Summer Analyst at Goldman Sachs Review

I definitely enjoyed it! Although it was in a truncated virtual format, all of the essentials of the internships were condensed into this new environment. We still had a lot of intern sessions, sector overviews and people were very willing to network. The work I did was very rewarding: not only did I contribute towards projects that are prepared for publication, but I also had the freedom to be creative and introduce new ideas for frameworks my team was building!

I have done several other internships in the past and I have never felt so valued. I felt included in everything that my team was doing - I was copied in every email correspondence and never felt as lesser. During calls with my manager, I would always get the same treatment as other employees, and have the opportunity to express my ideas and update the team on my progress. It definitely felt very refreshing to be treated this way.

There was a lot of room for feedback and guidance, but it was not structured in a spoon-fed way (which I definitely see as an upside). For instance, there was no direct feedback on any part of the internship communicated to us structurally, but whenever I would ask the recruiters, my manager or the presentation panel for specific guidance, I would always receive an affirmative answer. The criticism was always constructive and specific, never vague.

Quite busy. The tricky part was balancing the "intern work" with the "desk work". As interns, we had to prepare ourselves for a lot of sessions and events - there were weekly presentations on topics that were announced a few days before and required thorough preparation. There were also many roundtables and sector overviews in which we participated, and had to come prepared with many questions. The majority of the work was on our desks with our teams, but when there were a lot of these other sessions, it was slightly challenging to balance everything.

Quite a lot of responsibility, especially considering that the internship was only five weeks long, and my time on the desk was four weeks after the training week. As I was learning the essentials, much of the initial work was centered around data collection and reporting as opposed to analysis, but in the final few weeks, I was given the opportunity (and responsibility) to build new, refined frameworks to utilize and present the data in an original way.

I am not sure how directly transferable this will be to my degree. My studies are centered around a course which is well outside the scope of finance and requires different skills for the most part. However, I picked up significant Excel proficiency, technical knowledge of finance and new presentation skills. A lot of the soft skills I learned at GS will be applicable to any career path i may have - whether in finance or not.

This was a WFH internship, so I never actually got the visit the company offices throughout my time there. This was slightly disappointing, as Goldman Sachs recently moved to new headquarters in London, but nonetheless understandable given the current pandemic situation. The office atmosphere was definitely well-replicated in the virtual format, via Zoom or phone calls. Everyone was very friendly, open to questions and communicative - it was just as easy to network with people as it would have been in person!

It was very well organised indeed! In the first few weeks as expected, there were a lot of session pre-booked in our calendars, to ensure that we all got off on the right foot and that opportunities are equalized across all of the individual interns. Later on, the internship was much more free-form, but our responsibilities on the desks increased drastically, too. In general, there was never a time when I would finish a Zoom call and wonder: "what next?".

I am assuming some of the training aspects were slightly truncated compared to previous years, but the effects of this were not felt! The first week was filled with sessions from Training the Street, an external financial training vendor which provided very interactive training for all interns. The learning did not stop there - there were a lot of teach-ins from different sectors across the internship, and our desk managers also helped us grasp our own space of coverage.

The prospects are definitely very attractive. The prestige of working for Goldman Sachs is well-know on the street and beyond, but this internship gave me much more information than that. For instance, in only five weeks at the firm, I managed to learn a lot more than any other long internship (2-3) months that I had done before, because of the relevant workload and the excellent training received in the first week and throughout the internship.

For sure! We had a lot of networking sessions, in the form of intern lunches, pub quizzes and weekly catch-ups. Some of these were pre-organized by the company initially, but after we established the networks, we kept on communicating at our own pace, both within the firm's platform and on a personal level. It was never looming over our heads that we are competing with each other in any way - if anything, the atmosphere was very collaborative!

Not applicable - WFH internship. In general, London is on the more expensive side, so finding appropriate accommodation close to the office is particularly challenging. While the pay for the full-time and internship roles are certainly amongst the most competitive, it can still be challenging to leave out a portion of the disposable income towards something that is not food/rent-related. I guess that it would be impossible to give a definitive answer without stepping a foot in the office!

Not applicable - WFH internship. In general, London nightlife is very appealing, although slightly on the expensive side. If we were allowed into the office, I am sure that the atmosphere would have been inclined towards drinks and events after work, but this is one of the drawbacks of working from home. Nonetheless, there were plenty of other networking opportunities with interns and stakeholders, as well as other webinars and network sessions planned by the firm outside of work.

For sure! At the beginning of the internship, we were given the opportunity to join a lot of inclusion networks (Asian Professionals Network, Firmwide Black Network, LGBT Network etc.). There were no prerequisites to becoming a member - anyone who wanted to contribute more to discussions was very welcome to join. Moreover, we also had weekly "Explore with GS" sessions, as well as webinars with the CEOs (Richard Gnodde and David Solomon) to get a better sense of the big-picture of GS.