Consulting Intern Review

Work was interesting and challenging. I was exposed to projects for big-name banks and was taken to client visits to their offices. A lot of after-work social activities and events organised by the company.

My team was very supportive and placed a lot of responsibility on me. We were expected to perform at the same level as a full time employee and received the support from our teams to do so. Feedback was provided often, although sometimes it felt even too nice.

We met with our managers twice a week to discuss progress and give presentations on FactSet applications. We would also recieve a lot of support from our own teams. The consultants in my team were particularly helpful and provided guidance on both professional and personal level.

I felt the workload was perfect. It was enough to keep me busy everyday and always have something to do, but not enough to make me feel stressed or overwhelmed. 4 days out of 5 I was able to leave the office at the end of the workday. Only on exceptional days would I stay after hours to wrap up pending tasks.

I was placed on a big project for a big-name bank. My project manager oriented me very well the first weeks and then would update me on all the tasks needed to achieve the project. I was always kept in the loop. I felt my project manager palced a lot of faith in me and continually demonstrated it by giving me more important tasks and asking for my feedback on the project.

Your presentation skills increase tremendously since we give at least one presentation every week. You learn to loose the fear to speak to clients and colleagues. You are also exposed to work etiquette and appropriate email writing. Also, we were exposed to a lot of technical skills like Excel, PowerPoint and using the FactSet workstation itself. In doing so we were also exposed to many financial concepts which we were able to see in action.

There was a good mix of people in the office. Most consultants were very young (early-mid 20's). There were a lot of social activities in the afternoons. At times the office did feel a bit cold and impersonal and I struggled a bit to fit in. However, there are a lot of out of work opportunities (sports activities, team lunches, afternoon drinks) in which to get to know your colleagues a bit better.

First two weeks of training were very well structured. Although they had to cram a lot of information in, I noticed that our managers put a lot of effort into getting us exposed to the FactSet software as much as possible before starting on the job. After training, I was put to work on project straight away and was able to see how the project grew and progressed for the next two months. We were provided with many of the benefits of a full time employee (our own desks and computers, free lunch, room booking, some travel expenses).

FactSet goes a long way to train its interns and give them a good idea of how day-to-day work is in the office. Our managers took a lot of their own work time to set up projects for us, give us feedback and ocassionally take us out to lunch. The first two weeks were pure training, in which we added no value to the company, but they made sure we learned a lot in those weeks. Our colleagues were almost always willing to have one on one sessions for feedback and help on projects.

Throughout the internship you are evaluated. Everything you do is recognised by the company (both good things and bad), and these are taken into consideration at the end of the internship. Luckily we all seemed to fit in well with the company and were offered graduate jobs at the end of our internship.

There was very good integration amongst interns and a lot of collaboration at and outside work. We had lunch together a lot and often went out for drinks or dinner after work. It was a bit harder to integrate with other full time employees (it sometimes feels like you're always being evaluated). But there are a lot of opportunities to get out of the office and get to know everyone.

London is very expensive and the area where the office is (Liverpool street) is full of offices and expensive bars. For an internship, the pay is quite good, so you are able to enjoy these activities once in a while. Rent in nearby areas is very expensive. Some interns stayed with family.

Since it is mostly an office area, there were a lot of after-office drinks at nearby pubs. Later at night, though there is not a lot going on. However Shoreditch is a few minutes away and there are plenty of bars and clubs to choose from.

I played football almost every Monday and also participated in a charity sports event. My team also organised some outings (team dinners, Escape rooms) which were fun. There were always payday drinks provided by the office and every week there were some drinks organised by the employees themselves.