Huge congratulations to Liam who completed an internship with M&G Investments this summer as an investment specialist. Off the back of his fantastic work he was offered a graduate role with them! We recently chatted to Liam and he shared with us the details of his internship, how he applied and what tips he has for current students.
Why did you apply to M&G Investments?
There were three main reasons that I wanted to work for M&G Investments. The first is my old employers had recommended their internship scheme to me saying that it not only paid well but would teach me a huge amount. Secondly, in researching the company I discovered that they had a fantastic workplace culture centred around individual growth and collaboration. Thirdly, and most importantly, I found their work fascinating. Studying geopolitical orders has always been enthralling for me, understanding why the world is ordered as it is and who this order has been created by and benefits deeply interests me. Considering how finance and markets react to geopolitics and vice versa is a particular subject I am fascinated by. Therefore, to work for M&G Investments, and in particular in a role where I get to explain and investigate why investments are made, was a dream opportunity.
What was your role during the internship?
I spent my time on the internship carrying out one rotation as an investment specialist. This was a client facing role centred around informing our clients of why we were investing money in particular places. We would visit our clients once every month to update them on our investment schemes and to reassure them as to why we had invested money in the way we had. While I didn’t present these meetings myself, I got to sit on most and take notes which was a fantastic opportunity to learn from the very best. The department as a whole was extremely collaborative. We had to work with lots of different teams to be able to deliver the service we were providing.
What was the application process like?
The process began with me submitting my CV and answering a few personality questions. Following this I was sent three different online tests: a numerical reasoning test, a critical reasoning test and a comprehension test. The final two stages were both face-to-face with the first of these simply being an interview and the second being the assessment centre. Surprisingly, the assessment centre was not group-focused. There were three different exercises: a commercial awareness exercise, a second interview and an individual presentation centred around a packet of documents we were given.
What can you do at university to make yourself stand out?
I would recommend using all the support and resources you can whilst at university. Make full use of your university careers service as they have a broad range of different resources they can use to help you. I didn’t know anyone who worked in finance and I wasn’t finding my efforts on LinkedIn to be particularly fruitful so I went to my university careers service to ask for help. The service gave me the contacts of various different people who had worked or were working in finance and with whom I could establish a correspondence. I suddenly had a range of contacts from university lecturers to alumni to careers service staff.
The other thing I would recommend is to get involved as much as possible. Do as many different activities as you can. Not only are these important things to have on your CV and to be able to talk about in your interviews but, just as importantly, they can be great ways to meet new people and help you destress after a day at the library! Additionally, being a brand ambassador is a great thing to have on your CV. All these things are great to bring up in interviews too and they show you to be a more rounded and interesting person!
Liam’s three top tips:
- Never panic, try to stay calm or at least to seem calm. It shows you can cope under pressure.
- Be persistent and keep applying. It takes practice to become good at these application processes.
- Take every opportunity you can – you’ll be surprised at how much you learn from even the smallest tasks.