Half-empty offices cause frustration in interns – 7/6/2023 – Market

After spending most of her university life at home due to the Covid pandemic, Martha*, 22, was looking forward to starting a summer internship at one of the UK’s biggest financial services companies last year. But the experience was not what she expected.

“Most of the team lived outside of London and only came one or two days a week […] I lived in a tiny apartment where it was very hot, so working from home was unbearable at times,” she said. “[Mas] some days I was the only member of my team in the office […] It made it a very lonely place.”

This frustration is increasingly common among ambitious young people who hope that an internship at a large bank, law or accounting firm will be a winning ticket to a lucrative career in the financial center.

Since the Covid pandemic, the shift to remote work has revolutionized office life, and with it the face-to-face experience of summer internships, where recruits compete to impress employers and employers evaluate new talent.

In the face of the new hybrid workplace, managers and interns alike have been forced to adapt to help the latter thrive.

Programs remain open

Despite job cuts and the economic downturn, companies don’t seem to have canceled internship programs. They learned lessons from the pandemic, when cancellations disrupted the flow of talent.

In 2022, the number of summer internships has recovered beyond pre-pandemic levels, according to the Institute of Student Employers, which in a survey of 168 large companies found that hiring increased by 7% compared to 2019. , companies said they hired as many interns or more than last year.

Professional services firms PwC and KPMG and large banks such as HSBC are among those offering hundreds of internships each, ranging from a few weeks to several months. The most coveted programs, at high-profile multinationals like Goldman Sachs, have an acceptance rate of just over 1 in 100, and once interns are in the building, the stakes are just as high.

“To get ahead, you always have to go further,” said a former Bank of America intern.

Adaptation to the hybrid scheme

Several accounting firms, law firms and banks said their interns were determined to work in the office as much as possible, despite hybrid work policies that allowed them to work from home.

“The interns are eager to be on the ground, be as close as possible to senior leadership and really get down to business where it’s needed,” said Louise Fitzgerald-Lombard, Head of HR Global Markets at BNP Paribas.

PwC said that interns go to the office an average of four days a week, more than other employees, although they may work from home two or three times a week.

Other companies specifically encourage or require younger employees to work in person. At Linklaters law firm, interns spend only one day at home per week, compared to two days for other employees.

“Much of the learning takes place in and around real work, watching experienced lawyers,” said Mark Drury, partner at Linklaters. “That’s a lot easier to do when they’re in a room together.”

Having younger employees is also good for employers. James Marriott, head of international debt capital markets at Wells Fargo, said internships offer managers a “great opportunity” to evaluate potential recruits. “The best form of interview is to work with someone else.”

Socializing the workforce

However, in an era of hybrid work and many colleagues at home, building personal connections has become more difficult.

“[É] a problem,” said Eliza Filby, a historian who advises companies on generational differences. “Millennials, who directly manage younger classes, live farther away, have younger children [e são] the least likely to want to be in the office.”

Thomas Harbour, 27, said a lack of socializing during an internship in the pandemic killed his interest in consulting. “You don’t share any of the office talk and lunchtime and making friends, and you can start to feel very lonely,” he said.

Employers recognize that they need to address these concerns to attract and retain employees.

Linklaters and HSBC have “buddy training” systems that match interns with mentors, while law firm Allen & Overy has created guidelines for supervisors to support interns in hybrid working.

Filby said many companies are taking young recruits to meet clients earlier than usual to get them involved in “important situations” and make roles attractive.

Companies are also adopting structure for social activities. KPMG extended the duration of its welcome program for young recruits to five days and introduced a new way to bring people together, which it said proved to be a success and helped to deal with “feelings of apprehension”.

Lack of confidence

The class of 2023 interns is already at a disadvantage. Most of them this year are entering the workplace from a turbulent university or school experience, when classes, activities and socializing have been suspended or moved to the internet.

Several companies said interns struggled with trust and communication. “New recruits lack essential human skills, whether it’s public speaking, conflict resolution, eye contact, telephone etiquette,” Filby said.

When Katerina Maijorova, 23, started interning at KPMG auditing last year, she had done most of her accounting coursework at home and last attended a face-to-face environment in high school.

“I was very, very nervous,” Maijorova said. After years of mostly virtual classes, she found it difficult to talk to clients. “In the face-to-face world, you don’t know what to talk about or what the appropriate topics are,” she said. “It’s a new skill.”

PwC is one of the companies piloting mentoring programs to address skills gaps in new recruits. BNP’s Fitzgerald-Lombard, however, said the interns’ fears may be unfounded: despite the youngsters’ nervousness, she is often “impressed” by their ability to dominate a room. “It’s more a matter of trust,” she said.

New experiences

Interns and employers still see signs of hope in the hybrid workplace.

Companies like HSBC said new virtual internships, short experiences offered online to a larger number of students or graduates, improved diversity by offering an affordable way to enter the company.

Online communication can also increase interactions, allowing young recruits more face-to-face time with experienced leaders or overseas peers.

“More people can participate in calls and Zooms than ever before in a physical room,” said Harbour, now a lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, an American firm in Brussels. “They wouldn’t have taken so many newbies to serve one customer.”

Also for some young recruits, internships remain a way to assess what potential workplaces offer, including personal support, peer relationships and a chance to get noticed. When companies fall short, they risk losing talented employees.

After a summer in half-empty offices on her financial services internship, Martha, 22, turned down a permanent position. She thought the experience “wasn’t very stimulating (…) It wasn’t what I expected”.

*Martha asked that her last name not be used.