Multi Asset Summer Intern Review

The main responsibility for interns is their project, on which they present to the whole multi asset team in the last week. Aside from this, new for 2021 was a fund challenge, and in general besides working on these, interns can join any team call, can meet with people from across the team, and might also be given extra work by the sub-team in multi asset that they are working in, e.g. Macro team.

The projects are only put forward by "sponsors" as they are of true use to the team, for example, after my presentation, I received emails from various team members requesting data, sources and any guidance on how they might take my research forwards. Additionally, work done for sub-teams, e.g. Macro or Alternatives team, is set because it is of use. Nothing is given to an intern for the sake of it.

Particular new skills:
- Bloomberg terminal: most projects required familiarity, as did the fund challenge, therefore we all had calls with Bloomberg to get set up and comfortable.
- Excel: training in first week went beyond the basics, e.g. enabling most efficient use without a mouse.
- Some interns needed to learn new software like Haver, Python and VBA for their projects, and the learning was expected to be done independently.

The support system was truly excellent: a buddy (grad), mentor (highly experienced employee) and manager regularly checked in via calls, and one's sub-team was also very supportive.
Even if you were not formally paired up to someone in some way, everyone in the office was so generous with their time, and I felt I could go up to anyone's desk, or message anyone on Teams, if I was stuck.

Everyone is exceptionally clever, and in calls it was often a pleasure to just experience the debates and passion with which they were held.
Everyone clearly takes huge pride in their work. Yet the office didn't feel tense or pushy, and people always seemed relaxed and somehow able to offer their time. Portfolio managers would happily give up 30 mins to chat, even if they had something important right after.

It was brilliant, and this was mostly as one was never made to feel like an intern. I felt like a valued member of the team, carrying out an important research project, and whose opinions were appreciated. The firm is very keen to recruit grads through internships, and so the team is very keen to see if you'd really fit in in the long-term, hence the above.

Yes