Summer Analyst Review

My internship at Deutsche Bank has been extremely enjoyable. In the Technology division you get to work on a real piece of task, this can be very challenging at times. Social networking opportunities are enormous as well with regular social events both within your division and cross-divisional. You get to learn ALOT about the banking industry and you meet people at every single level in the company. On top of that you even get to do some outdoor work for charity, where I, for example, got to paint a wall on a playground in Elephant & Castle. So, yes, I would recommend this internship opportunity to anyone, who wants a challenging job in one of the top City banks.

In some other firms you get put on a safe project where you can't break anything, and the work you do gets scrapped the moment you are out of the door. Deutsche Bank is very much different. During my internship I was working on relatively simple scripts that got, however, released as part of an internal software upgrade and got deployed to production servers in four different countries across the whole world. So, I know the work I did was real! On a social level, it's great too. The relationship with the team and management is great, and I even got to have a beer with one of the C-level officers in the firm while discussing the current economic trends after one of presentations.

Support and guidance were pretty good to say the least! I got to relugarly meet with the production manager at the intervals I required to discuss any issues, whether it was clarification of the requirements specification or acceptance testing. And if I had any questions, I would always be pointed in the direction of the right person to ask.

Admitedly, for me it was a slow start, when I didn't have much to do as the team was too busy to assign anything to me. However, as the time progressed it got much busier and the job did feel challenging.

I was given responsibility of developing software applications that would subsequently make it to the global production release of one of the key trading systems.

For the technology minded people, during this internship I learnt three new programming languages, plus I developed a couple of problem solving techniques, e.g. use of regexes, I had been aware of, but never got to use much. I improved my business awareness and got to practice my interpersonal and communication skills. Am I going to use them in my final year? I don't know. Am I going to need these skills in my graduate career? Yes, most likely!

The general atmosphere was great! Obviously you have to do some work during the office hours, but after that it's not uncommon to go out for a few drinks with a few fellow interns and the networking opportunities are amazing!

The placement scheme was organised pretty adequatly. Obviously, there are always some issues in the beginning, whether it's your id badge not letting you in or something small like that, but with time you stop noticing it and start focussing on all the good sides!

The personal development was amazing! You get at least 3 days of full-time training in Financial Markets to get you up to speed, then it's ongoing training on the job. You get to attend presentations by some of the top profile people within the company and you usually get free beer or lunch for attending as well! I really feel this is by far the best aspect of the internship and in my opinion it is well better than what most other firms have got on offer.

I'm still waiting to recieve an offer, but if I do get it I am definitely going to accept it!

This year we had around 250 interns and most of us got on pretty well. While the majority of interns was from London universities, some were coming from other parts of UK and even EU. Networking was well facilitated by the bank, who organised regular social events in some very-very attractive places (I don't want to spoil the surprise telling you all the best parts upfront, wait till you start your internship!). I think the social scene was one of the best around, so yes, if this is the main criteria for you when choosing your internship, then go for it!

It's not a surprise for anyone that London is not cheap, but I managed to get a pretty good deal at around 80 pounds a week in the Greenwich uni halls, which are roughly 40 minutes away by DLR. Going out in London is pretty expensive as compared to, say, Glasgow, where I go to university, but I had no problems being able to go out at least once a week as the cost of living in London is greatly outweighed by the competitiveness of the salary!

Hm, that's an interesting question! What's the Nightlife supposed to be like in a city that never sleeps? That's right, amazing! City is full of pubs and clubs. Revolution, Prohibition, Abacus, New Moon are all situated within 10 minutes from the main buildings, and you should visit them all. Once you are done with them, keep exploring as going out in London is second to none!

Working in Deutsche Bank is not all about sitting at your desk. As part of the internship, we got invited to the JP Morgan Chase, which is an annual 5.6k run for charity. We also did a day of open door work as part of a corporate responsibility challenge. I, personally, got to paint a wall at a playground. It was great! And if that's not enough, you can always get involved in many other activities, e.g. go to see a special exhibition in British Museum. Deutsche Bank has got a corporate membership in a few museums and art galleries, so you either get in for free or with a substantial discount.