This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
-
The Company
-
The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
It has been a very challenging experience but super rewarding! You definitely get put in the deep end and get a lot of responsibility straight away. I've learnt so much not just about the industry but really developed my soft skills to a really high level and I don't think I realized how valuable that is until working at GS.
As time goes on, you definitely won't feel like an intern anymore. You really do act and get treated as if you are part of the team and people frequently forget you're only there for a year! They are all really willing to help you and teach you what you don't know despite how busy they are.
This is slightly dependent on how much you reach out for support/guidance. You do get assigned a manager, mentor and buddy (someone junior who is there for your day-to-day questions) which is super helpful to have different port of calls to rely on and they are all really willing to help!
Very busy! One thing I struggled with was escalating to my manager when I had too much work on but they really do care if you have too much on and will reassign if some people are too busy so managing everyone's workloads is something they are definitely trying to help and improve on.
A lot! I was getting the same responsibility as an analyst/junior associate during my time here. This depends on how involved you want to get and obviously how well you do for your team to trust you. They definitely build it up and try and push you to take on more responsibility as you go on.
The knowledge I've gained is probably too specialized for it to directly help with my degree content but it has definitely helped given me a much better understanding of finance as a whole. The soft skills I have developed will help me enormously in my degree and beyond. It has been a great head start into the corporate world!
The Company
We had so much training and sessions to develop our skills and knowledge throughout the year. We had two days out of work during the year specifically for training, weekly knowledge training sessions, monthly in-depth training on a specific topic as well as people from different departments frequently coming to talk about something new and upcoming in the business.
Subsidised/Company Gym
Healthcare/Dental
Really really good! At the end of the placement they will offer you a graduate job if they have capacity and you are good enough. You are not directly competing with your fellow placement students as if if all of you impress them then they will hire all of you!
The Culture
Very expensive! Naturally being central London you are paying high prices for socializing but there are good spots nearby where you can get cheaper bars/pubs. Living in central London really is not an option unless you are super rich but there are nearby areas that are roughly 30-45mins commute away that are a lot cheaper.
London nightlife so obviously very fun and most places are very accessible from the office. Lots of bars and pubs nearby that are favourites of the firm and are frequently visited by employees. St Paul's/Farringdon area has more pubs/bars than clubs but clubs are closely accessible by tube or bus.
There are different sports teams that you can get involved in which is a really good way to meet people outside of your team/division. There are classes at the gym which is a god way to meet new people and there are frequently different events going on in your department or firmwide which are great to get involved with also.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
Investment Banking, Banking
London
June 2019