A week in the life of a Bloomberg analytics and sales intern

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There are many ways you can gain the skills needed to secure a graduate role at Bloomberg. The global outlet for business and financial news is a diverse employer and it values experience gained from a broad range of backgrounds.

However, the best way to get yourself ‘Bloomberg graduate career ready’ is by undertaking a summer internship at the company.

Lisa Hammer did just that in 2022 when she secured a position on Bloomberg’s analytics and sales internship. She shares her experiences from one of the many interesting weeks she had in that exciting summer role.

A family recommendation

Lisa discovered Bloomberg’s internships as a graduate already working in the pharmaceutical industry. However, you don’t need to be a graduate to apply, as most of the company’s internships are for students in their penultimate year of university.

‘I’d been working as a product adviser for three years, but I was more interested in finance. I wanted to make a career switch, but was hesitant at first because, as a biochemistry graduate, I didn’t have a background in finance,’ she says.

‘However, my brother had worked as a fixed income analyst at Bloomberg. He loved the role – and the company – and recommended that I apply for an internship there. I looked into Bloomberg’s analytics and sales summer internship and it seemed like the perfect way to test the water.’

A week in Lisa’s intern life at Bloomberg

Each week of Lisa’s internship was split into two parts: she spent Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays with the sales team and Thursdays and Fridays with the analytics team. Every week she gained a wealth of experiences, from honing skills and meeting new people to getting involved in community projects. The following is just one of those brilliant weeks.

Monday

Lisa’s week got off to an early start at 6.30 am. ‘I live in Croydon, so I’d normally get the Tramlink and then the Tube to work, that would give me to time to head up to the pantry – the office’s snack and breakfast bar – to grab breakfast and chat with the other interns.’

Ready for the week ahead, Lisa headed to her desk. ‘We normally start work at 8.00 am. First, we’d have the chance to catch up on admin and get our schedule set for the day. Then, at 10.00 am our sales manager would address us and set us tasks. This often involved calling clients to learn more about their business. Gaining insight into clients’ workflows was valuable because it helped us to think of other Bloomberg products that could be sold to them,’ she explains.

After a morning of interacting with clients, and it was lunchtime. ‘In sales we could decide to go for lunch between 12.00 pm and 1.00 pm. Sometimes I’d bring my own lunch and go to the pantry; other times I’d head out to one of the restaurants in the Bloomberg Arcade with my team.’

The afternoons usually entailed tackling the main sales projects. ‘One of the main projects was called the “innovation project”. My team used its creative thinking to analyse the Bloomberg Terminal and pick an aspect of it that could be improved.’

The innovation project put Lisa’s thinking to the test. ‘The Terminal is already so advanced that finding ways to improve it wasn’t easy. But I enjoyed it, as it meant interacting with engineers and product mangers in other departments to learn more about the Terminal and to gain expert opinions on the value of my team’s innovative ideas.’

With greater understanding of the Terminal's functionality under her belt, Lisa's Monday came to a close. ‘I finished work as normal at 6.00 pm. Later that evening, I was heading to a dance class.’

Tuesday

A brisk 7.45 am marked the start of Lisa’s morning with a coffee and chat with interns from some of the other departments. At 8.00 am it was off to a training session for the morning. ‘We had plenty of training during the internship and I gained a solid grounding in sales tactics. This particular session was to learn how to identify sales opportunities.’

After a delicious lunch with some of her colleagues, Lisa returned to the office at 1.30 pm to make headway on the second sales project. ‘This project was to design a strategy to increase Terminal sales and present it to our manager. We were assigned a client by our sales manager and the aim was to tailor the strategy to this client,’ says Lisa. This is just one example of how her internship projects built on and solidified the skills she learned during training sessions.

Come end of play at 5.50 pm and Lisa was ready to clock off and head out for dinner with her teammates.

Wednesday

Wednesday began with a 9.00 am session on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) – which is at the heart of everything Bloomberg does. ‘We got to meet the global head of diversity and inclusion at Bloomberg, who visited our office to give a talk. This was one of my favourite DEI events as not only did I meet the global head, but it was also an open discussion so I was able to ask her questions.’ Lisa adds: ‘The discussion was really insightful and it made me feel even more comfortable at Bloomberg.’

