Finance Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship at Catlin. It was a really good learning experience and I got the chance to meet some great people. The internship programme was very well organised right from week 1 where we had a week long training session. The training session gave me a great insight into the insurance industry whilst allowing the interns to meet and get to know each other. There were various opportunities to socialise with the interns and the current graduates which made the overall experience really memorable.

My colleagues were all very interesting people to work with and even though I joined my team at a relatively busy period, I always felt appreciated and on various occasions had the chance to get to know them at a personal level over lunch and drinks. I was assigned a very challenging project, however I always had help at hand whether that be from my buddy or my manager.

I always had support from my Buddy and Manager throughout the internship. I was regularly asked if I needed any assistance with any tasks and my buddy regularly gave me advice on how to tackle any problems whether that be providing more information on a subject or even introducing me to various other people at other departments to get the necessary information. Moreover, when completing any task a team member handed to me, they would always seat with me and provide some feedback on how I had performed which really helped me learn more over the internship.

My project kept me very busy when I did not have many tasks to do. However I was regularly handed a variety of tasks to carry out which gave me a really good overview of finance. Given that it was a relatively busy period for the finance team, as they prepared the half-year reports, I was given the opportunity to help out in the preparation of these and this meant that I always had work to do. In addition, I was also required to prepare a lunch and learn session along with a group of interns and therefore there was a quite of variety of tasks to do.

As mentioned before I was able to help out my team in the preparation of the Half- Year reports, which are very important and it was really good to see that the effort I had put in once the reports were released. My project involved a piece of work that was very important for the company and was of a complex and technical nature that involved co-ordination with the international hubs.

In the first week of the internship we received excel and outlook training which will be very useful for me as my course involves quite a lot of Excel workings. I was able to develop various other softer skills such as time management and communication skills, which will not only aid me in my studies but also in my career going forward. I made two presentations over the internship and this has certainly made me confident in presenting to big crowds.

The atmosphere was very good. Everyone is really helpful and friendly and my team in particular were very sociable. We would often go out fro drinks with the other finance teams and this gave me the chance to meet new people. Even though I joined at a relatively busy period, the atmosphere was always very positive.

The internship was very well organised. The first week included a training week where we had an external trainer where I was able to learn quite a lot about the insurance industry and learn many other softer skills such as networking skills which proved to be very useful over the internship. I had a project prepared for me to carry out over the internship and I regularly had review meetings with my manager and buddy.

As mentioned before, we had the first week of training which was very valuable and we also received IT training to help us settle in well in our roles. In addition, various talks were organised by HR to ensure we learnt how to make the most out of the internship.

Catlin is a very good company to work for and I am really keen to be a part of the Catlin Development Programme as I got a glimpse of what the programme is like over the internship and was very impressed. I got to experience the working culture at Catlin and I can see myself fitting in very well.

Yes every week my team went out for drinks therefore it was really good to network and get to know them well. In the last week of every month the company organises the "Buys the Beer" event where you get to meet people from various other departments.

It was fairly expensive however all Catlin employees get provided free lunch from the Canteen every day therefore this made it slightly less costly. Catlin also receive discounts from certain bars nearby the office so this was good too.

Really good! Being london there's lots of bars and clubs nearby.

Yes the finance team at Catlin play football every week and there are various other activities you can get involved in such as volunteering.