Healthcare Investment Banking Review

I found working on the desk with other employees to be very rewarding and useful, as I got an insight into the lives of investment bankers and what they do day-to-day. Everyone was lovely to work with and really made me feel included, which made the programme better as it was as if I was part of the team.

I felt as though my colleagues tried to include me as much as possible and gave me work to do that was actually used later on, so I felt as though I was contributing to the team. I occasionally felt like a bit of a burden, but mostly because they are always so busy and don't have huge amounts of time to interact with me.

Everyone I spoke to during the programme was always happy to answer any questions I had and give me an overview of what they did. They always gave me the time to ask questions or re-explain things if I had not understood them the first time round and were generous with their time.

The skills I learnt here are not entirely applicable to my degree, but mostly because I study science. However, this programme has genuinely given me much more confidence in myself, and has shown me that I am capable of things, so that will applied to lots of things in my life.

I really enjoyed the case study we did as a group and found the Debate Mate session hugely beneficial for confidence and presenting myself. I think more case studies could have been useful, as they would be good practice for an interview, especially as the case study was the first one I had ever seen

Everyone was really friendly and I never felt like I was not doing a good job or was being slow/useless. My team did a brilliant job of including me when they would go for lunch or coffee breaks, so there was always a positive atmosphere around me. The other girls on the programme were all lovely too.

There were lots of events put on to give us a good insight into the firm, and they were well organised. Debate Mate was a fantastic session and hugely rewarding - I came away from that feeling much more confident and had learnt a lot about how to present myself.

Being on the desk for almost two full weeks was a really good insight into the workings of the firm and the daily lives of the bankers here, which I found really useful. It felt like I was part of the team, almost as if I had been employed, so I have a good idea of what the job would be like.

I got to see the types of events that the company puts on, such as charity events, but did not take part in any of these. Being here for the full day each day gave an insight into how the colleagues interact with one another, which provided some information on the culture here.

As I do not study finance or anything related to it, this programme was very useful in deciding if this is something I want to do as a career. I came here knowing very little about investment banking but have learnt huge amounts of information and will use this to decide what my next step is.

I think the pay is good for the programme, especially as I have gained so much valuable experience from it, so it is more of an additional bonus. Perhaps being reimbursed for travel would be useful, as it does add up, but as we are getting fully paid I suppose that is not necessary.

Everyone was hugely willing to give their time to talk about the company, what they do, their careers so far and why they enjoy working here. I never felt as though I was being a burden to people during networking events or coffee chats, as even though they are busy people they did not seem to mind taking time out of their day to talk about their work.

I thought it was good that we were essentially forced to network (during the networking lunch) as I can be a little reserved and would probably not have put myself out there much without having to, but I benefitted a lot from it and have gained good connections within the company.

There was a little insight into other activities, such as skiing weekends and painting classes, but most employees seem to have busy schedules that don't allow much time for activities after work. I didn't get much insight into other activities that could be done, but I don't really think this was important for me to know at this stage.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone that wants an insight into investment banking, as I feel thee can be misconceptions about people in banking being greedy and rude etc. This was such a good insight into what investment bankers do daily, and I think anyone considering this career would benefit hugely from doing this programme