Summer Financial Analyst Review

I got to work on a very challenging and interesting project. The work I did create a great impact and I was able to see the tangible result. Amex has a great culture and encourages work-life balance, no one wanted me to stay late and there were many interesting events to attend.

Everyone smiles here and everyone is willing to spend time having a 1-1 with me, even including the senior people such as VPs. This is not something in common in other corporates. No one says no when I ask for help. Usually they’d stop what they are doing and help me straight away.

I have received incredible amount of support from my manager on my project, internship and personal development. My manager is very patient and he always makes sure that I understand everything. He’s willing to spend hours’ of time teaching me from the ultimate basics. He also cares about me on a personal level and offers advice to me whenever I have problems outside work.

It depends. Before I started my project I used to have a lot of free time and I’d use that time to have chats with people from different teams. I became busy as soon as I started my project. Bu overall I’d say that there’s a perfect balance, no one wanted me to stay late and I always had things to do.

I was given full responsibility for my project and I was involved in all the aspects in my project. My project is heavily based on data and I was responsible for coding, extracting and analysing the data, drawing conclusions, pulling out a deck and presenting to senior management. And whenever I faced difficulties, my manager always asked me try to solve them myself first.

The learning curve was so steep and I have gained both technical skills and soft skills. Technical skills: Besides the basic office software, I have learnt how to code. This has been my biggest learning and it’s a skill that’s useful in any kind of data-related jobs. Soft skills: collaboration with other people, problem-solving and analytical skills

There’s a very good atmosphere in the office, everyone talks and smiles. Whenever people go on holiday, they’d always bring back sweets to share with everyone. Also, we’d grab lunch, coffee and ice-cream together. People can joke around and talk about their personal life in the office. The atmosphere is very chilled and relaxed.

I’d say its pretty well organised. There were structured technical trainings, speaker series and company events throughout the internship. All the trainings/events were very well spread out and useful. The assessment was also very clear and well organised. Our project and assessment method was made clear at the beginning and I never had any confusion during the internship.

We all had trainings on Excel and public speaking which were helpful for everyone. But I feel like the company could offer more trainings since we all work on different projects which require different level of technical trainings. For example, I’m the only one intern that needs to use SAS so I need a very in-depth training on SAS/coding.

Amex is a multinational company and internal mobility is very easy to do. Many people in the London office have been translocated to NY and some employees from NY can come to London and work here for a year. Also Amex encourages changing roles/teams every 2/3 years so you’ll never get bored doing the same thing. It’s very common to see people staying here for more than 10 years cos of this reason. Promotion is also very structured. You’ll definitely get noticed if you work hard and deliver good results.

All the fellow interns are very friendly. There’s not a competitive environment between interns, everyone is trying to help others. We have lunch in the canteen every day and we hang out a lot after work. I’ve made many good friends in my internship and have received great advice from them.

Amex’s office is right opposite to Victoria station. There are many pubs/restaurants nearby. I’d say the cost of socialising is quite average although its in central London. There are many fast food places in the station where you can get lunch for about 5 pounds. Also, there’s a food market within 10mins walk where you can get international street food for about 5-6 pounds.

We had many great activities outside of work. For example, we went to the Brighton office, we had a community day and a boat cruise down the river Thames. There were a lot of events within teams as well. We had a team development day where we volunteered in a park and had a BBQ party afterwards.