Virtual Internship

Mako has always welcomed the opportunity to introduce curious minds to the exciting world of financial markets, trading and technology.  We have seen a number of newly inspired people come through our Internship and Work Experience programmes and are passionate about continuing to provide opportunities for students, educating them about the roles available in our business and the skills required to succeed in our industry.

Our scheduled 2020 internship programme was, sadly, cancelled due to the pandemic, but we were determined to move forward with a ‘socially distanced’ version in 2021.  This goal allowed us to re-design the programme entirely and after much brainstorming with the HR and Recruitment teams, we designed a part-time, virtual programme over 6 weeks. This had the great advantage of allowing us to expand the programme to a wider audience, take on more participants and give students who missed out last year the opportunity to apply.

We advertised the role back in November 2020 and were excited to see so many applications come through. A total of 26 students started the programme on 12th July. Each week consisted of a learning element and presentation.  The students were set tasks for discussion mid-week and then would submit a project or exam on the Friday. The syllabus was broad covering an overview of the business, options theory, an introduction to trading, the relationship between software development and trading at Mako, python classes and much more!

At Mako we have developed a strong culture around education for our traders and latterly our development team. We have honed the content of these courses over the years, the majority of which is provided by experts and specialists in-house. We are exceptionally proud to be able to offer this new learning experience in a virtual format. Not only does this provide an opportunity for more candidates interested in a career with us to get a glimpse of what it is like to work here, but it is also a direct and authentic expression of our belief in using education as a tool to break down the barriers of entry in our industry. We are very aware that one internship programme does not fix all the challenges we face but alongside our outreach programmes, which are focussed on supporting young and diverse talent, we feel we are making small but integral steps to help drive positive change.

The benefits of a programme like this are great, so if you are interested in learning more about what we do as a business and what opportunities are available for new talent, please don’t hesitate in applying for next year’s programme which will be open for applications in the autumn. We very much see the internship as a feeder into the graduate programmes that we offer, and hope that this is a useful pathway into the industry for ambitious and talented people.