Diary of a technology intern: Week ten

This year's technology internship has drawn to an end; our intern ties up loose ends and remains optimistic about the prospects for the future.

That's it. After ten weeks, my i-banking internship is over and I'm to back to being a university student. Last year, my internship wound down gradually before coming to an (all too welcome) end. Not so this year.

My main project, in particular, kept me busy until the very end, with the last day being a fine example of Murphy's law. As I predicted last week, there were a number of last-minute requests and recommendations which required further coding. Much of my time was also spent on the tedious business of documenting and testing the enhanced system to make absolutely sure that everything worked as anticipated.

But on the plus side, I did get a good degree of acclaim and acknowledgment of my efforts from the people I have been working with - and I got to see the positive business-side consequences of my endeavours. My one remaining worry is that things won't go too smoothly now that I'm gone, and that this may temper the positive reaction my work has received so far.

Outside of my project work, I spent a lot of time meeting people this week. For the most part, these were people working in technology areas that interest me; but, mindful of diplomacy, I also met people to say my goodbyes and thank yous.

Then there was the main event of the week: the final review with my manager. This went largely as I expected: positive and predictable. The conversation focused as much on the future and what I would potentially like to do if I came back, as on my activities of the past 10 weeks.

On reflection; I came, I saw and, while 'conquered' is too strong a word to use here, I certainly think I performed well enough to merit a job offer. I began the internship with a good degree of cynicism and uncertainty about whether I wanted to work in i-banking technology. Ten or so weeks later, I'm still not 100% certain; but my attitude has thawed to the point where I will happily accept a job offer if it's forthcoming.

Generally; for anyone looking to find out more about i-banking technology or wanting to decide if it is for them, I would whole-heartedly recommend an internship. Even if it turns out not to be potential-career nirvana, it's only ten weeks and - if nothing else - you'll augment your CV. If it does work out and you get a job offer, it makes your final year a lot less stressful - you avoid the more strenuous graduate interviews and you know what you're getting into.

So, (again), that's it. While writing these entries has occasionally been frustrating, it's been enjoyable and worthwhile. I hope that they have been in some way helpful and enlightening.

Now, I'm just waiting for a phone call!

Week nine

While it may have been an eventful week for the financial markets, it wasn't for me; which in certain respects was a good thing.

With the previous week's coding marathon finished, the new and improved system at the centre of my main project was ready to be tested. Having got used to unexpected and inexplicable errors, it was with some trepidation that I finally 'turned it on' (so to speak). Shockingly, however - excluding a few minor bugs - things ran rather smoothly. All that now remains to do is some additional coding to tie up some loose ends and the painful prospect of documenting what I have done.

While this project has at times been frustrating, it has been an ideal learning vehicle. From a technical perspective, the most valuable lesson for me is my increased appreciation of the importance of efficiency, performance and good practice when coding and an enhanced understanding of how to achieve it. In my university programming projects, the emphasis is on getting something to work; in i-banking, a system that works is of little value unless it does so as effectively and efficiently as possible. The most satisfying aspect of this project, however, is that my endeavours will have a positive impact; something which I didn't experience last year.

But perhaps I'm being prematurely reflective as, with the main project winding down, the operations project came back into play. With the preliminary work completed and the earlier issues resolved, I started on the main body of development. This largely consists of an extension to an existing system and so I had to spend some time understanding its operation. I'm hoping that I can avoid any further issues and that I can finish this project quickly. Although it is not as interesting and important as my main project, a successful conclusion will certainly not work against me when the internship ends; something all the interns seem to be increasingly conscious of.

The "Would you accept a job offer?" or "Would you come back here?" conversations are becoming increasingly prevalent. HR also seems to be conscious of the little time remaining, as they have ratcheted up the number of intern events. We attended some networking events with senior employees this week and more are scheduled over the next two weeks. The objective, it appears, is to re-iterate the message we first heard in induction: that the bank is a great place to work.

But the opportunity to do so, however, may be at the mercy of external events. Although recent events in the financial markets have little direct impact on the work I am doing (in a division traditionally seen as a cost centre!), they do bring to mind the horror stories I have heard about the experiences of tech graduates in the early part of the decade. So... fingers crossed.

