Finance and Risk Intern Review

I definitely prefer a week where I have to work overtime because I am so busy as opposed to a week where I am struggling to pass time till 5pm. The internship workload started off pretty slow, which eased me into my role. As time went on, weeks got busier, and work became more interesting. However, on the whole, I feel like the workload could have been more on the whole.

I was in charge of one large project, which involved giving instructions to people both junior and senior to me. In the end I also had to organise a presentation of my team to my whole division, and was in charge of organising logistics, catering, and also presenting. This was a lot of responsibility to trust an intern with and I cherished it.

In terms of technical skills, I learned a lot of Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word which will help me in any job. In Microsoft Excel I learnt about VBA which should stand me in good stead throughout my career. In terms of soft skills, such as presenting and negotiating, this will be useful in the work place as well as in every day life.

The culture in the work place was very friendly, everyone was welcoming and there was a lot of focus around health and safety and work life balance which is great. People genuinely cared about interns and it was very easy to ask anyone to go for a coffee and learn more about them and their careers. Could only have been better if there was a bit more energy or humour in general.

The company had set up a welcoming session for us. All interns were allocated a buddy who was a graduate here that we could ask any questions too or just relay our thoughts to. There were senior leader networking sessions which were a unique opportunities for networking and learning about senior members of the company.

The company provided us with many excel training courses at no cost to us. These varied by level too. Furthermore there were also development sessions and networking sessions to improve our networks and soft skills. Finally, they also organised social events or "A day in the community" that we could participate in.

The company pays very well given it is not a bank. Pay per hour is very high. Having said that, there is not much information on salaries after the graduate scheme. I enjoyed the workplace culture here and it would definitely be a wonderful place to work at when I have a family because of the work life balance here.

Definitely. We would regularly go out for drinks after work. There would also be the weekend house party or club night. In the office, we always had lunch together. We were also assigned a commercial project which was an opportunity for us to work together and learn more about each other's internships.

In Canary Wharf nothing is cheap. There was a Weatherspoons nearby which is where us interns went for drinks and a meal every Thursday. Accommodation in London is expensive unless you want to live extremely far away from the office, but you do get a salary and it's worth the experience in my opinion.

On Wednesday mid-day the company hosts a football at the nearby gym. This is a great chance to meet employees from all business areas of the company. After work, there were social events on nearby, but I did not think there were many regular activities on, as Canary Wharf is not known as a residential area.