As the investment banking industry grapples with cultural issues and lingering concerns about work-life balance, Citigroup’s Australia corporate and investment banking boss Tony Osmond said it was important for the firm to push ahead with the internships. “They (younger staff) become the lifeblood of the organisation going forward, which is where as an investment bank learned from what happened post financial crisis. If you don’t take a long-term view and look through these market events it can end up causing problems down the line,” he said. Citigroup took in 34 summer interns for 2020, which were awarded to students in their penultimate year of university study from more than
2,700 student applications. The latest 11 week program was semi-virtual, split roughly evenly between the office and working or learning from home.
The gender composition was slightly more than 50 per cent females for a second straight year, an improvement on a 40 per cent female ratio
in 2018’s intern intake.
The program comes as a new HBO/BBC series called Industry delves into the high-pressure lives of graduates competing for a permanent spot at a fictional investment bank. It was created by former British bankers Micky Down and Konrad Kay. The real-life overseas internship experience was very different for 2020 participants in markets like London, where the programs were shortened and held entirely online. Many banks conducted sessions such as online hackathons, Zoom networking lunches, virtual fitness sessions and online job shadowing on trading desks.Internships are fiercely competitive in Australia because they are perceived as the best way to start in the investment banking sector and secure a graduate ­position. Intern programs typically run for 10-12 weeks and usually start around November. Winter internships have also become increasingly popular in recent years. In the prior year’s Australian intern program, Citigroup made graduate offers to about 60 per cent of its interns.University of NSW student Caroline Wang, a Citigroup intern in this latest round, said the semi-virtual format didn’t take away from the program. “I don’t think it’s impeded on the experience, the year has certainly been different but it’s been an amazing experience,” she added, noting there was still “a lot of interaction” with bankers and teams. Ms Wang entered the internship program through Citigroup’s Women in Banking Scholarship.Citigroup last year appointed Jane Fraser as global chief executive, marking the first time a woman will lead a Wall Street bank when she takes over this month.
Mr Osmond said locally Citigroup was making a “conscious effort” to ensure gender and also educational diversity of its interns, with 38 per cent of the latest intake coming from non-traditional university degrees outside of commerce and finance.
But large global banks are not among the five most prestigious internships for 2021 — based on an survey from last year — which sees the leaders as Google, NASA, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla respectively. Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were the only banks to rank within the top ten prestigious internships globally. Ratings and career site Vault surveyed 11,000 current and former interns across more than 100 programs to compile the results. Mr Osmond said Citigroup continued to attract a high calibre of interns, despite the allure of the technology giants, because it was also growing its technology business.Citigroup’s local survey of interns showed a greater proportion had pressing concerns about climate change over the impact of Covid-19, and while 65 per cent thought the banking industry had a gender problem none believed that posed their biggest career challenge. Almost half the respondents said ensuring work life balance was their biggest challenge. The industry suffered reputation damage during and following the global financial crisis, including concerns about gruelling hours. In 2013, the death of London-based intern Moritz Erhardt after working 72 hours straight, shone a spotlight on investment banking culture and prompted changes to employee work policies. Mr Osmond said it was important to gauge the views of upcoming staff, and he agreed that climate change was a top issue over the medium term, alongside digitisation.



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