UBS Australia Graduate Programs & Internships

What it does: UBS Australia is a financial company focusing on expert advice, investment banking, and asset management for private and institutional clients, as well as corporations.

Mission: To reimagine the power of investing and connecting people for a better world

Size and presence: UBS operates in 50 countries and has 72,779 employees worldwide (as of 31 Des 2021)

Best known for A global leader in asset, investment, and advisory services

The good bits: It is among the Top 30 Employers (Working Families, 2012-2020) and 100 Best Companies (Working Mother magazine, 2019)

The not-so-good bits: The workloads can be stressful at times and require you to come early in the morning or work until late at night.

The Story of UBS Global Australia

The name UBS is the acronym derived from one of its predecessor companies, the Union Bank of Switzerland. The current UBS was established when the Union Bank of Switzerland merged with the Swiss Bank Corporation in June 1998. The new entity took on the name UBS as its official name.

Switzerland is the only country where UBS operates in all five of its business areas: wealth management, personal banking, corporate and institutional clients, asset management, and investment banking. In Australia, UBS only focuses on the two last areas. As an asset manager, it offers investment capabilities and innovative solutions across major asset classes to wholesale, institutional, and direct investors.

As an investment bank, UBS Australia distributes, trades, finance and clears cash equity and equity-linked products. They also originate, structure, and distribute new equity and equity-linked issues. They help clients realize their financial goals through origination and distribution, managing risk and providing liquidity in FX, credit, rates, and precious metals.

Culture & vibe

Although the organisation is relatively smaller in comparison to the US-based companies, it still has a professional environment that focuses on work and delivery. Whether you work with clients, analyse data, manage risks (or projects, or people), or write code, you will work with highly skilled, motivated, and experienced colleagues.

Your day might start with your prioritisation of tasks that you are involved in, including feedback from the support team. The culture is collaborative and fast-paced. It also offers a great deal of variety to your day-to-day role. Every day is a new learning and a new bar to cross as you take your project to the finish line.

The company is also a good place for new starters as they provide relevant training as well as helpful online training materials. While some processes may be standardised and may not apply in every UBS office from a cultural standpoint, this helps for the seamless execution of training events and sets a standard to work towards without confusion.

Recruitment process

Depending on the program and region, the recruitment stages may differ slightly, but usually include:

• Online Application: You need to submit your online application via their job board and provide your personal information. Take your time when answering the detailed questions since providing accurate information is important. You can save a draft to complete later and submit it when you are ready.
• Online Assessment: It consists of UBS Cultural Appraiser (realistic, hypothetical work scenarios designed to see how well you align with UBS’ culture and values), Cognitive Assessments (measure your ability to draw logical conclusions from complex numerical or verbal information), and Coding Challenge for roles in technology (simulation to see if your skills are a good match for the role).
• Video Interview: As part of the screening process, they will give you the questions and you can record your answers at a time that suits you.
• Final Assessment Day: A series of interviews will be the final stage of the recruitment process. You will give them a glimpse into your personality and capabilities. The final interview will be more detailed and focused on assessing your compatibility with them in the role of your choice.

Career prospects

UBS has a program called Career Comeback for those looking to carry on after a break or looking for a change in direction, and ready to come back to a corporate environment. They are looking to hire experienced professionals who want to return to work (either full or part-time), restart their career, or make an upgrade to a more complex role and want to build long-term careers with them.

Benefits

The company provides benefits and programs detailed below to ensure the needs of its employees are supported throughout the employee lifecycle.

• Family: They have several programs, policies, and initiatives to help employees better manage their work and family commitments. 
• Flexible working: The options are job sharing (allowing employees to work part-time for a role that requires full-time coverage by sharing the role with another employee), working in the office, or from home.
• Mental health: The “Mental Wealth” program provides resources, ideas, information, and useful links to provide support for anyone who might need it. 
• Recognition and acknowledgement program
• Great staff gatherings
• Great partnership offerings 

Social Contributions

UBS Optimus Foundation is the independent philanthropic arm of UBS. In October 2022, they announced the launching of its Australian chapter, the UBS Optimus Foundation Australia. The foundation reflects UBS’ commitment to growing its philanthropic efforts globally and its existing community projects within Australia.

They work to deliver scalable solutions with new initiatives in health, education child protection, and environmental issues. UBS Optimus Foundation Australia also accepts donations from the clients and employees of UBS Australia by bank transfer and completing a donation form.

In addition, UBS employees can join virtual and in-person volunteering opportunities, or get 2 paid working days a year for volunteering.

Sources

The following sources were used in researching this page

• ubs.com
• investopedia.com
• glassdoor.com