Corporate Analyst Development Programme (CADP) Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship with J.P. Morgan, and the firm made a seriously strong effort to give us the best experience possible despite it being online. The current staff there were also really friendly and approachable and make sure we had ample opportunity to learn about the firm. I would recommend an internship to everyone, whether you are set on a career at the company or are exploring options as there are lots of opportunities to learn more about the work and firm.

I felt very valued, both by other interns, more informal buddies, managers and those higher up that kindly volunteered their time to talk to us. Work and actions were praised when they were good and it was fun to get involved in everything as you knew you would be taught. Everyone was incredibly patient to explain things, even if those concepts were very simple to them, and explain what their work involved. It was very inclusive.

The guidance was freely available both from management and project advisors. They always emphasised a need to ask questions if we are stuck instead of making it up, and there were plenty of people you could contact. We had managers, buddies, other members of staff and also could reach out and network to people across the firm who would always be happy to answer any questions that we had about our work or the firm.

The work was a great balance. It was a perfect amount which also left time for networking and communicating with others. I suppose if you later on decided you were no longer interested in the firm or felt a future career there/in the industry wasn't for you, and had no desire to attend talks or network, then you may have had some spare time- but as you do presentations in your final weeks it does ramp up a bit in the build-up to them so you certainly would not be bored.

We had projects both for real clients and hypothetical. Therefore the actual work produced for clients felt like some responsibility (although lots of people worked for the same company and we all worked in teams so it wasn't an individual responsibility and therefore still felt not too much pressure). The hypothetical work was obviously no responsibility at all, which may appeal to some people when trying something new, or put others off if they like that responsibility at work.

I picked up so many skills. I learnt great time management, at uni it's so easy to work evenings and weekends as everyone does. However when you're at JP people have log on/off times and really compress their work into a working day which is much, much easier. Therefore I'm going back to uni with a much more "work smart" attitude and much more productive. It also taught lots of skills for the career, which I ultimately want to do.

Being online it's hard to judge, but the atmosphere was really positive and everyone was really friendly. It's such a different dynamic talking on a webcam to face to face but you can gauge that everyone is willing to have a chat and help you if need be. There is no elite feeling from those who are much higher up and they're willing to talk to interns or even other analysts on the grad programme.

The internship was incredibly well set up, with minimal faults, and especially impressive given the time scale they had to turn it online. There were plenty of events which all worked well and minimal technical difficulties apart from those which obviously cannot be helped. I have 10/10 for how organised the internship was as there is nothing I can say that was bad or particularly unimpressive, especially given the circumstances with coronavirus and time scales.

There was lots of training including really good training that wasn't "make or break" for our tasks or providing good performance, but still provided and helpful for any future roles or life. For example, we didn't use excel that much but were given lots of excel training which is very useful for the future, especially for any careers we may go on to have whether at J.P. Morgan or otherwise. Feedback was also given at request or sometimes unprompted, which is always helpful.

Future employment prospects are very appealing and I have accepted a full-time offer with the firm for next year.

Being online it was obviously very, very difficult to organise any form of social life but J.P. did make an effort and there was events. There was a virtual quiz and some other little things such as escape rooms to keep people entertained. The use of breakout rooms in such events was encouraged to then enhance bonding and interaction. The attempt was good and even though it wasn't perfect, was good given the cirumstances.

This doesn't really apply as we were online due to covid but 2 points. If this was in the office, obviously it would be expensive, as it's London- but the salary is somewhat reflective of this. Secondly, I am giving 10 stars due to the fact J.P. Morgan committed to paying our contracted wage despite the fact it factors in the living costs and expenses of London even though the internship went online and was shortened.

Unable to answer due to not living in the area.

Unable to answer really as I wasn't in the area- but there were some socials as previously mentioned. However the quiz was the only evening event and there wasn't much offered by the company outside of work, but it is difficult to judge as having a webcam internship there is not a lot that could be offered besides a quiz. Perhaps a bit more thought could go into this if there was another virtual internship.