Business Analyst Review

This is my first proper internship experience and I think it was definitely a great way to spend the summer holiday. I think the internship experience overall was a mixture of learning, practice and fun.

I always felt valued by my colleagues, both in terms of work and social. I was very encouraged to see that the documents I produced contributed to the development of the project, and my ideas during the meeting was welcomed by the colleagues that I worked with. Upon the mistakes I made and the difficulties I encountered, my colleagues were very understanding and taught me how to solve the problems. Although I only spent a few weeks in the office, colleagues around me always included me in their social activities. They also shared a lot of their experiences and advice with me. I think M&G is a very friendly and inclusive community.

I had very strong support during the internship. I had a manager who looked after my general work experience and personal development, and we have scheduled catch-up meetings twice a week. In addition, I had a project supervisor who I worked very closely with every day. As the project I worked on was at initial stage, my supervisor and I had lots of discussions on planning the project etc.. During our meetings, he explained his objectives and approaches in a very clear and patient manner, which helped me to quickly get over the shyness I had at the start of the internship. He also prompt for my ideas, which I found very helpful for my learning.

During the internship I worked on multiple projects relating to the same topic. My working hours were 9-5, leaving me plenty for activities outside of work. My timetable varies day-to-day: some days I had multiple meetings to attend while on other days, I sat down at my desk for most of the day. I think this internship was a good practice for time management, as I had to plan my work to avoid any single day being too busy or too idle. I adapted to the work relatively quickly and without too much trouble - which I think made my days seem less busy. As the projects involved interviewing the stakeholders, which meant the progress of the project had dependency on the stakeholders' availability - projects get stuck occasionally waiting for the stakeholders' response.

I was glad to have quite a high level of responsibility through this internship. I had the opportunity to organise meetings and interview the stakeholders on my own, and based on the information gathered I had to write up business documents. During the later part of my internship, as my supervisor was away, I took the responsibility to plan my own approach to completing a business requirements document for the project I worked on.

During this internship, I had insight into a broad range of new knowledge - investment markets, role of business analysts, business process modelling etc. I think all the project management and team work skills that I observed and learnt during the internship will prepare me to be a very competent member of my final year project team.

Everyone in the office was very professional yet very approachable. They showed great caring for each other. During the time that I had been in the office, some new colleagues joined the division, and to my observation they quickly mixed into the teams and became part of it has if they worked there for a long time.

The structure and the duration of the internship were well designed to my point of view. During the first couple of weeks, we received essential training about the industry and compliance rules. I had smaller and easier tasks from the projects in the early weeks which helped the transition into doing a more complex project in the second half of the internship. In addition to the project work, HR organised a fund raising challenge for all the interns, the concept of which was to turn a £1 investment into as much as we could within a month. There were also many other social opportunities during this internship, including dirnks, networking lunches, intern pub quiz and pizza and film night. I think the internship had a great work-social balance, with a lot of fun.

I feel that M&G places great value on employees' personal development. Even as an intern, I was frequently asked about my development needs and received much guidance from my manager and colleagues around me. I mentioned that I would attend an exam shortly after the internship, my manager asked if I was confident about my exam preparation or if I needed any help from her. My colleagues around me shared many positive experiences about how M&G supported their personal development, including paying for professional qualification such as IMC, allowing day off for attending courses, etc. There was also frequent publicity of internal health and wellbeing courses.

M&G Investments is definitely a very appealing choice of employer. Good performance of the company through these years and continuous growth offer great career opportunities. To my observation, many employees at M&G joined after comparing M&G with their previous employers, and people tend to stay with M&G for quite a long time - I guess they wouldn't do so if they don't find working at M&G appealing.

As an intern I was given much responsibility and guidance, and I felt included into the work socials. It is a good place to find out more about the role as a business analyst and about the investment management industry. M&G also welcomes employees from different backgrounds, so I think a STEM student, like myself, will fit into the organisation without many problems. The diversity inside the firm makes it a comfortable work atmosphere for international students like me too.

M&G is located around Canon Street, in the City of London. The cost of socialising, such as drinks, is considerably high and the living costs are generally quite high in London.

There are many bars in the city, and great restaurants nearby too. Being in the central London, M&G is very close to great nightlife places such as Shoreditch.

The working hours are 9-5 leaving plenty of time to get involved in activities outside of work. M&G also organised some social and sports events too.