What did you do during the internship/ what did the internship entail? The particular focus of my internship was to formulate a research report on a US public stock. The research was extremely in depth and focused predominantly on the qualitative aspects of this particular company rather than the quantitive factors such as their financials and modelling their future growth. The qualitative aspects included evaluating macroeconomic influencing factors, deciphering potential investment risks and fully understanding the business, their model, goals and management. To prepare for writing the report, I spent a lot of time with other research analysts, the head of research, talking to various portfolio managers and doing a LOT of reading of other investment reports that other analysts had written. At the end of my internship, I presented my research to the research team and portfolio managers.

Do you feel like your work had an impact on the company’s goals/aims? Yes I do. The investment report investment report I wrote was read and understood by the US portfolio manager, and based on my research piece and my findings, they were able to make a decision on that particular stock.

How has your internship impacted your personal and professional development? I have been impacted equally professionally and personally. Personally, I feel I have gained the confidence in my graduate scheme applications that this is a career I can do and working in investment is not only for certain types of people. Professionally, I feel I am now on equal footing and that I can better brand my professional experiences and ‘sell’ myself better.

Was your internship affected by Covid? (e.g. did you have to do it online? Was it shortened? Did you do different work?) The internship was predominantly in person and in the office and I only worked from home 5 days during the entire internship. Considering the circumstances and challenges, I felt as though the working structure was perfectly suited. Most other staff were working from home, however people came to the office over the course of my internship so I was able to meet them.

How has the experience affected your career goals? I have a much clearer idea of the path I now want to take in order to approach a particular career goal, which includes things such as what specific asset classes I am most interested in, what kind of firm I am interested in based on how they make investment decisions, and that I personally do want to undertake professional qualifications.

How/when did you become aware of investment management as a career? I first became aware of the investment industry in my first year at university when I joined an Investment programme at UpReach, a social mobility charity. However, I hadn’t properly considered that investment management would be a career for me until I undertook my placement year in Logistics. Whilst on my placement year and still looking to find what I believed I would be most suited to, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to pursue investment as it was the most exciting to me and provided me with so many opportunities to learn. That is the when I came across GAIN through UpReach.

Was there an experience or opportunity or day that stood out in your internship programme? All the teams within B2C were very open with us interns joining in various meetings to get a better understanding of what the day to day looked like and the type of external firms that B2C interacted with. One such opportunity included joining a call with Robert F Smith, the CEO of Vista Equity Partners. It was very exciting to get exposure to such senior, experienced investors!

What advice would you give anyone applying for a GAIN 2022 internship? Be excited and open minded to gaining excellent exposure to a new industry with a vast range of opportunities and a vast range of people to connect with from different backgrounds. The investment industry is much friendlier than you might think and there are such a variety of firms you can work with different goals and aims that there is bound to be on one best aligned to you.