This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
-
The Company
-
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
The people are genuinely friendly and are willing to help me learn the ropes around here. Their patience and encouragement are a plus.
They make me feel like I'm making a valuable contribution to the team, although they do know my technical limitations as I'm still new to the bank's inner workings. We've been for team lunches and drinks as well!
My manager and colleagues are always available to answer my questions and don't make me feel like a nuisance for asking so many.
Some days were busier than others, but that's to be expected of course. When deadlines were approaching, I was given more small tasks to do to help out.
A surprising amount, actually. I was tasked with entire jobs normally done by my full-time colleagues. At the same time, this served as a pressurizer as I was expected to perform according to their high standards.
I definitely learned about office politics and the need to not step on people's toes as well as respect the hierarchy implicit in the organization structure. I really believe learning how to navigate office politicking is half the challenge of acclimatizing to the working environment.
The Company
Cordial for the most part. Sometimes stressful and tense when deadlines were approaching.
Very well-organized as HR set up weekly speaker sessions for us and let us know of midterm evaluations and final presentations well in advance. There was also a buddy/mentor system so each intern was paired with someone from the graduate scheme on another desk to get a good idea of what people do across teams in the department.
We had extensive training the first week in the bank's various divisions (i.e. Sales and Trading, Markets, Investment Banking). We also got a half day of in-depth Excel training, which was really helpful. I was happily surprised at the high quality of training invested in us.
If we perform well and our managers and HR recruiters like us, we can get a graduate job offer!
The Culture
We often ate lunch together, and HR organized speakers for all the interns to listen to as well as welcome and farewell events.
Cost of living in London is high! But the social scene is great and there's truly something for everyone to enjoy
Lots of clubs from classy to cheap.
UBS has societies to join for music and sports. And London has lots of social groups so you can do as much as you're motivated to!
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Investment Banking, Banking, Information Technology
London
July 2012