Apprentice Review

Trade support for the Credit Markets which involves: Daily clearing - figuring out breaks between our trade and the counterparty's on MarkitWire and ICE LINK. This often involves speaking to TAs and other banks to ensure that we match. I receive all the prepayment notices on PAS prepayments, I have to calculate interest on them, agree calculations with counterparties and book the trades in our risk management systems internally. I also need to inform PnL on the bookings I've made. I need to speak to settlements to make sure that all the cash has fed correctly and can be paid out/received. I will need to fix anything that is preventing the feed to settlements. I am responsible for training new people on my team too. I will soon be taking over the management of credit events operations with one of my colleagues - so I am currently training for that.

I am currently studying the CISI IOC, we get Fridays away from work to study. We have live lectures on our laptops together as a cohort. Every so often JP Morgan will send us internal training courses that cover things like reputational risk, cyber security, handling client data etc. We also have a learning catalogue which I used to find out more about credit products. There are also language lessons available which I have taken part in. I feel like my excel skills have also improved significantly since starting in October. I have learnt a lot of people skills too just from being around people that are a few years older than me.

I enjoy the work, I feel like I learn a lot and it can be quite relevant to what is going on in the real world. My team is really kind and helpful and I get on with them all really well. the culture of the company is great, everyone helps each other and I like the values of the company.

I don't feel like an apprentice at all, I am made to feel like a full member of the team. I am given the same work and responsibilities as everyone else in my team and am expected to perform at a similar level to everyone else. I have received recognition from my own manager and his managers for doing good work.

We initially had a two week induction in Bournemouth where we were given introductions to working at JPM. We were also given lots of information from our training provider about our course. We were on-boarded to the company system so that there weren't any issues when we started officially. There were various teambuilding activities too. We now have 6 weekly telephone and face to face meetings with our training provider and regular email contact. We were all given a 'buddy' who is a previous apprentice that we can go to whenever we need advice.

Plenty, we see each other every six weeks and speak in between. They help me through my apprenticeship standards and help me with my studying. They put on live lectures every week and we have face to face revision sessions. We have a forum where we can ask any questions we need and multiple contacts.

The support at work is good, my manager will help me with any work related issues I have and my team will help me with any queries I have about my work and how to do it. There are also a number of related teams that we work with that I could ask for support as they use similar systems to us. The HR team is helpful and has been very efficient when I have had to use them.

My salary is sufficient, I decided to live in quite an expensive flat with some friends from work so that takes a lot of my money and doesn't leave me much left. I need a bit of support from my parents but if I had chosen cheaper accommodation I'm sure my salary would have been enough.

Yes I play for the football team once a week. There are lots of great events around Christmas time such as parties and meals with the team. We have a date booked for our social corporate responsibility where we will go and do some volunteering as apprentices together. There is a 'round the island challenge' where people run/cycle/sail around the isle of white.

Yes

I think it's a great company to start at, you meet lots good people who can teach you a lot. It has such a large scope in finance, you can pretty much cover any area if you wish to. It is also a very international firm, you work with people from all over the world and have the chance to move overseas if you wish to.

Just be yourself, I think they are looking for quick, confident people with a willingness to learn and work hard. I would say to do your research on the company because generally people who work here enjoy talking about it and are proud to.