Week 2: Organizational Culture at UBS

Over the past two weeks working at UBS I have gotten a stronger sense for the work culture and how everyone tends to behave in the office. I definitely had preconceived notions about what it would be like to work there, I had a fear that it would be a very hostile and competitive environment. From the very first day, I have learned and been told how much UBS values the people that they hire and the relationships they develop within the company. This past week we had a “Senior Speaker Series” for the interns, which is when a well-respected figure in the company comes to speak with us about what they do and they usually open up the session to be more discussion based where we can ask them questions. This week we had a man named Jim who is the head of the capital market division come and speak with us. He started by making us go around the room and introduce ourselves and say a fun fact. This made everyone feel a lot more comfortable and willing to ask questions, which was relieving because I think a lot of us interns feel pressured to do everything perfect all the time to impress people within the company. Afterwards, he spoke very little about himself, he just gave an overview of the companies he worked at and what he did at each point in his career. He emphasized at the end of his speech how important mentoring is to him. He really cares about developing and putting time and energy into the future of the company, which would be us. He said the one thing that makes businesses better than the other at the end of the day is the people and the culture of the company.

All in all, I have been pleasantly surprised at how nice the people at UBS are and how willing they are to help. I was definitely scared going into the internship about being in New York and being in a hostile work environment where everyone only cares about their own success and getting by. The other day I was also having a meeting with a guy named Patrick to learn more about his role in the company as the insurance specialist in the Wealth Planning Sales team. I started asking him questions and he made me backtrack and tell him who I was and we got into a conversation about how he got to where he is today. It was nice to have a conversation rather than everything feel like it has to be strictly work all the time and I’ve found that people within the company genuinely want to get to know us and make us feel welcome. Patrick said that even though everyone has to dress professionally everyday and it seems like it would be a rigid place, the people are all genuine and eager to help. I think these pleasant interactions and realization that UBS cares a lot about their people has made me feel a lot more comfortable and has made me respect the company even more.