Spring weeks are programmes that last between 2 days and 2 weeks designed to give first year (or 2nd year on a 4-year degree) students an insight into a firm, division or industry. They tend to be concentrated within banking; however, other types of firms also offer spring weeks such as some insurance, professional services, consulting, FMCG, hedge funds etc.

Spring weeks might be general to a company, or firms may ask you to choose a specific division. The week itself usually predominantly consists of networking and talks. Some companies, such as Goldman Sachs, give you a real insight into the firm by also giving you a chance to carry out work. To give you a few examples of what to expect, bearing in mind that my spring weeks were virtual: at McKinsey I was taken through a case project from start to finish, carrying out simplified versions of each stage; at Citi I had different presentations from each of the major divisions to understand what they all do; and at Deloitte I completed various small tasks to better my understanding of their various service lines.

Spring weeks are an amazing way to figure out if a particular industry, firm, or division, is a good fit for you. Moreover, you get to stay in nice hotels, eat company-sponsored food, and get free transport to London.

Above all, they are the single best way in which to get a job. Particularly for banking, most of the graduate cohort is made up of a firm's summer interns. A lot of banks don't even open up roles for a graduate role since they exclusively recruit out of their summer cohort intern. Their summer internship is essentially their 10-week interview for a graduate role. And for summer internships, a large percentage of each bank's cohort is made up of their spring interns. A lot of spring week programmes give you the opportunity to interview for a summer internship at the end, and they generally have high conversion rates. Increasingly summer internships are being made up of spring week cohorts. Some firms don't even open to summer internship applications if they have high spring week conversion rates.

Since a spring week is a great route for a graduate role, it means that the application process can be pretty intense. You may be asked to submit a CV, a cover letter, complete numerical and psychometric tests, complete multiple rounds of video, phone and in-person interviews, group assessment centres and final rounds with partners. Each firm will obviously not do all of this; the longest process I've seen is 5 stages. This might seem ridiculous for an experience that only lasts a few days, but given that it gives you a strong chance at a top graduate role by your first or second year, it's worth the effort.

It is likely that spring weeks are the first real work-related applications you will complete and so they will seem very new, and difficult, and I can ensure you that you will face lots of rejections. However, securing a spring week is considered 5 times easier than a summer internship at the same bank. This is since while the process is similar, the standards for summer internships are far higher since firms receive so many applicants from top students across the world. Firms try harder to encourage diversity in their spring weeks, whether that be diversity in race and gender, or in university. Hence, spring week programmes are a great way for students from universities that don't usually make up banking internship classes to get their foot in the door. Therefore, I would heavily encourage you to invest time applying for spring weeks; it will make your life so much easier moving forward. Even if you are unsuccessful in securing a spring week, just getting your head around applications will put you 2 steps ahead when you're applying for summer internships. If you do manage to secure one and you decide that you don't like the firm or industry, having this brand name firm on your CV will signal to other firms that you're a credible candidate, and you're much more likely to pass CV screenings at a later date in your career.