Summer associate Review

It was a very diverse experience, which made it a lot of fun. I worked on a number of projects, with a number of people - all of whom were very nice and easy to approach.

Initially, my input on projects was to give an outside 'layman's' view of the financial issues we were dealing with. So I didn't feel all that valued, given my academic achievements. However, as the weeks progressed and as I proved my capabilities my team began to value me quite a lot - they gave me some quite challenging and important pieces of work to do and really got me involved.

I was given all the support I needed and maybe a bit more than other FCA interns had, as I at beside my line-manager for the majority of the time and he was always on-hand to speak too. Besides my line-managers support, there were 5 graduates in my department, who were very friendly and were there to offer any help or advice I wanted even though this was not part of their role. In addition, some of the projects I worked on involved me speaking to a lot of people in my department - everyone I spoke with was happy to give me time to learn what they did and to understand the issues fully.

At the start, I would say I was running at 55-60% "capacity", but later the work increased, which initially caught my out as I was working at a slow pace. I then adjusted to this new work-load and was quite pleased for it, as the tasks were very interesting. Sometimes I had to stay behind late, but usually for only 30-40 minutes, which isn't bad considering the working hours are 9-5pm.

As I said in the "feeling valued by colleagues" question above, I was given a lot of responsibility in the latter stages of the internship. I attended a firm meeting with senior exec's from week one, but I was given very sensitive work by week 3-4. From week 7 onwards I was working on project which had real impact and consequences - I was shocked to be given one of the tasks!

The work you do at the FCA, and by extension in corporations in general is very different to that of academia.It is more about working in teams and producing results efficiently. However, the time management and prioritisation skills are very useful and transferable. I would also like to take the routine of waking up at 6am and going to the gym before starting work with me - although I am not sure how possible that is....

The atmosphere was good, there was banter at times and some interesting conversations. However, at times it was quiet, as people are working (of course).

At the FCA, they try and give you a big project to work on, which you lead independently, so you and they can assess your performance and improvements over the weeks there. However, the team I was working with were going through some changes, so it they could not find anything like this for me to do. Hence, a lot of work I did was ad-hoc.

They give you 2 days induction and then some e-learning modules after. But for me, the real development I gained, was the time spent speaking to and working with colleagues - many of who were experts from industry that sat in major roles.

They are a company who value there staff and who put a lot of investment in them.

Among fellow interns, there was a good social scene. We went out at least once a week and usually had lunch together most days. Amongst my team and department, there were some really good leaving parties.

It is central London, so not cheap.

I didn't really go out during the night, the latest I was out till was 12 given I had an hour commute and the underground service stops around that time.

If this questions is relating to firm-wide societies/events, then there were a lot. However, they were not very popular amongst staff. If this is just a general question, then given the working hours of 9-5pm and the location of London, there was a lot of opportunities to get involved in!