Week eight

This week it dawned on me that I really don't have much time left to complete my projects, make an impact and secure my legacy (so to speak).

I identified what I needed to do on my main project and I spend much of the week coding furiously. Although exhausting and frustrating at times (with numerous inexplicable errors), it was probably my most productive week of the internship to date.

Amidst the fallout from this coding marathon, my operations project fell by the wayside. We decided, after some investigation, that we could not entirely overcome the issues and anomalies of the previous week, so we agreed on an alternative solution. But, with other work taking priority, we made very little progress.

I did, however, find the time to complete tasks which I inherited from a trading intern a few weeks ago and to get some data that traders had asked me for. The traders in question have some interest and input into my main project, so these tasks are a little closer to home and a lot more politically expedient. Ergo, operations will have to wait. It may be technology, but as I have found, a degree of politicking and diplomacy is still necessary.

The week's activities also saw me spend some time with a back-office group; getting a chance to experience a back-office technology environment. While I am not in the thick of it on the trading floor I work on, I found the back office very quaint by comparison; a little too quaint for my tastes and too reminiscent of my bad experiences last year. What I can say with some certainty, therefore, is that if I do return in a full time capacity, it will not be to a cubicle in the back office!

But this and my doubts about potentially returning to my current team do raise the question as to where I would like to work if I were to accept a job offer. And so, in pursuit of some enlightenment, I am going to make more of an effort in the next week to meet and talk to people from areas, groups and teams that interest me. I want (and need) to find out more about what they do, determine if they are a good fit for me and - possibly even more importantly - make it known that I am interested in working in their area. So... more politicking and diplomacy then.

Week seven

I'm now over half way through my internship, so the time has come to start making progress and build up momentum for a strong finish. This week, to some extent, I succeeded.

After the discovery last week of errors and issues in my main project, I got approval from the customer to make changes which will improve the quality and accuracy of the system but will also affect the nature and format of its output. I'd hoped these changes could be made simply, but it turns out that if I want to meet the requests of the business, I'll need to create a few workarounds. This, combined with my manager's lofty ambitions (certainly more lofty than my own) for completion of this project, means I will really have to push hard in the final four weeks if I am to finish strongly.

The operations project which I'd previously neglected took more of my time this week. When I first began the project, I thought it would be relatively straightforward; that it would just involve writing code to query data and present it in the desired format. But having analysed the precise requirements and having worked with some sample data, I have discovered a number of possible scenarios where anomalies and errors could arise. Consequently, I will have to write more code to produce the correct output.

So, if there is one thing I've learned about i-banking technology this week, it's that nothing is ever that simple - even if it appears to be!

The intern-specific activities have tapered off following the completion of the first presentation project. Work on the second project got into gear towards the end of the week and fortunately my group looks set to be a little more productive this time around, so hopefully it won't take up as much time.

While there was a lull in the intern activities, I took the opportunity to quiz some full-time colleagues about technology exposure. While they agreed with my concerns to some extent, they certainly didn't see technology exposure as the holy grail of a tech career. Many of the same principles and processes are involved in any software development project, regardless of the technology or programming language. Plus, exposure to the business side and senior management can also be important for progress and success.

But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. In the first instance, I must do enough in the remaining four weeks to get a job offer. Then I can worry about exposure.

Week six

Its the half way point already and, with five weeks left, things have really clicked for me. This is in stark contrast to my six-month internship last year where, with five weeks left, I was in countdown mode.

The "click" primarily occurred in my main system enhancement project with the discovery of a series of interesting and alarming errors, previously obscured by the application's rather complex operation and going beyond what was initially envisaged as being at fault. As a result, my workload has narrowed in focus and increased in the areas affected by the errors.

As these issues arose, it occurred to me that working on an existing system is entirely different to building a system from scratch, which is what the bulk of my programming experience to date has been. It requires different skills and a different approach; in particular it requires careful judgement, specifically concerning the impact of change.

With most of my time devoted to my main project, I have had to let other assignments, such as the operations project, fall by the wayside. But frankly, this doesn't bother me. As I am going into my second five-week term, I have to consider my legacy and, as this will largely be determined by the output of my primary project, this is where I will concentrate the vast majority of my time.

