Corporate Finance Review

I loved my placement, everything from the social side of the team, responsibility given to me, and the variety of interesting and challenging work.

I received regular praise from my colleagues and I felt that my hard work was always rewarded.

My people manager provided me with regular feedback via informal performance reviews, and the trainee talent development team were great in providing training on soft skills courses, improving my skills in areas such as client interaction and presentations.

Working in M&A, hours can be fairly unpredictable. I was rarely bored with the work I was doing as it was always challenging, varied and interesting, however at times I had to work late in order to get a job or deal completed. However I always felt as though any long hours were recognised and rewarded within the team.

I was meeting with clients on an almost daily basis and was involved in the whole deal process from start to completion. This has involved tasks such as preparing initial pitches, preparing business plans and information memorandums for potential buyers, contacting potential buyers and running the general sale process.

I will undoubtedly be using my experience as a basis for my dissertation. In addition, the soft skills and technical skills I have learnt will most definitely benefit me in my final year at university, and in securing a graduate job in the future.

I had the opportunity to attend multiple networking events (both internal and external) across the city. The guys in my team were also great fun to work with!

The year followed a fairly structured approach with regards to training and job responsibilities, but as you can expect it required a sharp learning curve at the beginning! I found that over time, as I built trust with the people I worked with that I was given greater responsibility over time.

Although my team don't recruit graduates into the team, there are many other opportunities in teams including Tax and Audit.

Living in London has been expensive, however this was more than covered by my salary and often drinks and food was provided for when going out to networking and social events.

There are a large number of nice bars close to the office, and nightclubs a short taxi ride away!

There are a number of opportunities to get involved in things from sports to charity events. I personally got involved in something called the Enterprise Challenge, where I coached secondary school children in managing a virtual business.