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Higherin

Summer intern Review

at Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Internship (1 Month+)

Market Research

Stratford

Review Submitted: August 2022

Overall Rating

2.8 /5

The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!

1/5 - Overview of Role
2.5/5 - Skills Development
5/5 - Support and Guidance
3/5 - Company Culture
1.5/5 - Overall Experience
3/5 - Future Career Prospects

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.
You get to pick a preference of what division you'd like to go in but the team you go in is completely random. I was placed in an operations based role where I had to:
- Created Excel Pivotables and PowerPoint organograms to help employees visualise their teams
- Sent coffee randomiser invites
- Intern group project
- Took part in supervision training so carrying out financial analysis & prudential risk on firms
I would say the company could try introducing rotations in the program so interns are able to get experience across the business
Make the internship advertisement more specific for those applying i.e. mention the variety of teams that an intern could randomly placed into as the original description can come across misleading
Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?
- I had very little responsibility and the tasks I carried out were repetitive in my opinion
- responsible for creating organograms for the new structure of SPC division
- I've also been asked to take videos and photos of the interns and grads being an intern myself this was slightly embarrassing.
- Unable to get exposure to other business areas due to a lack of resources and budgeting
Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was
1/5

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?
- communication skills
- presentation skills
- Teamworking skills
- Financial analysis - assessing liquidity & capital requirements
- Prudential risk
- how to identify associated risks with a business strategy
How would you rate the training provided during your experience?
4/5
How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?
1/5
How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?
3/5
Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development
2/5

Support and Guidance

How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?
The corporate induction was really structured and informative. Then when we were put on our desks there was a lack of organisation. So it was slow to get hands on experience. However my line manager and graduate buddy were super helpful, friendly and supportive. I was eager to get experience in other business areas that were supervising firms and there was vast support from my line manager and buddy. However HR weren't helpful.
How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?
5/5
How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?
5/5

Company Culture

What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?
I think the people there are really open, helpful and willing to share their time with you. Those I spoke to were demotivated because of the lack of incentive to stay due to bonuses and growth opportunities being cut.
How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?
4/5
How would you rate the social opportunities?
2/5
How would you rate the diversity initiatives?
3/5
How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?
3/5

Overall Experience

To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?
I enjoyed the team I was in they were really helpful however I just didn't enjoy the work that they were carrying although it was important. I think for me I expected to be associated with Supervision, Policy & Competition work since that was the division I was put in and that was advertised in the application. Overall, I think there was a lot of interesting work going on in the other teams so maybe?
Please rate your level of enjoyment on your placement / internship
2/5
Please rate how your experience met your expectations
1/5

Future Career Prospects

Please rate the future employment prospects at Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
3/5

Recommendations & Advice

Would you recommend Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to a friend?
No
What advice would you give to others applying to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
- Make sure you know the FCA mission and values
- Research some recent policy or action the FCA has taken on firms or published
- For the assessment centre it is a competency interview based on the FCA values
- A written case study exercise and presentation
- I was inspired to join so I could help consumers make better investment decisions
In This Review
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