Emelie Johnsson SE blog 2020

Kick-start your career with an internship, Emelie did – see why & how to succeed

12-09-2020 09:00

Ever heard of our off-cycle internships? Get insight with a previous intern, Emelie telling what it's about, what it takes and why to apply!

As we run various internships at Nordea Investment Banking in Stockholm with diverse application dates (check out internship site), we thought you might want to meet some of our previous interns!

In this first blog in a series, we interview three ‘old’ interns about their own career paths, starting off with their experiences as interns, and ask them to share tips & tricks on how to get a foot in, and make the most out of the internship. Learn about the opportunities offered, and see what sort of qualifications are required – both personal and professional – if you wish to succeed at Nordea – and get a job after the internship, just like Emelie here did.

Meet Emelie Jonsson, who kick-started her career with an internship at Nordea Investment Banking four years ago after finishing her Master at SSE: 

Emelie has been with Nordea for four years now, and currently works as Associate in Investment Banking Advisory (corporate finance).

Why should students apply for an internship position with us?

The internship is a great opportunity to learn what working with e.g. investment banking is about. It is one thing to learn about corporate finance in school, but very different and far more exciting in real life! Throughout your 10 weeks here we offer a steep learning curve and continued feedback to support your professional development. It is also worth mentioning that the internship programme is basically the only way for us to recruit to our full-time positions. In this way we get to know you, while you get to try out the job and get to know the team.

What type of work, tasks does an intern in your team do?

It might be a somewhat overused expression, but no two days are really alike. Sometimes you will be staffed on a live transaction, and sometimes you get to work with more ad-hoc assignments. For example, you could be doing industry analysis, company valuation, production of pitch books and various types of marketing materials, often working with PowerPoint and Excel. You will also meet with colleagues from other units that we work closely with and participate in client meetings.

What key attributes do you look for?

We look for students that have a positive attitude, are proactive and self-driven and that are genuinely interested in the financial markets. You don’t have to be an expert, but if you are interested you will also have the right mindset to learn more.

What distinguishes an ambitious intern?

We always thrive to have a mix of business and engineering students, from different schools and in different years of study. This means that everyone has different prerequisites, which we also have in mind when evaluating the interns. Personally, I prefer interns who ask questions, take notes and come with own input and ideas. It is very important to contribute from the start as everything we do is based on team effort.

Three recommendations on how to make the most out of an internship and succeed at Nordea?

1) Ask questions as soon as you are uncertain or don’t understand a task (we are all happy to help and no one expects you to understand everything from day one.

2) Be open-minded and socialise. We have a lot of fun at the office so take the chance and join all activities to really get to know the team.

3) Make the most of the internship by taking notes, digging into the models we have and being as involved as possible in the projects you get to work on.

From your experience, can an internship at Nordea be a door-opener to a job at Nordea subsequently?

As mentioned, we almost only hire former interns to start as full-time employees, so yes, it is absolutely a door-opener! If you are interested in a career within corporate finance, I strongly recommend you to apply for our spring or summer internship.

Stay tuned and meet two other ex-interns; Hanna Lönnqvist and Henrik Hedencrona, currently working in Markets Derivatives Coverage and Leveraged Finance, respectively. They will let you in on how to utilise the window of career opportunities, what makes at great intern and other useful pieces of advice and information which can help you kick-start your career with us! 

Also, have a look at some of our many other blogs posts by previous interns, students and graduates sharing their experiences working at Nordea.

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