Technology Placement Review

My daily desk role was a software engineer. We followed the agile development methodology - although not too strictly - and worked my way upwards in difficulty through the backlog of tasks. The team I worked in was the only team to follow a DevOps orientation, but the senior developers tended to handle maintenance of applications. As interns we were more focussed on development. Networking was also a day-to-day task, and widely encouraged.

Built a lot of new skills in development and learnt industry-wide frameworks in place. I also built on my public speaking skills through the public speaking society. All round, I've improved on my communication to a wide array of audiences and technically improved in finding answers and searching documentation.

As teams tend to be low on resources, it's almost as there is no point in giving our 'dummy' work to an intern as it's better and worthwhile to get them on real work. Nobody on the cohort I was part of worked on anything that didn't feel like real work. Responsibilities also grew over time as competency was shown and dependent on team behaviour. Within my team, responsibility and accountability definitely took a forefront and being able to make decisions or come with research was important.

Early careers recruitment is super friendly and aim to stay in touch a fair bit by checking in or handing out tasks. There is a lot of support within the cohort of interns as well if you make some good friends. Mentors are assigned which are away from your desk team so they can be used to speak to as well. Overall, I felt like there were people I could trust with any issues I faced and provide me guidance on how to tackle them.

I found the culture very relaxed and enjoyable. The tech staff all being on one floor aside from those tech teams that are closer to traders meant you would get to know the entire floor throughout the year. Hot design (although annoying sometimes) meant you'd meet new people at the office and take that as a chance to network with those sat beside you. On the whole, I felt at ease and unafraid to share my thoughts and opinions with them taken seriously. Super flat hierarchy.

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship. I made some great friends, had some great evenings on the terrace and learnt a ton to take back to final year.

Yes

Don't be nervous as recruitment aren't out there to get you - they are genuinely looking to see if you are a good fit personality and skills wise. Don't be disheartened by rejections from anywhere, not just Nomura, as it usually means you just weren't fitting for the culture so move on to the next :)