This week also saw the end of the intern presentation project. Although I have bemoaned the amount of time and effort this has involved over the past two weeks, it may have been worthwhile as my group's presentation was generally well received. But this may be a double edged sword: with the same group kicking off a similar project next week, we will have to do a similar amount of work to surpass our previous standard.

However, the most important event of the week was my mid-term performance review. My manager agreed with me that I wasn't out of my depth and was kind about my productivity, attributing any setbacks to circumstances unforeseen or outside of my control. I'm not sure who makes the call on job offers, but following a positive performance review, I now think that a job offer is a distinct possibility. The question then arises: would I accept it?

While I am still undecided, I would be inclined to accept an offer at this stage - although I would probably prefer to be working full-time in a different group. I enjoy working in my present group, but I don't think it would be the best place to start a career as the range of technologies I would be exposed to would not be particularly favourable. Looking at the eFinancialCareers tech job listings, it seems exposure to different technology is immensely important for my future prospects, mobility and opportunities for advancement. This consideration will be a fairly important factor in any decision to accept a job offer - if, of course, I do receive one!

Week five

As the midpoint of the internship approaches, the novelty has worn off and I've settled into a reasonably familiar daily pattern. Finding content for these diary entries is consequently becoming more of a challenge!

Looking back on this week, my primary (system enhancement) project progressed steadily and uneventfully. The only notable divergence from previous weeks' work was my effort to get greater input from the systems business users on the validity of the logic underlying some of the key processes currently in place. As I am recoding parts of a legacy system whose processes I don't always fully understand, there is a tendency to assume that everything works perfectly and should be reproduced faithfully. Given, however, that I have discovered a few minor errors in the existing code base, it is essential that I get business input before recoding some of the more important functions.

The operations project I mentioned in the previous diary entry started this week. It involves the automation of a process which operations currently perform manually. The solution will involve coding an adjunct to one of the existing systems used by my team. It shouldn't be too challenging; so, from a tech perspective, the project is pretty much exclusively in my hands.

But that's not all. This week also saw me unexpectedly (and admittedly not by choice) inherit responsibility for tasks previously performed by a departing front-office intern.

This expansion in the volume of work assigned to me has really tested my ability to manage and delegate my time. Previously, with one project occupying my attention, I could afford to take my time when I encountered a problem. I could examine the various aspects of it and assess the suitability of different solutions. Now I don't have that liberty, so prioritisation and quick decisions are key.

Not helping in this regard has been the increase in the number of hours spent on intern-specific business. Again this week, the group presentation project I mentioned last week occupied a lot more time that it really ought to have done. But on the social side of things, we did have our first bank-organised social event this week which, although understandably sedate, this was enjoyable nonetheless.

That was this week. Looming large next week is my mid-term performance review; after which I should hopefully have an idea of where I stand in relation to a future offer of a full-time position. While I don't think I've performed extraordinarily to date, I certainly haven't been out of my depth and have been able to contribute.

But that's what I think. What will my manager think?

Week four

Fortunately, the previous week's frustrations have abated somewhat and the performance, production and delivery I craved last week have come to fruition.

My system enhancement project progressed reasonably well, with a lot fewer of the ridiculously annoying errors I encountered in the initial stages. I'm recoding, almost in its entirety, one of the core components of the system in a new programming language so it can be used by other applications. It's difficult to assess whether or not the project is on course but, given that I now have a very good grasp of what's required, I think progress should be steady in the next few weeks. On the flip side, however, there may be a lot less content for these diary entries.

So I was thankful when I learned that I will be diversifying my portfolio of assignments in the coming weeks. Supplementing the system enhancement work (and the ongoing placation of a front office employee) will be a project that will involve working with someone in operations to support and automate one of their manual processes.

What was particularly satisfying this week was my increasing autonomy. While I certainly wasn't blazing any trails, I was seeking assistance from and deferring to my manager with far less frequency than I had been in the first two weeks. I could also deal independently with most issues that arose and I was much more confident when making suggestions about my primary project. Given that my mid-term review is imminent, the timing is apt.

