Intern Insights: What Our Summer Interns Learned at Cowens

We sat down with them after their internships to have a conversation and see how they found their time with us.

This summer, we were pleased to have two interns join us for a short period, learning more about what we do at Cowens and what makes it such a great place to work.
 
We welcomed Bob Goodwin for 5 weeks and Libby Ramsey for 3 weeks as their chosen summer placement, providing them with some insight into the world of insurance, financial planning, employee benefits and mortgages.
 
We sat down with them after their internships to have a conversation and see how they found their time with us.

What did you know about Cowens before you came here?
 
Bob: My mum, Catherine Ray, is a Cowens mortgage adviser. She’s always told me how much they do, including the mortgages and other things within the department. She’s always said that the people are really nice, and I’ve heard about how people help each other.
 
Libby: I only really knew about the motor insurance side of it from my Mum, Michelle Ramsey, who works on the motoring within the broking department. I didn’t really know about the financial planning aspect, but I heard about all the benefits that the employees can get on the insurance side.

Anything new you’ve learnt about Cowens?
 
Libby: I learnt a lot about the financial advisers, a lot about tax, mortgages, employee benefits, admin — a lot of things I didn’t know before.
 
Bob: I’ve learnt quite a bit. I’ve been mainly on the systems side, discovering what happens there, such as the mortgage solutions database and the clients in it, using SharePoint and Excel.

Where are you in your educational journey? What are your favourite subjects?
 
Bob: I plan on going to West Notts College to be involved with UPS (Uniform Protected Services), which has to do with the military, so that’s a stepping stone into that career.
 
Libby: I’m about to go into Year 11 of secondary school and am preparing for my GCSEs. My chosen subjects are business, geography, Spanish and triple-award science.

What did you enjoy the most in your time with us at Cowens?
 
Libby: I really enjoyed getting to know all of the people because it’s put me in a better spot working in an office space in future. If I had any questions or queries about the projects I was doing, I could ask anyone and, even if they didn’t know exactly what the answer was, they would stop and they would try and help me out any way they could.
 
Bob: Everyone’s been very nice and helped out with all of the projects. There’s always stuff to do, never a quiet moment.

What makes Cowens special?
 
Bob: It’s a nice place to work because some places aren’t always the most friendly, but as soon as I came in, I felt like I was welcome and it was as if I’d always been there.
 
Libby: The office banter. When everyone needs to get their heads down they do, but everyone’s up for a joke as well.

Would you recommend Cowens to other people?
 
Libby: Yes, I definitely would. I think that for people who don’t necessarily want to work here, but want to get the feel for an office job or just this kind of environment, it’s definitely a good place to come to.
 
Bob: It’s a good place to work, even if you’re not going into an office environment, it’s still teaching you multiple things that you need to know. The projects were always varied and it’s not all about one thing.
 
Libby: I think that a financial adviser also teaches you a lot about what you’re going to have to do when you’re older, like paying tax, percentages it goes up in, mortgages and plenty of other things we’ll have to deal with.

You said there were multiple projects very varied. What were your favourite projects?
 
Bob: I quite enjoyed scanning and there was a lot of that to begin with. I also enjoyed all of the Intelliflo work, which had to do with cleansing the database and cleaning the client data up.
 
Libby: I enjoyed organising clients into different categories, which makes it easier for the advisers.


At Cowens, we’re committed to offering opportunities for learning and development, both within our organisation as well as for future generations. It was a pleasure to have Libby and Bob join us for their summer placements. We want to thank them for their hard work and company, and we wish them all the best for the future.