a lot about work/life balance and mentioned several company events they had been to. Furthermore, there were days when the markets were really busy but then times were activity wasn't so busy and so this gave me insight into how variant a full time role would be. Speaking with employees of all levels I also got an idea of how people generally progress through the company and saw differences in these roles, for instance between analyst and associate.

The company culture at Nomura is possibly Nomura's greatest strength. In regards to the expected 'hierarchy' that you generally find within banks, Nomura is very 'flat', meaning that MDs will give time to their analysts and interns get the opportunity to speak with employees at all levels. For me, this is the key strength that differentiates Nomura from its competitors.

Lots of networking and social events were organised and interns were free to email employees from almost any desk and ask for shadowing experience.