Spring Intern (Finance) Review

Absolutely loved it. It gave an amazing insight into the industry and the firm. The work shadowing was more like 'work doing' as it involved doing almost exactly what we'd do in a full time role; a level of involvement unmatched by any other spring week.

So many events for us, the two weeks were completely jammed with insight and networking sessions, but also some lecture style work to give us a foundation of knowledge for our big presentation at the end. I felt like Goldman and everyone there really valued having us all with them.

Everyone, from analysts to MD's, is willing to give you time and just guide you through anything you find interesting, all you need to do is email them from the account you're assigned when you arrive.

I study Chemical Engineering, so specific to my degree I learned little. However in terms of soft skills, this insight really helped to grow my confidence, especially when it comes to networking and public speaking, so without doubt the two weeks were worth their weight in gold for those attributes.

The program was exceptionally well structured, with activities being planned, to the hour, far better than my university timetable!

Incredible. The culture of the firm really shines through in the atmosphere; everyone is so friendly, while I was there I felt like everybody had time for me and actually wanted to talk to me about the areas I found interesting. It also helped that all the other people in my spring class were sound and we got on really well.

For a two week program a LOT of time and effort was invested in us; full time employees would take hours out of their day to come and explain concepts to us and take yet more time to do work insights with us.. There were loads of soft skills sessions too, which helped for our presentation.

Talking to people in the roles I wanted gave a lot of insight into what it is I'd be doing full time, and also how much of a life I'd have outside work (a couple of hours in the evening seemed to be standard). But the actual timetabled work sessions were the most involving and indicative of the work done on a day-to-day basis. So the insight helped me to understand what it would be like to have a full time role very well.

For me I think this was the best part. Because we felt valued and like everyone was willing to put in time for us, we got a proper taste of the Goldman culture; which, contrary to what you might think, is summed up best as 'flat' i.e. it is not hierarchical at all, everyone is on the same level regardless of position and all ideas are all taken into account.

I thought I wanted to go into finance before the insight, but was not 100%. Now I am 100% certain. So it was extremely valuable!

I was paid a fair sum, which was a nice surprise as I had not been expecting it before they rang and told me. Also, people outside of London have transport reimbursed AND stay in an amazing hotel, also paid for by GS!

There were timetabled sessions and in any spare time I had I made sure I met as many people as possible to get a feel for which department I wanted to work for. Again, everyone is more than willing to take half an hour just to chat to you!

The social events were good fun, and they had food, which also was great.

You have as much of a life as you are willing to work for. I was told 'face time' is not important to people at GS, only the quality of the work you produce; so you could leave at 5pm if you're very efficient! The firm offers loads of out of work opportunities for volunteering and the like, so it's really nowhere near as bad as some people and websites make out (though it certainly can be during busy periods, but these seem to be periodic, rather than the norm)

Definitely