Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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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
Given a fantastic insight into the demands of the role, as well as meeting/learning from lots of talented and diverse people. I enjoyed being delegated significant responsibility throughout my time. The main cons were the unsurprising long hours (but you are well rewarded for this) and sometimes the hierarchy in some teams was rather rigid.
People were generally quite grateful for your contribution which motivated me to find different ways to add value to the team. Colleagues would tend to send thankful emails, which made my efforts feel recognized. It was also nice that people were willing to invest time in your development, despite their own demanding time constraints.
Goldman definitely takes the view that one should be very independent with their tasks/learnings. This is founded upon the idea that one should be driven to utilize the resources around them (often Google). However, if you were really struggling with some task, there would always be someone with the capacity to help and give additional guidance.
In some teams, there was a constant medium intensity which was well balanced. However, other team's intensity was quite volatile. On some days I was so busy that even taking the time to eat lunch felt like a time-waste. Other days, I would have ample time to read and address low priority tasks.
I was given a range of responsibilities and these increased with my confidence/ability. I noticed interns were given responsibility accordingly so that they were always stretched. There was plenty of scope to take ownership on various projects, so it is very much up to your attitude as to how much you will take on.
Not only did I improve my written and verbal communication, I also understood that money is only one facet of a suitable career. I have developed a greater sense of introspection and feel much better equipped to make a career decision that is right for me in the future. In terms of technical skills, I came out the other side much more knowledgeable about the area and my excel skills have improved greatly.
The Company
Very quiet, people were very busy so did not have masses of time to liven up the atmosphere. A very professional environment but conducive for long periods of concentration often demanded in the job. While the summer interns were in the office, the atmosphere was generally more lively, and more socializing took place outside of work hours.
Highly structured, we had lots of meetings, both informal and formal, to review my performance. In addition, we had assessed presentations which provided another form of feedback other than just your work performance. The majority of feedback was given by my team in real time, which allowed me to grasp the fundamentals of the job/task quickly.
Mentors and other colleagues were always free to catch up with me. However, sometimes my team was too busy to help me. At first, I assumed there are just phases of the team being busy. But in reality, they were always busy so it was often down to me to work out independently certain problems. Training at the very start of my internship was good but it felt like once the summer interns had gone, investing in work placements became heavily dependent on the team you were put in.
Subsidised/Company Gym
Company Parties/Events
Healthcare/Dental
I felt the people I worked under were quite happy with my work and how I fitted into the social dynamics of the teams I worked within. I personally think it is down to who else was in your cohort, as well as the business need for new analysts (given they would have already offered last year's summer interns job offers, as well as people applying to the grad scheme externally).
The Culture
Among placement colleagues, the social atmosphere was very good and supportive. People were not overly competitive and were very respectful. Colleagues were generally concerned with one another's wellbeing and it was great to have people to relate to throughout the whole experience. We would occasionally go out for meals and drinks together which made the relationship between other interns less formal.
The cost of living super high in London as expected and socializing was limited to the infrequent after work Friday drinks. Sometimes the social circles felt a tad like a clique but perhaps no different from any other office culture. Bars quite expensive unsurprisingly, but most people wanted to do their own thing outside of work.
Lots of nice bars and pubs that you wouldn't see outside of London. If drinking isn't your thing then there are a wealth of restaurants to enjoy, as well as tourist attractions if your new to London. Obviously all quite expensive but you cannot expect cheap thrills in central London.
We were supposed to have one day to do community work which we never got the chance to take (perhaps partially due to covid but we were there for a year). Other than that, the only activities I did out of work were socializing with one of my teams but this was down to luck, not a structured item.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
London
June 2020