The 10 companies that pay UK interns the most

Average pay: £2,800 ($4,338)

Intern view: "Pros — Very big company, big chances to find a suitable job. The salary is good. Very powerful company so you get to know a lot of interesting stuff.

"Cons — Even though company has a lot of roles it is still hard to move from one role to another, but I guess it's possible if you give it enough effort.

"Advice to management — They should encourage a better mobility, and also not try to outsource the tech office and ops to cheaper locations, they loose very smart people like that." via Glassdoor.

Average pay: £2,800 ($4,338)

Intern view: "Pros — Hands on experience from the first week. Additional training in presentation skills and leadership, as well as workplace ethics, volunteering day [and] diversity. Interns get to plan the department's sports day (anything goes). Great food in the canteen. Everyone is so helpful and caring, even senior management take time out to speak to you. It helps foster an amazing work environment.

"Cons — No initially training was provided at start, so work can be a bit daunting at first but it's also exciting.

"Advice to Management — Didn't get to interact with the interns from other divisions. It would have been nice to have a Citi-wide intern event." via Glassdoor.

Average pay: £3,000 ($4,648)

Intern view: "Pros — Nice people: people were willing to sit down and explain things to me when they weren't busy. Interesting work. Lots of collaboration between offices: I was talking to teams in the US and Singapore.

"Cons — UBS's troubles in FICC [fixed income, currencies, and commodities] are well-documented and they have thus been reducing headcount. Job opportunities in this area of the bank are therefore very rare." via Glassdoor.

Average pay: £3,000 ($4,648)

Intern view: "Pros — Great salary on offer and highly professional atmosphere with intelligent people.

"Cons — Long hours culture, but this was a Front Office role so expected.

"Advice to management — Reduce long hours culture." via Glassdoor.

Average pay: £3,000 ($4,648)

Intern view: "Pros — Global exciting company, access to a fascinating world of finance and business, excellent pay.

"Cons — Small cog, big machine, work is pretty boring, long working hours, little innovation.

"Advice to management — You limit your developers by discouraging thinking outside of the box, asking questions or pushing limits. I've since moved to be a mobile developer for startups, and find many banks are simply buying out/aqui-hiring startups. If you gave developers the option to think like a startup, I think you could achieve much more." via Glassdoor.

Average pay: £3,100 ($4,803)

Intern view: "Pros— Training was good (solid week at beginning of 10-week scheme), pay is obviously satisfying, managing director meet up scheme whereby you meet 10 MD's over your internship was a great idea — you gain exposure to many other teams/senior employees.

"Cons — Politics is rife on the trading floor and you have to listen to traders smelly chat all day, overworked staff, my team in particular had no collegiate feel. Sales role feels like a glorified call centre." via Glassdoor.

Average pay: £3,125 ($4,842)

Intern view: "Pros — Good pay, great events. Okay work/life balance depending on division.

"Cons — Be prepared for long hours in IBD [investment banking division]. But worth it long term." via Glassdoor.

Average pay: £3,300 ($5,113)

Intern view: "Pros —The people in this department are on the whole very friendly, management were very encouraging and always on hand to help. The work was generally interesting and challenging, with plenty of responsibilities given to interns. The set up of the internship was well organised. Excellent benefits — good salary, food, gym etc. Opportunities outside of work for socialising, sport etc. Careers progression seems to be fairly quick.

"Cons — Work life balance is poor, and this was in the 'quiet' summer period. Staff commonly worked 12-hour shifts or more. Other interns seemed to have (perhaps self-imposed) pressure to complete deadlines that resulted in nights and weekends spent in the office. A lot of employees (especially younger ones) seem to be there purely for the money.

"Advice to Management — Focus more on productivity and the amount of work done rather than purely hours spent in the office." via Glassdoor.

Average pay: £3,500 ($5,423)

Intern view: "Pros— The company culture was fun, coffee was great and you could talk and collaborate with numerous world-class researchers in machine learning, algorithms, networks, and so on. My boss was extremely knowledgeable and always open to new ideas. The pay was more than enough for me.

"Cons — Cambridge is a rather small city and housing is expensive. Also, the jobs in research can potentially have less security as they are the first ones to go if the company is in trouble." via Glassdoor.