During their Economics and Finance courses at Queen Mary, many students undertake internships to get a taster of life as an Economics and Finance graduate. We spoke to some of them to get their impressions of the working world, and to find out what they learnt.
Meet the students
Summer internship report from Ankur Goenka, BSc Economics, Finance and Management.
As we get a really long summer holiday, I decided that I should do something productive and do an Internship. I was fortunate enough to have good links in the financial world so I approached Sun Global Investment Limited and was luckily offered an internship opportunity. I worked there for a month shadowing the Traders, Managers and Accountants.
When I was with the trader, I was not allowed to do the actual trades because I am not regulated by the FSA but I was explained each and every process in detail. I observed the traders very carefully. They also taught me all the different types of financial products traded all over the world and how each one differs from the other. I found that the trader's life is a very hard one and it can get very stressful at times, but it is equally exciting at the same time.
I was also involved in analysing markets and companies with the analyst. I was explained the key details to look for when evaluating a company. It is a very long process, as you can imagine, but being alert and patient was the key to be successful. The main database they used to get all the information from is Bloomberg, I was often offered free time on it to explore it after a quick training session to get comfortable with the system. They often told me "a trader can live without a wife but not his Bloomberg". After using the system it became obvious what they were talking about. It has almost all financial data a person in financial industry would need. I also participated in client meetings at CEO level.
When I worked with the accounting team, I was given many tasks according to my skill level such as data reconciliation, creating reports, calculating brokerages and other similar work. It helped me to start thinking creatively and ways to save time and become more accurate. Accounting required me to do a lot of number crunching which I enjoyed.
Overall I think it was an excellent learning process, everyone was incredibly helpful and helped me a lot in deciding my future career. The main benefits for me was that it made me a lot more confident, taught me how to present my work and helped me get used to the office environment.
If I am completely honest I was very worried and very lost at the start but within a few days it became very interesting and I really enjoyed the time I spent there. I would highly recommend each and everyone to do something similar. If you need further details please do not hesitate to contact me ankur.goenka@hotmail.co.uk or te08050@qmul.ac.uk
Summer internship report by Selina Dhesy, BSc Economics.
Over the summer I completed an internship at NHS West Kent PCT in their business planning department. I applied for different internships in London throughout my second year relating to the financial sector. However, I soon realized that London, and its financial sector in particular, was experiencing difficulties and had less opportunities of internship for students. Subsequently, I decided to broaden my horizons and apply in other areas around London. I came across an advertisement in my local paper back home in Kent concerning a new internship program taking place this summer in West Kent NHS. West Kent is a large area and as such, this program offered internships in many different sectors. I applied immediately online and was lucky to be called in for an interview a few weeks later.
I assumed that because this internship was not based in London, the competition would not be as tough. This was proven to be otherwise when I learnt that this program had received a huge number of applicants; many from the University of Greenwich as the students there had been sent this advertisement. So I still had a lot of work to do if I was going to get my place in this internship program.
During the interview I was assessed by two employees who asked me many questions regarding why I wanted to work for the NHS, my past experiences, what I had written for my online application and my background. This was to assess not only if I was the preferred candidate for the job but also which area would be best suited for me if I was successful.
A few weeks after my interview I was pleased to hear I that had been offered the job in the Business Planning department working with Contracts and SLAs (Service Level Agreements). I was happy with this placement as it would introduce me to a whole new field of work in which I had no prior experience. Moreover, it was a paid internship and would last for two months.
Throughout the internship, I worked closely with the Project Manager of the NHS WKPCT, assisting her with current SLAs and contracts. My main roles were helping to compile contracts, updating the spreadsheet on the current status of contracts, researching into new contracts and even producing a 'Policy and Procedures,' and a 'Standard Operational Procedure,' which will be used by the PCT.
During my time working with WKPCT I used many different programs, including some were familiar software such as word and excel and others I had no previous experience working with e.g. MS Visio and Project Planner. Furthermore, many other essential office skills were acquired and strengthened.
As part of my internship programme, a week was spent in another area of West Kent at a different hospital with a localities manager in order to gain experience of their side of contracts and SLAs. This expanded my knowledge of contracts as not only would I see contracts taking place in the headquarters of West Kent, but also on the level of those benefiting directly from these contracts. I had to conduct my own research into how the hospital made use of its liquid nitrogen and then make a Standard Operating Procedure that will be used in this contract.
This internship also introduced me into the world of project management - something I previously knew nothing about, but is now a career I am considering pursuing after my degree. I learnt all about how to plan big projects as well as the common methodology known as PRINCE2 and used many of the templates that other corporations will use in their projects.
