Several of the new intake of Honours Economics students have taken the opportunity to boost their employability through summer internships. Here, they talk about their experiences:
Douglas Sayers spent three months working as a Summer Analyst in Operations at Morgan Stanley. He says, "This was a steep learning curve for me, as I'd never worked in an office let alone an investment bank before, but I would wholeheartedly recommend the experience to anyone. In particular, the programme at Morgan Stanley is extremely well structured, with various training programmes and social events built into the calendar. In addition to this, standards within specific teams are extremely high. I was constantly challenged and given an awful lot more responsibility than I would have imagined. If anyone wants to learn more about the inner workings of one of the big investment banks, what it means to be part of the team there, and in the process make a real difference, I'd certainly tell them to apply to the Morgan Stanley Summer Analyst Scheme".
Faye Cameron spent her summer at Wood Mackenzie, a global energy, metals and mining consultancy company based in Edinburgh, working for their Macroeconomics team. Through contributing to on-going projects she feels she's gained excellent insight and experience of what Economists do "in the real world". As she worked in a team with members spread out across the world, she also got used to working across different time zones. Her work focused mainly on forecasting exchange rates and commodity prices. There were plenty of opportunities for her to interact with experts in her team and other field experts, including those in the Consulting and Geology departments. Faye says, "Internships have given me a valuable insight into working. I would strongly recommend an internship at Wood Mackenzie to others, especially those interested in a career focusing on Economics. There are not many internships out there that are tailor-made to this subject, so if you can find one you will have an amazing opportunity to test yourself and gain skills and advice that you don't get anywhere else."
Helen Duncan spent three months working for Glasgow City Council, in the 2014 Commonwealth Games Team. Her role was to gather and analyse data that will establish the baseline position of a large number of socio-economic indicators. These indicators will continue to be monitored in order to assess the Legacy of the 2014 games. She says, "I gained a great deal from the internship, particularly in vastly improving my data finding, collating and analysing skills. I have also become a lot more confident in a professional work environment and feel that the experience is closely related to the type of graduate jobs for which I hope to apply."
Kirsti Boyton spent two months working with the RSA Insurance Group in London where she was placed within the Professional and Financial Risk Portfolio Management underwriting team. The team deals with 4 main areas: Professional Indemnity (insuring a professional's "service" provision, for example the advice given by an accountant or architect), Directors & Officers (insuring individuals in a managerial or supervisory role against liabilities), Crime and Accident & Health. She was involved in a wide range of projects relating to training, product development, department strategy and company controls. Kirsty feels she has really benefited from the chance to work within a large, multinational company in the financial capital of the world. She says, "I was lucky enough to gain a large amount of technical knowledge and really boost my confidence. Also, with RSA being in The Times' top 20 big companies to work for, I would recommend this internship to anyone, even if they don't have any interest in the insurance industry. The program is especially keen to take on those with traditional degree disciplines like Economics."
Michael MacDonald completed a three week internship with Deloitte UK at their Cambridge office. He says, "The biggest thing I gained was a much better idea of the work I would actually be doing when I graduate and what daily life at Deloitte is like. I gained a lot of knowledge and skills that will help too, but the most important thing for me is that I'm more aware and informed about a job in that area." He also points out that a big advantage for penultimate year students who have landed a competitive internship and go on to perform well is that they can potentially start their Honours year with a graduate job offer already sorted out. He is now under less pressure to apply for jobs and feels that he can devote more time to getting a good degree.
Stewart Seaton spent two months of the summer with GE Oil and Gas in Aberdeen in a Financial Planning and Analysis role. The position was made available via the Saltire Foundation. As a Saltire Scholar Stewart has access to a great network of business leaders from Scotland in a wide variety of industries. He completed a competitor analysis project and has created a template for calculation of the key financial metrics of GE's competitors in a manner that's now easy for them to update. He used his analysis to look at competitor strategies and compare them to GE's. A particular interest they had was to look at where geographically their competitors are investing, and who their main customers are (e.g. Petrobras, Shell, Petronas). Stewart says, "The highlight of my internship was presenting my project to the CFO of GE Oil and Gas Subsea Division, a $2bn company. I know that my work will continue to be used regularly. The main things I got out of my experience are confidence, commercial awareness and a much better idea of where I want my career to go." He has subsequently secured 2 weeks further work experience with Scottish and Southern Energy (a FTSE 100 Company) doing a similar project. His advice to students who are looking for future internships is "a particular internship doesn't have to be exactly what you are after, it's more important to look at the doors it can open for you once you are in."