It all fact now– I have been a Saltire’s intern for a week now and I can only say that it is amazing. So much happened over the last seven days that I have the feeling I have been here for a month!
I woke up pretty early on Monday morning, I guess due the excitement about going off to work in Tokyo!!

I arrived at the office to find that my direct boss will be (different than expected) a Japanese lady, Jun Simizu, the Business Manager of Sales at RBS Securities.
In the first hour I was shown around and introduced to various people from the different departments by one of the grads Shunjiro.

RBS is based on 4 floors in the Shin-Marunouchi Centre Building. I spent this week on the 20th where the trading floor is located.
I am working with James Davis, the line manager of the GFFI sales desk. Those guys are pricing swap, futures and swaption deals. Everyone of the team has its own clients’ portfolio. From what I have seen so far their job is very dynamic and interactive – pretty much what I would look for in my future career!

I spent the week being taught much about the industry and the trading itself. Apparently every trader is highly specialized in a particular field – first fixed income or equities, than US Treasuries, the Japanese Government Bonds, the Derivatives and further according to regions – Japan, Europe, Australia, USA and so on.

Here everybody works so much... Most of the people go to the office around 7 am and leave around 7 pm!!  Therefore, I didn’t have much to exploring in my first week.

I have been taken out for lunch on my first day to an amazing sushi restaurant and on Thursday we had a lunch with the rest of the interns at RBS in a traditional Japanese restaurant. The food here is absolutely delicious! The only problem when we were out dining or buying food in the shop was that most of the time you don’t know what you order/buy. Good news is that it turns out to be a nice surprise afterward, but not exclusively!

We had a long weekend here in Tokyo due to the Marine Day which is on Monday and is an official holiday. I went out for drinks with some colleagues after work on Friday (That seems to be a tradition here!!). I explored some of the Shibuya area with one of the grads afterward.
On Saturday me and the other three Saltire’s interns have been invited to a barbeque at the British Embassy, organised by the St. Andrews’ Society here. It was great experience - we did some taiko (Japanese drums), we listened to Japanese performing bagpipers and danced county dances.  We met Zach – former Saltire’s intern and many new friends.

It has been great 7 days and there are many more to come!

Tomorrow will be exciting day – I am going to the structuring desk. That promises to be challenging... Looking forward!