With the DEI discussion complete, philanthropy was on the agenda later in the morning. Just as it does with DEI, Bloomberg also has a strong commitment to philanthropy and improving the communities of which it’s part. ‘For the rest of the day, we helped maintain the Royal Botanical Gardens Kew with some voluntary gardening. It was a really fun day and every single intern from the London office was there.’

Among the other Bloomberg interns at Kew Gardens was Oscar Perez. He shares his experience of a week in the life of a Bloomberg data intern in this feature.

At 6.00 pm, and with the workday done at Kew Gardens, Lisa and one of her fellow interns headed to the gym together for an evening workout.

Thursday

Lisa began the workday with a hearty breakfast in the pantry with her teammates. It was now the analytics part of the week, which usually meant mornings were dedicated to finance training. ‘We learned a lot about general finance principles and how to use the Terminal in these areas. We would also get a mini-test on what we’d learned the week before. This really helped me to set in stone the takeaways from each training session.’

Following training it was time for lunch. ‘I always went for lunch at midday on Thursdays and Fridays – usually heading to one of the other restaurants in the Bloomberg Arcade.’

After lunch, it was now time to get stuck into one of the two projects she was set in analytics. ‘The first was the "main” analytics project. My team was tasked with coming up with an idea for a webinar that would interest clients,’ Lisa shares. ‘This involved deciding on the topic, sourcing guest panellists to present it and then marketing the webinar to clients. We were set a target number for signups, so our sales training tied in nicely with the project.’

At 6.00 pm Lisa left the office satisfied with the day. ‘I really enjoyed working on the webinar project. We chose the really interesting topic of carbon markets and were able to source expert panellists to present.’

Every intern needs a little ‘me’ time here and there and Lisa spent the evening relaxing and reading a good book.

Friday

Lisa kicked off Friday by getting stuck into her second analytics project. ‘The aim of this project was to focus on a specific Bloomberg product, learn the Terminal functions needed to navigate the product and create a strategy for managing its portfolio of clients. It was excellent for my skills development because it gave me hands-on experience of what it’s like to oversee a product and its strategy.’

In the afternoon Lisa joined an interactive DEI webinar. ‘The London internships run at the same time as the Bloomberg internships in the USA and the webinar was being hosted by the head of diversity and inclusion for Bloomberg Americas. It was great because, like with the talk from the global head of diversity and inclusion here in London, we got to ask questions and interact. I came away knowing much more about Bloomberg’s global approach to diversity, equity and inclusion.’

With the webinar complete, Lisa finished the day with some presentation preparation. ‘In the penultimate week of the internship, we had the opportunity to show off all of the hard work we’d put into all of our projects by presenting them to our managers. I put time into crafting my slides each week as I wanted to deliver the strongest presentation,’ she says.

At 5.45 pm it was time to clock off and head out with the other interns. ‘We loved going out together on Fridays for a meal, and then seeing where the night took us. Many of the interns would also head out on other nights, but Friday was my favourite night to go out.’

Confidence and support at Bloomberg

A week after finishing the internship Lisa was offered a graduate position at Bloomberg. ‘I was excited to return as a gradate. Bloomberg really looked after me as an intern and it’s the culture of support and openness here that make it such a unique place to work.’

Not only was Bloomberg’s culture a fit for Lisa, but her skills came on leaps and bounds. ‘The internship is really well structured and there’s clear direction in terms of your development. After we gave the final presentations for our projects, my mentor gave me such positive feedback on how much I’d grown and the confidence I displayed,’ she says.

Lisa has some final tips for students on the hunt for an internship. ‘The internship helped me become a better version of myself because I developed my skills and met a broad range of people from all over the world. If this sounds like something you’d like to achieve, then you should apply.’

Become the best version of yourself at Bloomberg

Bloomberg offers internship positions across a range of its departments. Make sure to check out its career opportunities listed on targetjobs and begin the journey to becoming your best self.