Investment banking (CCS) summer analyst Review

by UBS

Best Student Employer

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

2.5/5
  • The Role
    2.6
  • The Company
    3.1
  • The Culture
    1.8

    The Role

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
  • The people are very helpful and aid you wherever necessary. The role itself has a good learning curve and so as an analyst (and graduate), you will be taking in a lot. The issue arises from the culture that has always been around banking. Unnecessarily long hours, doing sometimes pointless work can leave you feeling underwhelmed and unable to make an impact as a junior.

    3/5

  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
  • Colleagues are certainly nice and helpful but I don't think this equates to being valued. Banking is very much a hierarchical industry and even those with 10 years experience could be left feeling under-valued. As an intern and junior (<5 years), you could very much be left doing a lot of menial grunt work on Powerpoint and Excel. By no means does this make you feel valued and you are making little impact and are easily replaceable.

    2/5

  • 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
  • Mentors and line managers are always there to help you excel at what you do and grow. Would potentially be helpful to have more frequent feedback given the short 9 weeks here. Also, candid advice can sometimes be hard to find and advice given by one individual by not always be applicable (even if right!) as team cultures and working practices vary a lot.

    4/5

  • 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
  • Far too busy - sometimes far too unnecessarily. Average hours for an intern and analyst (and associate) are around 9am-1am in my team - with bad hours being 9am-4am. This makes it impossible to stay healthy or have a work-life balance. It is expected that you sacrifice your youth and this is unlikely to change as seniors have gone through this and in turn, they expect the same from their juniors. Work being completed is sometimes unnecessary and sometimes unused, making it very frustrating given how many hours you commit to it.

    1/5

  • 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
  • As an intern - the team givens you a good a level of responsibility as you could expect in this industry. I was given exposure to a wide range of scenarios (pitching to live deals), allowing myself to develop a holistic understanding of investment banking. Exposure to the technical side of the job (which you'd mostly expect to do as a junior) is good. However, you are likely to get no client interaction and very little of it as a junior banker - making it somewhat of a strange 'front office' role. The role of consultants and some people industry is vastly different - giving them C-level access very quickly.

    4/5

  • 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
  • In terms of technicals, valuation skills are unlikely to come in handy unless you want a long-term career in banking. However, accounting skills learnt can be incredibly useful in an array of industries. Also, soft skills such as work ethic are also likely to be very useful and reaffirming (knowing you can do 19 hour days) moving into other roles.

    4/5

    The Company

  • 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
  • Again, whilst people were very friendly, they still expected long working hours from me when there was no need. The idea of face-time was denied during the start of the internship but it was obvious that it existed. If you had a period of downtime and it's 7pm - don't expect for it to look good if you head to the gym for an hour. This 'slave' culture is in my mind unwelcome.

    2/5

  • 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
  • Excellent - everything was well planned and well executed. Lots of talks, lots of training sessions, feedback sessions, socializing sessions and a well structured scheme acting as a pipe-line into seeing if you're fit for their graduate program. You are very much made to feel involved by UBS and not neglected.

    5/5

  • 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
  • You can tell a lot of time and money has been input into you. You are highly unlikely to be able to make the company any money. You get a week of pure training at the start of the internship, all the same facilities full-time employees have are given to you and plenty of talks with industry experts are arranged throughout every week.

    4/5

  • 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
  • 1/5

  • 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
  • Great - working here as a junior will set you on a clear track to become a senior banker with the only hurdle being if you want to stick it out or not. Also, exit opportunities are strong with junior bankers leaving to join start-ups, PE and other high profile roles.

    5/5

    The Culture

  • 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
  • Not in my division and during my year. To my understanding, most years there is a lot of camaraderie and going out together but the interns this year did not socialize a lot or go out. Some teams also go out a lot together but our team is yet to do this once.

    3/5

  • 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
  • Firstly - we would not get much time to socialize working extreme hours during the week and at time, working on weekends too. Secondly - London is a good place to socialize but can be very expensive at times with costly nights out. There are things to do for free though like visiting parks - but again, you'd get no time for this. Socializing is not top of the agenda if you do this job.

    2/5

  • 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
  • It was good as mentioned but very expensive. However, I would much prefer the nightlife in other cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds - both from a price and enjoyment point of view. A lot of interns visit sky bars and up-market places which is fun though as no other place in the UK offers this.

    3/5

  • 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
  • No - you won't get any time during the internship

    1/5

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Details

Internship (1 Month+)

Banking

London

August 2018


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