Junior Economist Review

My placement at 4CAST-RGE was quite a useful and insightful experience. Given that it was my first time working for a financial services firm and indeed in an office environment, i believe i gained a great deal of experience. The firm is relatively small, however the atmosphere is very friendly and there's plenty of opportunities to speak to any department.

I felt greatly valued, given that my role as a Junior-Economist required me to assist the economists and indeed other members of the team on a regular basis. Also, given that it was a small office, i could easily approach someone senior to ask for advice and indeed feedback. Therefore, you could say you definitely felt like an important member of the team.

There was always support available when required, whenever i had any queries i could approach an economist to ask for advice. However, most of it was left down to you and how you manage the tasks. This gave me the ability to work and act independent, yet at the same time ask for help when needed.

I'd say fairly busy on a daily basis, however it got busier towards the end of each month as there were extra things that needed to be done. The work was quite repetitive so it didn't vary too much between days.

There was quite a bit of responsibility given as some of the things i worked on were sent directly to clients or other economists to use. Therefore, it was important to be accurate and to meet the constant deadlines. However, I believe more responsibility could have been given by for example venturing out onto the research side or something that was not so routine.

I believe i gained exposure to using Excel on a regular basis, for example updating spreadsheet or running macros. Additionally, i gained some skills on using Bloomberg and Reuters terminals to update calendars, add events and making sure to keep on top of data releases.

The general atmosphere was quite friendly and relaxed. There was plenty of opportunities to make and join in on conversations and any jokes. It wasn't too quiet neither was it too loud, you were able to do your work and yet still enjoy talking to other members of the team.

I believe the placement was set up initially based only on the 4cast role, despite the merger taking place there wasn't any changes to the role. I believe there was an opportunity to change up the role here to allow the interns from the 4cast side to get involved in the Roubini side. It would have more an interesting placement and certainly more useful for any upcoming placement students.

There was 2 weeks of training given by the previous interns who showed you how to carry out most of the tasks. This was quite helpful as it allowed you to be settled into the company and gain some confidence.Certainly being thrown in the deep end without any training would have made the initial part of the placement difficult.

Quite a small firm and limited availability of roles.

The social scene was decent, as often we got to go hang out with the economists who didn't really treat you as interns but rather full team members. So it was very easy and enjoyable to talk with others.

London is very expensive, so eating out was not cheap at all. In addition rents were extremely high and the average train ticket for the year was costing £1500. Hence it was quite an expensive place to work and live at.

Victoria doesn't really have anything to offer, however it's pretty easy to get to other nearby locations which have a better nightlife scene.