While work has been largely positive, the downside was the intern-specific side of things. We interns have been split into teams and have been asked to research a topic and give a presentation on it. While this gives us the experience of working on a team and the opportunity to get to know each other, it is a bit of a distraction from my real work; work which contributes more to the greater glory of my employer - and which I will ultimately be appraised on.

But that's only a minor complaint. Overall, after three weeks, what has struck me is how authentic the internship experience has been. I had (perhaps wrongly) expected that things would be diluted, that I wouldn't get my hands dirty and that a lot of the activities would be very intern-specific. Where I interned last year, being an intern was an integral part of my identity and I was always referred to as one. This year, I am identified by the real work I am doing. That's not to say that I want to work in i-banking long term; I still haven't decided.

Week three

With one week largely spent acclimatising and another spent finding my feet in a new work environment, this should have been the week that I really began performing producing and delivering: I wish. It wasn't a disaster, but it was more of a mixed bag than I had anticipated.

The project I've been given responsibility for proceeded with intermittent bouts of progression and regression as gains and achievements were frequently offset by the emergence of unforeseen obstacles. Although the system I am working on is fairly small, the evolutionary manner in which it has been built (a series of add-ons and patches over the past few years) means that it is not particularly elegant nor resilient to change. As a result, small coding changes in one area cause errors in another.

The fact that I'm not entirely comfortable with the technologies I'm using is also proving a hindrance. Although I am familiar with them, there's a big difference between familiarity and proficiency. Consequently, I have to seek assistance from my manager/team leader and others more frequently than I would like. This means I have to balance the potential damage to my reputation from asking too many questions with the more rapid progress I can make when I ask them. I'd imagine that such difficulties are particularly acute with interns working with technologies completely unfamiliar to them.

The demands being placed on me also required a certain degree of balancing. While I have been attempting to improve the system I'm responsible for, a front-office employee has been demanding a large volume of output from it. As these demands have been re-iterated, I have spent the week placating the employee in question, giving him the small amount of output I can make time to deliver while trying to convince him that once the improvements I'm making are complete, he'll be able to access information of a greater quality and in a more timely fashion.

I have also had a few calamities after making big mistakes. Wisely, I took the approach suggested to us in the orientation sessions and admitted them. To mitigate the bad impression these mistakes made, I also proposed ways of solving them.

I also was involved in a situation this week where things went wrong due to circumstances beyond my control. As I was about to leave on Wednesday night at 8:30pm, I discovered that a process which I was overseeing had produced erroneous output due to a technical error. Although this process and its output are important, they are not earth-shatteringly significant. So, after what had so far been a 13 hour day, a judgement call had to be made: fix the error and run the three hour process again or go home. Ultimately I decided to stay and resolve the problem, my reward for which was an elongated day and a character-building experience.

Nonetheless, the week ended in a slightly more upbeat manner; I learned from my mistakes, and progression on my project became more frequent than regression. On Friday I was absent from my desk for a long time, revealing a satisfying degree of dependency on me already.

As for the wider internship experience: again this week, there were no formal social events organised by the bank. The organisation of events by interns themselves, however, is becoming more frequent and generating a considerable volume of email. Meanwhile, the bank itself seemed more intent on organising intern group presentation projects and lecture series which, similarly to orientation, lurched between the interesting, the tedious and the bizarre; while affording the more competitive amongst us the opportunity to earnestly grill the various speakers with all manner of questions.

Whether the bank does organise something more stimulating next week is immaterial to me at this point, however. My main aim is to perform and deliver in a manner slightly better than the week just past.

Week two

With orientation completed, the internship really started this week. As is probably typical in any large company, it began frustratingly - I spent much of my first day waiting for applications to be installed on my PC.

I was not waiting very long, however, before I could really begin working. I've been assigned responsibility for an existing system, used by the equities group to which my team is aligned, with a view to enhancing it. This will involve making structural and architectural changes to increase performance, robustness, scalability and flexibility (all typical technology buzzwords...). Thankfully, my initial impressions were correct: the work is real, required - and I am not merely being kept occupied.

I spent much of the first week familiarising myself with the system, its business purpose and technical workings by speaking to and shadowing the business users and reviewing system code. I identified areas for improvement, signaled potential risks and made preparations for the more obvious and urgent upgrades. As the week progressed, I was assigned related tasks needing a quick turnaround.

