From the 7th-9th July 2020, I took part in Bright Network's Finance & Professional Services Internship Experience UK. During the experience, I interacted with many fellow participants and many of those I spoke to asked me the same variation of one question - 'Why are you interested in a finance internship if you're studying law?'. As a result, I have decided to write a brief explanation regarding the reasons why I signed up for the programme initially and what I feel I can now take away from the experience that will be beneficial to me in my journey to become a solicitor.
I hope this review will inspire fellow students to push themselves out of their comfort zone every so often and explore opportunities that, while perhaps not being directly linked to their specific career choice, can still prove advantageous in the future.
Overlap
The first and main reason why I decided to join this experience was the overlap the professions featured on the programme have with the legal sector. Throughout legal online experiences I've taken part in recently, I picked up on the consistent mention of how businesses such as banks and other professional services interact with law firms and their clients. This was especially true in areas such as insolvency, which was a practice area that really interested me during a talk on another internship programme I attended. All of this got me thinking, and I realised that I actually had little knowledge of the finance sector and the details of the various professions included. I therefore decided that by learning more about the structure of these other institutions and how they interacted with each other and their clients, I would better be able to understand their interaction with law firms as a result.
So what, are some of the things I learnt relating to this goal?
Just like large commercial law firms, many of the companies featured on the programme, such as EY, have specialist areas of services they provide to clients as part of a much larger organisation.
Both law firms and finance and professional services are needed when things are going well for people and businesses, but also when they are not. The COVID-19 pandemic is a great example of this, as businesses may require specialist advice about how the law affects their business, such as the statutory regulations on furlough, while financial advice companies can provide advice and support on a strategy for the business moving forward financially.
Professionals in the finance industry must also have a comprehensive idea of the law that covers their area of practice. Auditors for example must be aware of the regulations on Statutory Audit.
No matter what your expertise or profession, if you are working in a client facing role, you must develop your soft skills. They way in which lawyers interact with people and businesses is very much the same as these professional services:
You have to be able to empathise and effectively communicate with the client to better understand their situation.
It's important to be able to break down jargon to clients to avoid confusion and give them a better understanding of your role and what is going on.
You have to be able to time manage effectively to balance the needs of different client's and their deadlines that need to be met.
Commercial Awareness
On a slightly similar reasoning to overlap with the legal sector, I felt this experience could significantly boost my overall commercial awareness skills. I think it is vital that, in order to understand the industry you work in/aspire to work in, you have a general idea of the structure and function of other corporate companies. This bigger picture of the larger corporate world has helped increase my awareness of how and why companies respond in the way they do, whether a law firm or another professional service, and how this then has a domino effect on the wider economy.
In particular, I was interested to see if the companies involved on the experience had responded similarly to Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic as law firms had. By identifying the similarities and differences in their approaches, I was able to solidify in my mind the different effects these kind of events have depending on the clientele and the size of the company.
Transferrable Skills
One of the things I thoroughly enjoyed about the internship was that not only did Bright Network bring in professionals to talk about the role in finance and professional services, but there were also some very useful skill building sessions including a networking workshop, a self-management skills talk and a work sample to complete.
The skills sessions were very insightful, and I think it was important for Bright Network to highlight these kinds of skills alongside the more streamlined industry seminars. No matter what career path you are following, networking and taking care of your personal wellbeing are always important, so I would like to think that these sessions will have been greatly received by not only myself but everyone else on the course. I would like to give a strong recommendation to the works of J. Kelly Hoey. Her approach to networking was truly eye opening and I hope to implement her recommendations in my future networking endeavours.
The work task we were asked to complete also provided a source of transferrable skills. The researching and preparing a proposal is a task I am aware is common in many if not all companies that provide a professional service to clients, and so I feel the experience of completing that task will benefit me greatly in the future. It was also very interesting taking a deeper look into EY as a company as well on this task and learning more about what they do and stand for through their website and other resources.
So, why did you take part?
