Summer Analyst - Technology Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at GS. The company culture was excellent and I felt like the work I produced during my internship added substantial value to the team and firm. The organizers of the internship did an amazing job providing us with opportunities to further our experience and learn more about the company.

From the very first day of my internship i felt extremely welcomes. The majority of my colleagues had been in my situation at one point and they were very understanding of my initial struggles with projects, etc. But they were always willing to take time out of their day to work and i was very appreciative of that.

My manager was of excellent help. At the start of the internship when I was unfamiliar with the technology he would spend substantial time helping me out, and also set up meetings for me with different people in order for me to grow and learn, and I am very thankful for that.

On a daily basis I was quite busy with the project but I found that if i worked smartly I could easily make time during the day for other activities, such as going out for lunch or heading to meet someone. I found the timings to be very flexible and there was a good work life balance.

During the placement I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility. I was in charge of software release for two weeks which is quite a large responsibility however I felt like during this time i was well supported and could always ask if i needed help with something. I was also trusted with chairing one or two meetings which was good.

Since I study computer science at university the technical skills I have developed over these 10 weeks will be invaluable in my studies. Learning new web development technologies has helped greatly with my own personal projects, and I have no doubt that I can leverage this coding in a corporate environment experience in future careers.

The office is an open office and is therefore very lively. For some people that can be a nice working environment however I understand that some people will wish to work in relative silence and not have to listen to other people's phone conversations. For this matter a lot of people choose to wear noise cancelling headphones to tone down the ambient noise. There is always something going on however it is not at the levels of some major tech companies.

The work placement was organized extremely well. From the very first day there were numerous events set up in order to teach us more about the firm and introduce us to our peers. No expense was spared on some of these events, and it was apparent that a lot of effort had gone into the internship overall.

The company organized some full-stack tech training for us, however this session fell very short of the bar set by the other internship events. I can not speak for divisionally-aligned teams, however in core technology the majority of training and learning was independent or offered by members of the team you join.

The chance of getting an offer is quite high if you put your head down and work. However I feel that if you do not fit into your team well there was a chance that your project and therefore chance of an offer would suffer as a result. However, for most people this is not the case.

Interns working in similar divisions had good social scenes set up and a fair amount of events were self organized by the interns themselves. Teams generally did dinners/drinks/lunches with their interns and the company has a committee set up where employees run events for new joiners.

I cannot speak for living costs as I lived at home during the time of the internship. The general cost of socialising in London is quite high, however I felt that the compensation offered as part of the internship covered this nicely. For those students that had to live out, there would have been additional expense.

London is a large and vibrant city and there is no shortage of nightlife opportunities. There are many places to visit and fun places such as table tennis or darts bars, and there are many other bars and clubs in the central area of the city. For those who don't enjoy drinking or partying there is also a lot of other entertainment areas.

There were many opportunities to get involved, such as the firm's internal networks that help you meet new people. Those networks are always hosting events such as boating, etc that provide employees with a chance to leave the office to do something. The firm also allows employees to get involved in community service projects.