Thoughts from my first weeks

Sandra Nordlöw is a Masters student at SSE, just a few weeks in at her six month long internship with Altor. She enters the room with a lot of energy and curiosity, ready to talk at depth about her first reflections, what are her first observations about Altor, why did she choose internship here and what is Sandra hoping to take away from this period?

Sandra, what are your reflections so far?

I think for us interns, we are all on our way towards something, it may be continued studies, possibly another internship or the first full time job. Altor is for us and me an important step on that journey – it helps us to figure out the direction we want to take. Altor gives us references to what we do best and experiences to apply in new settings.

You talk about learning, what does it look like at Altor?

I can’t emphasize this enough – you will learn and grow so much. You can’t make up for the practical lessons learned with another course at university. Here on the other hand, you start absorbing a new skillset from day one through the many conversations and colleagues you work with on a daily basis. Bit by bit you start to pick up on the pattern recognition that has been developed here, an intuition built up over time enabling them to quickly spot the rough diamonds and what makes a great company.

 

 

Why an internship at a private equity firm?

I wanted to come closer to how decisions are made, to grasp and understand the value creation thesis behind each investment. My previous experiences from consulting and banking gave me valuable insight to parts of the puzzle but never the full story. I wanted to learn from the teams and their analysis, from the first steps in the sourcing process to the investment decisions. When to continue learning about a company or what makes us stop and let it go?

Your advice for someone looking to do an internship here?

I might be stating the obvious but it’s so important to feel part of the team. This doesn’t hold true for all places when you’re an intern, but here, I genuinely feel that everyone wants me to learn and succeed.

Any final words?

Try out different things! I spent 1,5 years in Equity Research between my Bachelors and Masters to get some hands-on experience. I also explored internships in both banking and consulting, there are so many ways to apply what we learn during our studies. For example, I first met Altor through their female breakfast event, when you meet the employees of a company you get a good picture of what the culture might look like.