In the midst of all the above, I was getting to know the people, hierarchies, activities, concepts and terminology associated with my business group. I had to develop an appreciation of how things are done and how business is conducted. From a technology perspective, alignment with the front office seems to involve a good degree of firefighting and an almost constant need for a fast response. Unsurprisingly then, the technology operates quite flexibly and with a lot less of the bureaucratic head scratching that went on in the non i-banking technology division I worked in last year.

So far, the hours have been quite long, or at least longer than I had expected. I have been starting at 7am and leaving some time after 7:30pm. These hours aren't carved in stone tablets and there is some flexibility. At the start of the week I worked these hours because that's what I thought was expected - by the end of the week, the hours were necessary. Things - lots of things - need to be done.

Some other things that I've noticed in my first week at the desk:

The age profile of my group is quite young. The majority of my full time colleagues have started at the company within the past year. There are also a few on long term work placements, although these are integrated into the group to the point of being indistinguishable from their full-time colleagues

The twin screen setup on my PC is fantastic! From a technologist's perspective, it is great for programming and really increases productivity.

As for the other technology interns, I have not had much contact with them since the conclusion of orientation. In work, we are very well spread out and there were no intern-specific events scheduled for this week. There were efforts by interns themselves, however, to fill this vacuum.

Overall, I am very happy with my first (real) week. I am acclimatised to the hours now and, although I do not yet have a full grasp of everything, I was sufficiently up to speed by the end of the week to start making good progress on my work. But then again, that was probably the expectation.

Week one

This is my first internship with an investment bank. Many of those with the same undergraduate degree as me have embarked on careers in i-banking technology, but I'm still not convinced that it's for me. However, after coming through a less-strenuous-than-expected interview process, I now get the chance to find out. Plus, if all goes well, I might avoid a tougher interview process for a full-time position later this year.

The internship at my bank (a bulge-bracket) began with a two-day orientation with the other summer analysts working in back-office and support roles. This was primarily a series of talks by employees of varying seniority from across the bank's divisions. These sessions focused on a number of topics: the aim of the internship ('to develop our knowledge, skills and understanding of career opportunities at the bank'), revenue streams, soft skills, the speakers' personal experiences as well as the rudimentary health and safety details and - vitally - making arrangements to get paid.

The speakers were interesting and knew their stuff, but sitting through endless consecutive lectures did get quite tedious. Fortunately, we also attended a few informal networking sessions where we met current analysts and discussed their roles and experiences with them. The most interesting thing I learned was that their roles cover many typical technology tasks; analysis, development and maintenance, for example. In my previous internship, many of these tasks were spread across several roles and departments.

As the orientation process continued, two patterns emerged:

· The frequency with which the word 'networking' was used and the practice advocated, especially by the more senior speakers.

· Every speaker spoke very positively, even glowingly, about the company as a great place to work. No surprise in a formal setting, perhaps - especially from senior employees - but these sentiments were echoed at informal events by all the full-time analysts I met and I'm becoming increasingly convinced that there is something in it. Either that, or everyone undergoes some sinister indoctrination process.

As for my fellow interns - we are a reasonably diverse group, especially in terms of nationalities. From what I can make out though, most are studying in the UK, with computer science students in the majority. Everyone seems friendly and the atmosphere is pleasant; there are no gargantuan egos and - although some are quite earnest when quizzing the speakers - I have so far noticed no competitiveness.

After the orientation, I'll join the team I'm going to be a part of over the summer. I've been aligned with an equities group and will be amongst front-office staff on a vast trading floor. Having spoken to my supervisor and been introduced to the team (a very agreeable bunch), it appears I'll have some responsibility and will be given work of some importance. I definitely sense that I am expected to get up to speed quickly, work hard and deliver. This is somewhat intimidating, but I welcome it, having been given a "Keep the Intern Occupied" project in a previous internship.

For the most part, I'll be working with technologies familiar to me (from my discussions with fellow technology interns this does not appear to be common). Therefore, the main challenge facing me as the internship really gets under way in the next week will be quickly familiarising myself with the business side of things - a challenge I suspect that will be common to all technology interns. Watch this space.