Congratulations to Arman who completed a Spring Week with UBS! We recently caught up with him to discuss his experience of the UBS Spring Week and to see what tips he had to offer his fellow Bright Network members.
Why did you apply to UBS?
I took a gap year after school during which a lot of my friends at university told me all about the importance of doing a Spring Week. Off the back of this advice I decided to visit the Bright Network Festival just before I started university. UBS were actually the last stall I visited but when I got chatting to their representative we instantly clicked. He was a recent graduate from my hometown area and we got on really well. During our conversation he told me all about the application process to UBS and gave me a few tips to help me out too. With his help I was able to tailor my application to exactly what UBS were looking for. After meeting their representative at the Bright Network Festival I was sold on UBS and knew that they were the firm who I wanted to do a spring week with.
What was the application process like?
The preliminary stage of the application process consisted of me submitting my CV, filling in an application form and completing numerical situational judgment tests. Finally, I had to take part in an online video interview where I was asked a mixture of questions including why I wanted to work for UBS and competency-based questions.
What did you get up to on your spring week?
It was a tightly-structured programme with every minute properly planned out. The program was split into various days with different aims. For example, the first few days were structured so as to best acquaint all of us with UBS as a company and to allow us the opportunity to network both with the other spring interns and with senior figures in the firm. We played a few different games in the introductory days, one such game involved us having to take an object from our table and pitch it to some of the UBS business. There were several different talks that were held in the first few days as well both from senior management which introduced to what UBS did and from recent graduates who gave us a glimpse into their daily life. Towards the end of the week we were put through our paces with a trading game. This consisted of being given different stocks and asked how we would interact with them and how we would react to different political scenarios that may affect stock prices.
What three tips would you give to your fellow Bright Network members who are about to start a spring week?
- Go with a bank of questions to ask that have been well thought-out because the assessors assess you on whether you ask questions and on the quality of questions you ask.
- Remember you’re being assessed at all times. This means you should show a genuine interest and curiosity. This means behaving yourself sociably and working hard to get on with people at lunch time as much as you do in the group projects. It means you have to follow people up, forge relationships and really network.
- Take a step back and enjoy the time you’re there for. It can be a very fun and positive experience and one which you can learn a lot from as well as making new mates during.
What was the hardest interview question you faced?
Can you estimate the amount of coffee drunk in Switzerland in a week?
