In this series, we speak to our diverse and talented colleagues about life at FINBOURNE. In each interview, we learn about the multi-faceted roles at the company and what life is like in a fast-paced scale-up.
This time we caught up with Kevin Roice, an intern at FINBOURNE, to hear about his time in the Platform Team and the impact this opportunity has for a long-term career in FinTech.
What is life like as an intern at FINBOURNE?
Upon completing my degree in Computer Science and Physics at the University of Durham, I was fortunate enough to join FINBOURNE’s internship programme for eight weeks, along with seven other interns, after being encouraged to apply by my internship coordinator at the university careers department.
Life as an intern at FINBOURNE is full of engaging projects to work on and take ownership of, and I relished the opportunity to gain invaluable, real-world experience of what is like to work for a fast-paced scale-up. From day one, I worked with my mentor to create a sixty-day development plan and define concrete goals to work towards, while having the freedom to explore all departments.
Tell us a bit about your role at FINBOURNE
In the platform team, our main area of focus is to develop the performance of our applications and utilise testing suites to help us detect and mitigate performance issues for our clients.
Day to day, I worked on core pieces of the product and business operations, working independently to manage my own projects and make a real contribution to the team. I really enjoyed the freedom to solve statistical problems and apply my degree knowledge to real-life situations.
What do you like most about working for FINBOURNE?
When I first started, I was given the necessary tools to be productive from day one. Whether using Slack, Jira, or Teams to communicate effectively with colleagues, I was also able to grow my existing expertise in systems such as Git, Python, and Kibana.
Teabot, a unique collaboration tool that matches you with a different colleague each week, gave me the opportunity to network across different departments with ease, including with senior managers.
One of the things I like most about FINBOURNE is the strong core values of ‘being open’ and ‘we instead of I’. These ensured that on some level, everyone contributed to my personal development. In my first week, I was given a mentor to have regular 1-1’s with and who was able to point me in the direction of other colleagues across departments, to collaborate with. This was invaluable, as it enabled me to develop a clear picture of the sum of all the people that work together to contribute to FINBOURNE’s efforts and successes, as a whole.
FINBOURNE has also created a sociable and flexible environment. I was given the freedom to work from home when needed, or go into the office in St. Paul’s. Naturally, the intern and graduate community made it exciting to be in the office, where I could go out for lunch with others, participate in training sessions and even attend the annual summer party. To my surprise, I enjoyed working with a relaxed dress code, which changed my perspective of the finance industry.
Has this internship inspired you to pursue a career in FinTech?
Despite only spending two months at FINBOURNE, I felt I was able to fully immerse myself in the world of a fast-paced scale-up, because of the depth and breadth of work I got to experience. As a result, I have been able to broaden my horizons and build on the potential for a long-term career in FinTech. I am now looking forward to utilising, growing, and nurturing the transferable skills I have developed here, within the industry.
The next steps
On behalf of FINBOURNE, we would like to wish Kevin all the best for the next stage of his development journey, as a master’s student at the University of Alberta in Canada, studying Computer Science and Statistical Machine Learning.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the positions we have open at FINBOURNE, please check out our careers page.