Overall, I had an excellent experience and enjoyed my time there thoroughly. Contracts and Project Management is an area I will definitely consider after University. Many new skills were acquired, including I.T and communicational skills as well as friends (from fellow interns to other employees with whom I worked together with). I would definitely recommend such an internship to anyone who is unsure exactly of what they are looking for after their degree or to anyone who does not want anything strictly financial.
Summer internship report from Xavier Labelle, BSc Economics Finance and Management.
This summer I managed to get a 10 week internship place in Bloomberg London's buy side sales team by applying with a reference of my work at a charitable organization of mentoring primary school children in Hackney. This fast tracked me to the final interview, from which I then competed against the rest of the finalists in an interview process. The internship involved a lot of contact with the market players out there on the buy side; e.g. pension funds, hedge funds and private equity firms. The core business of Bloomberg is Terminal sales to these financial institutions.
My highlights of my internship would have to have been setting up a demonstration of the terminal to an un-prospected private equity firm in London and speaking with a few CEO's on accounts I covered. I would definitely recommend Bloomberg to anyone who wants to learn finance in depth and get thrown in the deep end as soon as they can take it. It takes being confident on the phones but if you understand how to correctly pitch a product/service, you'll get along quite quickly and pick up functionality as you go.
Summer internship report from Julien-Pierre Franco, BSc Economics and Finance.
Over the summer In my home country I got accepted for an internship at KPMG Panama for 10 weeks. I was place in the Financial Risk Management division (FRM), which I strongly recommend to student, with a strong statistical and mathematical background to look for an internship in this area, mainly because you will not only understand core different areas of financial industry but also very interesting topics as hedging, financial instrument, options and futures and interest rate volatility.
The whole application process was tedious, especially when you apply over 20 firms and banks, in this case the application procedure demanded a lot of effort since you have to write a covering letter for each one them and adjust you CV for the relevant areas you are interested, which imply you have to make a research about the companies you are applying in order to build a interesting CV and a strong covering letter which demonstrates your potential, your vocation to learn and the willing to apply your knowledge.
The first two weeks in my internship was mainly reading about KPMG International, their procedure, operations, documentation, financial risk management theory and at the end of the second week came the best part: How do they work in the financial market. The most interesting thing about the areas I was working for was that every day was an adventure, this is because of the volume of client they have to attend which each one them demand a different service and a different method to approach their needs. In my opinion this is the most important reason why this internship was a success for me.
As a recommendation, If you are first year and a international student and you are going home for summer I recommend you to apply to the major international financial firms and banks so that whether you are planning to apply for an internship in London in your second year, or even a student exchange programme (or maybe both) you will already have a strong profile in your CV as in my case KPMG.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions on TE08090@QMUL.AC.UK
Internship report from Sukyee Lau, BSc Economics, Finance & Management.
Recently, I have just completed an 8 week summer placement with the Government in the Home Office. I was placed in the Economic & Resources Analysis Group (ERAG) where I worked in areas relating to immigration.
This internship is a programme known as the "Fast Stream Summer Development Programme". The programme offers interns the opportunity to work full time for various Government Departments for a period of 6-8 weeks. The aim of the programme is to give people a real insight of what working as Civil Servant would be like.
As I entered into my second year, I knew I had to obtain some sort of degree related experience in order to make myself competitive amongst other future economic undergraduates. Like most undergraduates, I spent very little time in my first year thinking about what I would actually do after graduation. There wasn't really one particular firm or industry that I was determined to obtain an internship with. However, I was adamant that I will need to find something economics related. As a result, during autumn term I began applying to a range of companies from leading investment banks such as Rothschild & Barclays Capital to auditors such as Ernst & Young (EY) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). I've also been interested in work within the public sector and working for the Government was also something which I was interested in. I stumbled across the Fast Stream Programme accidentally whilst searching for internships in Government.
I found the application process very difficult, you really do have to spend time and effort filling in each and every application thoroughly if you wanted it to truly reflect your abilities. Furthermore, most of the placements I applied to required passing numerical and verbal reasoning tests. This was one of the factors which lead to the failure of some of my applications therefore I began finding internet links to these tests so I could begin practicing. I also visited the careers office at University and was given a list of helpful links to sites which offered practice tests. There were also some books which were available for me to borrow.
I probably applied to at least 10 different companies within the finance field and only managed to secure one interview with EY concerning a post in Human Capital. This was seen by me as major breakthrough as my application was good enough to pass the first round of the selection process. The second round was the interview which I found extremely tough, it lasted for about 1hr 30mins with tons of competency questions. This was my first experience of a major job interview, due to nerves and lack of experience I was not selected to the next stage.
