My name is Joe and I am an economics graduate from the University of St Andrews. I first heard about the Saltire Programme through a friend who had completed an internship a few years before, albeit online due to the pandemic. I applied with one main goal in mind: to gain internship experience in a sector I wanted to work in.
I was fortunate to be offered the role of Energy Market Intern at Brookfield in London. In the first few weeks, I worked on a research project focused on the Chinese energy market, analysing changing regulations, how they might affect Brookfield’s existing investments, and the potential implications for future projects. After that, I moved on to a coding project, creating Python scripts to pull power market data from providers and building dashboards to summarise it. One example was tracking solar capture prices across several European regions. These dashboards will continue to be circulated monthly within the London office.
The role was not directly tied to my university degree, but it built on skills I had developed there. The research process for my presentation was similar to academic work, but the slide structure and the experience of presenting to senior business people were entirely new. The coding side was completely new to me, and I now have a solid base understanding that I think will be useful in any future role.
The most rewarding part of the internship was the people I met. I was able to speak to colleagues across different teams, learn about their roles, and gain advice from analysts on how they had been successful in landing jobs. These connections will be incredibly helpful in the future, whether for career advice or interview preparation.
My time at Brookfield has confirmed that I want to pursue a career in finance. I could not recommend the Saltire Programme highly enough. It is an incredible opportunity to gain hands-on experience in an area that interests you and to help shape your future career direction. My advice to future scholars is to make the most of the people around you. Ask questions, talk to as many people as possible, and do not be afraid to step outside your specific role – people are usually more than happy to help.
