Summer trading analyst Review

I really enjoyed the working environment, and both the employees on my desk and the other interns were all friendly, down-to-earth and approachable. Getting into work at six in the morning daily was a struggle though!

I found predictions that I'd spend all day on coffee and lunch runs and doing menial tasks to be completely untrue - I did some of this, to help people out if they were busy, but overall I felt like I was part of the team, and not just there to be used.

As I was on the trading floor, I was sat near my manager for the programme, so I had a lot of interaction with him. I also got support from the graduate recruitment team, who I saw regularly.

While there were busy times, I didn't have masses of work to do overall, though I think this is partly due to the nature of my desk; I know that other interns on different desks in the same division had a lot more work set. It also gave me the time to read, learn and sit around the floor with different people.

I was on a trading desk and so wasn't allowed to trade, as I have not taken the necessary exams. Therefore I had little responsibility, seeing as trading is the main area of responsibility on my desk. However I was sending out daily emails around the floor and to clients.

My skills and training will make no difference to my degree studies. However, the overall experience has given me an excellent insight into trading, as well as my first experience of working long hours in a corporate environment, and this experience will prove invaluable. I have also learned to use a Bloomberg terminal and have taken and passed the Bloomberg University exams.

Over the summer period, the trading floor is fairly quiet, and some days were pretty flat. However, I saw enough to see how different it would be when things are busier during autumn and spring.

No organisational flaws to speak of.

We had two training/learning sessions a week, which taught us about all different parts of the business. We also had three days of basic training about the financial services industry at the start, and we participated in a real-time trading simulation, presumably at considerable cost, which gave us experience of trading the market across various asset classes. I was also given a Bloomberg terminal for the course of the programme, which not many of the other interns got, but I found it invaluable in helping me to understand the market.

I think future employment prospects are pretty good, though it's hard to be sure in the current climate. Hopefully I'll find out later this week whether or not I've got a job offer.

There was less socialising than I expected among the other interns; I think this is mainly due to everyone finishing work at different times, making it hard to all meet up afterwards. We went out for drinks a few times, but all of my school friends live in London so this didn't really bother me very much.

Central London is obviously pretty expensive, though some places in Canary Wharf were a little cheaper than I expected. I was living with my parents at home in South East London so I was less affected by this; I didn't have to pay rent.

There isn't much in Canary Wharf itself but it's pretty near to London, which is a good a place as any. Saying that, work meant that you could only really go out at weekends, which is when London is at its most expensive.

Hours are pretty late, so there wasn't much time for doing activities outside of work.