I did begin to feel like my summer was over; I would never be able to find an internship considering the current economic climate and the competition from other students. Throughout this time, I was still going through the application process for Fast Stream. Once we submitted our application, it would take a few days before we were notified whether we were legible for the next stage. My application was successful and I was then moved to the online tests stage where we had to complete both numerical and verbal reasoning tests. I had somehow also passed these stages and in March, I was invited to an interview.
When I heard this news, I was both happy but anxious. After the EY interview, hearing that I've got another interview lined up was the most nerving thing ever. However, I thought to myself, the worst possible solution is that I just fail another interview once again. So why not give it try? The letter sent from Fast Stream was very useful as it outlined certain competencies that they were going to test. I began only focusing on these and preparing situations and examples to each competency.
I was interviewed by the person in charge of the Fast Stream programme and other civil servant. I was asked questions testing competencies such as communication with impact & drive for results. There was also a discussion exercise where the interviewer gave me a situation and asked how I would approach this. I had a scenario where a policy to legalise all drugs in the UK would be implemented, I had to persuade ministers that this policy was worth employing. This was aimed to test whether the individual could act impartially and fairly in areas of work. Civil servants are required to act and serve the government and the interest of the public despite their own personal views. I was notified within a week that I was successful and would be working for 8 weeks in the Home Office - ERAG. I was ecstatic to hear that I had passed the interview stage; this was a great personal achievement.
During my time at ERAG, I was able to take part in various tasks. I learnt a lot regarding current immigration policies, I was also able to make use of the economic knowledge I had learnt through contributing to the economic assessment on a number of Group Investment Board (GIB) cases. These were government projects whereby funding had to be approved by the board, our role was to assess the case in an economic perspective and advice both the board and the project team. I found this exercise extremely useful as it had enhanced my critical skills.
I was also given the opportunity to carry out an econometric analysis of the effects of visa fees on migrant volumes for UK Border Agency (UKBA). This involved a lot of data work; I had to email contacts to collect the data and also organising it in order to produce a series of graphs. These were then used later on in the impact paper. This was also an enjoyable exercise and it was an issue which I could relate to. It's amazing to actually see that despite an increase in visa fees year on year; this has very little effect on migrant volumes. This also allowed me to use a bit of my microeconomic knowledge when explaining the elasticity of visa products.
Lastly, I was required to give a presentation on "The State of the UK Economy" for a meeting held at Croyden. I was incredibly worried at first as I'm only a summer student and I now asked to present to people who are much more senior. However, this was valuable experience as I also got the chance to keep up to date with the current economic climate. Despite the stress and the nerves prior to the presentation, I'm thankful I got the opportunity to do it. It was a great accomplishment and it's definitely helped improve my presentation skills and overall confidence.
I also managed to gain some frontline operations experience by visiting an Asylum Immigration Tribunal listening to an immigration appeal case. Lawyers representing Legal Aid and Home Office attended to present evidence whether the applicant in question should be granted asylum in UK.
Overall, I felt I have really learnt a lot from my internship. Immigration is definitely a field which I would consider working in. After doing the placement, I plan to apply to the Fast Stream Graduate Scheme and hopefully I will succeed and become a Civil Service Fast Streamer. I would advice those who want a job which is worthwhile and rewarding to apply for the Fast Stream Internship. I would also like to point out that some of the other interns who are graduates got offered a training contract. Unfortunately, I have yet to complete my final year which is a shame because training contracts do offer you a chance to demonstrate your abilities and could lead to a permanent job.
If anyone has any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Summer internship report from Kyle Thomas, who is studying BSc Economics.
To find a work placement, I visited the careers office where I was given assistance with the covering letters I would be sending out. For every single bank, I researched key facts about them as well as analysing their annual reports and scrutinizing their websites in order to make every single letter outstanding.
I went in for an interview with one of the banks after which I received a phone call telling me that they wanted me to come and work in the corporate finance department of the bank. In addition the position I was offered was paid, which was a bonus, given that I had been willing to work for free.
For the most part, the tasks I was given were mainly researching particular companies of interest. This included finding out company histories, share prices, board structures, merger histories, board composition and compiling information packs for the people who requested them. As well as this, I helped with presentations to be shown to clients and sat in on department meetings. There was even a presentation by a law firm to our department which I was able to sit in on. In addition to this, I was given an opportunity to observe what type of work is done in the research department and was given an overview on company valuations. I was also sent on a training day at Thompson Reuters in Canary Wharf so that I could familiarise myself with the software used.
Overall, it was a good experience. It gave me a good insight into what day to day life as an investment banker is like and will be great addition on my CV.