CaxtonFx--The Interning Phase

So I wrote this back at the end of FEBRUARY goodness March has flown by and it's already April..1st...this might be a joke.. BUt anyway, I wrote about the internship 3 days after it is as follows:

Since I have to keep a journal/notes for my internship, I might as well publish a few tidbits from the first few days and continue to keep a log of what I do on a daily basis.

Part of the International Program I am doing involves an 8-week internship at a company I've been placed at...Everyone is guaranteed an internship which is really neat aspect of this program. Since I am thinking of concentrating in Marketing and Finance (not to mention my History minor as well), the placement team thought a Marketing Internship in a Financial firm would be appropriate and I couldn't have found it a better match.

Although I did not know the company going in, it's been 3 days of interning and I feel like I know a lot about the company and the British work environment as well.

I work for a company called CaxtonFx which is a foreign exchange currency company which trades on all amounts of currency for the spread but also benefiting their clients by arranging the best interest for them. Also, recently, they have set up a currency card which works as a credit card without charging fees on the transaction's made. The way it works is that you load your card with the company in British Pounds and convert them to Dollars before you go to the US. Or you convert to Euro's before you head to the EU for travels or a business trip.

My job as an intern is to do market research on 3 different sectors Caxton Fx could possibly penetrate in order to maximize their client base. I am looking into the Auto Industry, Fashion Industry, and Promotional Item's industry. Near the end of the internship I'm going to present this to the head directors of the company so that could be gratifying. It's nice to have a long-term project set up but let me tell you the researching is a lot of work because I'm reaching a lot of dead ends already. There's another intern from the BU program which is nice because we can take lunch together and have some morale boost during the day.

Things I've noticed since being at CaxtonFx:

1. The guys are pretty funny but also very crude, dropping the F-bomb like its nothing and joking about some controversial things (homosexuality etc.)
2. Company culture seems to be about transparency and people are very friendly and mobile about walking around the office to get answers or to communicate (director's windows are all glass with no blinds to cover them)
3. As seen with MOST British companies, people DON'T have cubicles and privacy is more limited to upper management, I could stare at the guy across from me all day if I wanted to be a creep. This is standard to have just flat desks next to each other.
4. Since I work in an area with not too many restaurants/shops (b/c we're near Buckingham Palace and Embassy's), the Sandwich man comes with food (woohoo! but I make lunch mostly)
5. The currency market is really interesting especially in the turbulent economic times and also with the way they view the dollar versus how we view the dollar..(GO US DOLLAR!)

That is all for now! Cheers!

NOW 4/1/2010 at CaxtonFx, things are starting to wind down and a lot of people are on "holiday" aka vacationing for the long easter "bank" holiday which gives people both Friday and Monday off of work.

I've presented my work to both the sales team and the marketing team and they are independently working on developing their grip in the Auto Parts industry, specifically targeting the Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SME's).

Blah blah blah, it's been a good internship and I'm looking forward to this Easter Long weekend (Friday and Monday off) because my gosh--work's really long and tiring and my butt and my back gets sore! OOOF.