Investment (ESG focused) Graduate Review

My position within M&G is ESG graduate. Over the course of my graduate programme, I will be rotating between teams within the M&G's stewardship and sustainability team. This typically entails researching companies on their sustainability strategies, spearheading research projects within the team, and occasionally presenting. While many of my interactions are internal, I also have the opportunity to have external interactions during the sustainability engagement meetings my team conducts with our clients.

Absolutely. Research is a key part of my role and over the course of my rotations I have significantly improved my research skills through the support and advice of my teams. A key weakness I acknowledged within myself prior to joining M&G was my public speaking. My teams have been very supportive in this regard and provide me with ample opportunity to speak/ present in team meetings of various sizes in order to bolster my confidence. Among these skills, I have also improved my: time management, use of excel, financial knowledge, organisation.

The programme, while intense, is thoroughly enjoyable. Graduates have the opportunity to rotate through multiple teams (each being exceptionally friendly), to broaden their understanding of the business, and hasten their career development. The graduate programme is accompanied with level 6, financial services apprenticeship, which serves to help provide the soft and hard skills necessary to accelerate career development, and make an instant impact within your team. In addition to this, graduates are enrolled in the IMC units 1 and 2, as well as the CFA level 1 - which helps to bolster our financial understanding. Ultimately, we have the opportunity to fast-track our career development in a friendly and nurturing environment.

The programme is very structured. Graduates are in constant communication with the early careers team to ensure that they are on the right path. The early careers team ensure that the graduates have consistent support to flourish within their teams, and teams have though out tasks to support our growth.

I have personally received a lot of support from my employer. I have two managers which I receive support from. A graduate manager (who is my manager for the entirety of the graduate programme), and a rotation manager (who is in charge of my day-to-day management). I have regular catch ups with both to ensure that our objectives are aligned, and that the work that I am doing is helping with my career development. The company also allows its graduates to take the IMC units 1 and 2, as well as the the CFA level 1 during the programme. This is also accompanied by a financial services level 6 apprenticeship programme to provide the graduates with the soft and hard skills necessary to be successful within the financial services industry.

Plenty of support. We are allocated 7 hours per week to dedicate towards working towards our qualification. This is time given to us that cannot be impeded upon regardless of workloads stemming from our teams. Our teams are also very flexible and supportive of our working towards qualifications, and are happy to give you the time that you need to get it done.

Considerably better. Doing the exams (IMC 1+2 + CFA), have significantly bolstered our financial knowledge, and enabled us to contribute more to discussion within our teams. Quite crucially, the base understanding of finance that the exams provide gives us a foundation to being asking our team useful questions to fill holes in our understanding. The apprenticeship programme that runs alongside this also ensures that each action we make within our teams is done with the intention of improving ourselves within our role to the fullest extent.

The work provides an abundance of extra-curricular activities for its employees to get involved with. There are several email threads informing us about new opportunities to get involved with - ranging from learning to play the guitar to group runs to team dinners and lunches. These activities are frequently attended and act as a great opportunity to expand your network.

Yes

I would recommend M&G as a friend as it is a great place to provide you with all the tools and qualifications to go on to have a successful career. In addition to this, there is a great company culture at M&G. All employees are very friendly, and happy to answer question, give pieces of advice, or just be available for a friendly chat.

To be yourself. Everyone at M&G is unique in their own way. They each have their own approach to tackling problems, and provide a different perspective to a problem then you might have thought of. M&G prides itself on having these different ways of thinking. By being yourself, you can leave a lasting impression that sticks out from the crowd and help our recruiters more easily visualise how you might fare working within our teams.