Given the frequency I was asked about why I was taking part in the internship, I decided it would be a great opportunity for myself to engage with my fellow participants and ask them the same question. By reading other student's motives and learning experiences for attending the programme, I was able to give greater thought to what I had gained from the experience and found it extremely interesting learning about my peers rationale and career goals.
I also hope that by including these testimonies it will help others who do not study law but still took part in the internship to give greater reflection to why they took part and also their own personal take aways to apply to their own career aspirations. I would like to thank everyone who messaged me to share their experience and if you too attended the programme, please let me know in the comments how your participation compares to mine and the comments below.
Economics, University of Greenwich
"I joined the IEUK as it seemed a great way to develop my CV during lockdown. I did some research on virtual internships and Bright Networks services had a great online presence, also a few of my peers at Uni had taken part in their investment banking internship and had a positive experience.
I learned new skills regarding how to network both online and in real life situations as well as the different journeys that established workers in the finance industry had in order to get to the point they're at today."
Accounting and Finance, University of Liverpool
"I feel like the work was nothing far from what my university has equipped me with. My university has one of the best employability rates after graduation for accounting and finance, and the work set mirrored many aspects of my theory learned from tax and audit to my coursework in corporate analysis. For this reason I now have full confidence in myself for the finance roles I am applying for. I am ready to use my current knowledge and skills learned while continuing to learn and adapt to the finance sector."
Politics and International Relations, University of Exeter
"I chose this scheme as I have an interest in the professional services such as accounting, assurance and auditing, but I did not know much about it so I though this would be a good chance to gain a better understanding.
I have learnt a lot such as the diverse nature of the finance industry and how to tailor your CV."
Physics, University of Bristol
"I believe physics and finance have a lot in common. I am interested in pursuing a career in finance and wanted to learn more about the world of finance and connect with like-minded people to whom I could talk about this fascinating sector. I have started trading on the stock market and opened a small business so learning about finance was also a rather necessary step to broaden my knowledge of the world I spend so my time in recently.
I enjoyed the experience, I feel like I have learned so much, the speakers were so inspirational and make me want to dive even deeper into the topic."
International Business, Toyo University
"I take courses in Accounting, macro/micro econ, international relations, Japanese corporate studies, etc,. I participated in Investment Banking, Finance, and Business Ops of IEUK: mainly to explore contents that are not offered at my department, improve the ones that I'm familiar with, and network with people in the industries as well as other students who are interested in these fields.
I had a fun time talking to students in the UK, gaining insights from the industry experts, and overall gaining experience in these fields through the work samples."
Biochemistry, University of St Andrews
"Right from my first year at high school I always knew that my interests lay broadly in science and after much deliberation I settled on biochemistry. Currently, I am undecided as to whether or not I want to pursue a career in a research lab or apply my skills to a role in financial services and so I jumped at the opportunity to take part in this free internship. I didn't know much about the sector before Tuesday [first day of internship] but learned so much, particularly from the GSK alumni talks, which have encouraged me to further consider a possible career at the intersection of science and finance."
Business Management (with a year in industry), University of Birmingham
"I went on the Bright Network Virtual Internship to get a better insight into what sector of the business world I would like to do for my placement year. I was inspired by having the opportunity to network and listen to industry leaders. I thoroughly enjoyed applying myself to the real-life work sample and connecting with others to discuss the task. It was great to hear from the companies about what skills and experience they look for as I can try to develop them throughout the rest of my studies."
So, on final reflection, I can confidently say that a Finance and Professional Services Internship has greatly benefitted me as a law student. Not only have I achieved my goal of understanding the overlap between these industries and the legal sector, I have also significantly boosted my overall commercial awareness and improved my knowledge of networking and other various soft skills.
I would advise anyone reading this to adapt your mindset slightly and be open to engaging in courses like this sometimes that maybe aren't heading strictly down the path you're wanting to go. A couple of months ago it would never have crossed my mind to attend a Finance and Professional Services Internship, however the learning I have taken away from it has been invaluable, and I would like to thank Bright Network for making it possible for myself and 6000 others to attend the experience.
Great article Lucy x