I had the opportunity to attend a 2-day work experience at the London Stock Exchange where I was lucky to witness an initial private offering. This is when a company first lists its product on the London Stock Exchange, so that third party organisations can buy and sell shares in the company. Prior to this, I saw the archives where every company that has ever been listed on the Stock Exchange is held. Sadly, the new companies no longer get to sign their name officially on this ancient book, but it is kept in the VIP room that only a select few individuals are allowed to see when having a tour of the building. 

I was surprised to find out that the exchange is not the main component of the London Stock Exchange - rather it was something called ‘Workspace’ which was a platform LSEG developed to collate all the data from all the companies listed on the exchange and could be sold to banks as a way to inform their trading decisions. I was able to take a closer look into how Workspace is used by companies during my meeting with Agnes Terada, Financial Manager of Investment and Wealth Solutions for Sustainable Finance. Agnes showed me the different parts of Workspace and explained how they are used on a daily basis. 

It was also very exciting to take part in the Diwali celebration that LSEG were hosting for their employees. It was at this event that I was able to network and meet Satvinder Singh, the divisional CEO for Data & Analytics. It was amazing to see how such a successful man, who I can only imagine to be swamped with meetings and commitments, still made time to celebrate his culture with fellow colleagues.  

Finally, I attended a meeting with Jaz Gillon who led the analysis of the Predictive Index (PI) tool with a team from America. The PI is used by companies in order to understand how different people in their organisation prefer to work, as well as how they would act in a managerial role - it helps teams better understand each other in order for them to work better and more efficiently together. My PI showed that I was a Venturer who is a self-starting, self-motivating, and goal-oriented risk-taker, which I took as a compliment.  

Photo: myself and Jaz Gillon, Head of Sales Onboarding at the London Stock Exchange, who helped me organise this fantastic work experience opportunity.

Written by Anjini, Year 13, Head Student Team