Associate Review

Great experience, surpassed my expectations in how much I was valued as an employee and not dismissed as an 'intern'. Nature of the work was exciting and plenty of opportunities during the internship for training or for work shadowing.

My colleagues appreciated having a new perspective on their current project. I felt like my contributions in team meetings were valued and was regularly asked for my opinion on ongoing work.

Support was ongoing as my manager was nearly always around to answer any questions I may have. I also had fortnightly progress meetings with my manager, however during busy times these could be cut quite short.

At the beginning of the internship it was fairly slow paced. But, by the middle of the internship, by proving my capability in initial tasks, more work came my way and I became really busy. Would strongly recommend volunteering for training or work shadowing in the initial weeks when the work load is much less.

Felt like I had a lot of responsibility. Was able to attend meetings with firms and was given a lot of responsibility in how much I was allowed to contribute to the teams' ongoing project.

Allowed me to gain a broad insight into financial markets.

Good working environment, people were friendly and I attended team lunches and drinks.

Generally very good, the induction days were well organised and delivered. However, there was some confusion with the final appraisal and the way it would be delivered, and this added quite a lot of stress.

Personal training was quite limited and I was actually unable to attend a training day because it was preferred for permanent employees, however work shadowing was a great experience for development and people were extremely open to allowing me to work shadow.

Would love the opportunity to work for the FCA in the future, the graduate programme has a rotational structure which allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the organisation.

For the interns there was drinks organised in the first and last weeks, we were also able to attend a 'community affairs' day where the interns did some gardening and painting for a local community organisation.

Drinks and food are very expensive in the local area. Luckily the FCA have very reasonably priced food in the canteen so I went there for lunch.

For drinks after work there was a lot of choice of places to go. Although generally it is quite expensive, there was a local Weatherspoons which was very reasonably priced and became a popular choice to head out after work.

As I said above, we had the community affairs day which was a great experience.