This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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About You
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The Company
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Everything Else
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy the insight?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued during your time at the company or firm?
- 3. How much guidance/support did you receive during the insight?
- 4. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and information you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 5. How well structured was the insight?
- 6. How was the general atmosphere during your insight?
- 7. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 8. To what extent did the insight help you to understand what it would be like to have a full time role with the company or firm?
- 9. How much did the insight help you in understanding the company culture?
- 10. How valuable was the content in helping you to decide on your future career path?
- 11. Were you paid or reimbursed adequately for this experience?
- 12. Were there opportunities for networking and meeting other employees of the company or firm?
- 13. How were the networking/ social event opportunities?
- 14. Did you find out about activities that employees can get involved in outside of work?
- 15. Would you recommend this insight to a friend?
About You
The experiences of the spring week at J.P. Morgan were worth every minute. Great speakers, friendly employees, well organised activities and challenges all contributed toward an awesome 3 day insight, I wish it could have been longer. Quality free food and a great hotel room were definitely more than satisfactory.
J.P. Morgan is a banking company and this can be felt to some degree, however their goal is to be "a technology company that just happens to do banking", which is a good direction. There were some very formal communication sessions but most of the time, especially during work shadowing we got to chat with employees on an informal one to one basis, which made me feel treated as equal.
The organisers were friendly and approachable and we could get in touch with them in person or by phone any time. In coding challenges, we were split into groups which had assigned mentors who could assist us when needed. All the employees I met were also helpful, which contributed to a friendly and supportive environment.
Over multiple opportunities, we could ask staff whatever was on our minds, which was great for getting more complex questions figured out. Most of all, I learned how important and why the Minimum Viable Product strategy is to businesses like J.P. Morgan, which changed my perspective about the work they do and what I should learn in the future.
The Company
There was never a point when we did not know what to do - the schedule was well set out and clear, we always knew what was going on and where to go. And just in case someone didn't, we could always ask the organisers, who were friendly and approachable. If something were to not go well, they also gave us their phone numbers the very first morning.
It was a little tough to keep up at some points for me, but that's mainly because I was out of my comfort zone the whole time as an introvert surrounded by many new people. This was not a negative thing however, as it helped to make new connections and meet interesting personas.
At J.P. Morgan they were looking not for developed talent but candidates who had the potential to learn and be trained. Overall, the spring week was very short, 3 days is not that much of a time investment, but we were still provided with accommodation and food throughout the whole stay.
Two sessions of work shadowing over two separate days showed most of what goes on in the firm. I even got to help one of the employees with the task he was currently working on. Apart from that I got to talk to many more employees about what they do and their experiences at J.P. Morgan.
The company culture was clear from the outset, because nobody interacting with us was pretending to be in a different environment or to be someone else. Instead, everything was as casual as possible within a banking firm and we could see it not just from how employees talked to us but to each other as well.
Since this spring week was mostly about software engineering with a little cloud, cyber security and systems administration, it didn't cover that many fields. It helped me rule out a couple very specific roles that I know I wouldn't like to do, but had little in common with my preferred fields of VR and low level programming.
Everything Else
We could get travel expenses reimbursed if they exceeded a certain amount. Apart from that, the hotel was booked for those coming from outside Glasgow with a bed and breakfast package for the duration of the spring week. Food was provided throughout the event and there was no requirement to spend any money.
Most of our interactions happened over the two work shadowing sessions, but every presentation and activity involved various employees, who were open to questions whenever they weren't busy doing something. In addition, a number of employees would show up during breaks and also gladly opened up conversations, which engaged even those who were too shy to talk to anyone.
The first evening had a social event at bowling, with free food and drinks. Unfortunately while this was a decent idea, bowling is better with a group of friends than strangers, because turns keep interrupting conversations. The second evening was a networking session in the office, which wasn't anything special, but definitely enough for anyone who was interested. Most of the socialising actually took place in the hotel where many of us stayed together.
This was one of the things I got to ask personally of most of the employees I talked to and the answers were definitely interesting. Apparently J.P. Morgan host internal hackathons, have interest groups which helped like-minded people to connect as well as business resource groups, which are much akin to student societies.
The spring week was definitely worth my time and I would even go again, because of how fun and informative it was. The way they took feedback at the end also is a promise that it would be even better next year, so I would recommend this to anyone who might be interested.
Details
Insight / Vacation Scheme (< 4 Weeks)
Scotland
April 2018