Finance Intern Review

I have really enjoyed my time working with the finance team at Santander . Every one has been very friendly, welcoming and supportive. I have also had the opportunity to gain an insight and deliver some work for other teams within the finance department. Throughout the 10 weeks I have been given real work and felt valued by my team. Preferred days when I had more work then less.

All work that I was set was relevant and meaningful rather than just a job made up to give me something to do. All members of staff were there if I needed help or had further questions and all made a point of thanking me and in some cases being given feedback for any work I produced for them. Staff were good at explaining new concepts and work without being patronising.

I was given regular one to ones with my manager to discuss my progress and goals as well as the opportunity to decide what sort of things I wanted to experience during my internship. I was also assigned a buddy who regularly checked up on me and provided me with lots of helpful advice and preparation for my subsequent interview for the graduate scheme.

This varied a lot. Some days I was given lots of work, but this was never unreasonable. I was also told that if I felt I had too much work that I could tell my manager and that would be no problem, he would be able to help me out. However mostly I had a good balance of work, even when given lots of work at once, there were often multiple deadlines which made it manageable. One or two days though I ended up being a little bored.

I was given much more responsibility then I had expected before starting. All members of staff trusted me with the work they were giving me which made me feel valued and allowed me to gain satisfaction from the work I produced. Some examples of the responsibilities given were completing the analysis on the working day three report, using models to run pricing proposals through and updating various resource packs that are then presented to higher management.

I have definitely gained a variety of skills during my placement, especially excel skills from having to use excel everyday on a variety of different projects. I will also take away organisational and time management skills, developed from being given a variety of tasks to do, and learning how to prioritise these so that everything was completed on time.

Everyone in the office was very friendly and welcoming. I met lots of people not only in my team but in others, everyone was very willing to speak to you. Although during month end when there are lots of pressures and deadlines that need to be met the atmosphere is not quite as fun - but this is to be expected. There was a good balance of fun and getting work done.

Overall the internship was set up well. I had a call with my manager a week before starting and both an induction and off-boarding days in the first and last week of the internship. I had regular meetings with my manager who helped me with ideas of what would be a good introduction and first experience in finance. He also helped to organise opportunities for me to work with other members of staff. To improve this some literature to read about our individual teams before joining would have been helpful.

The placement made me want to continue working within Santander, came across as a good employer and a great graduate scheme to get on if given the chance. While the prospects are appealing there are about half the number of graduate scheme places as there are interns, making it competitive to get onto.

The office in Manchester is relatively small and does not have that many young people. There were only two other interns, however despite this there was still some social scene. This included going out for drinks after work and lunches, not just with fellow interns but also with members from other teams.

I worked in Manchester, which was a lot cheaper then other interns who worked in London, who I heard nearly all of their money was going directly on rent. Rent in Manchester was about half that of in London, in addition to rent general drink and food prices and other socialising costs were relatively low.

Manchester has a great nightlife, and lots of options depending on what you fancy doing. There are a few cheap student clubs as well as lively bars and clubs which are a little more pricey. Manchester also has lots of good places just to go for drinks close to the office, or more in the centre of town, which is only a 10/15 min walk away.

Despite being a small office in Manchester, there were still a few activities going on outside of the office. I attended one of the discovery charity days which involved volunteering for a day at a dogs home. As this took place in week 2 it was a good opportunity to get to know people on other finance teams. There were also a couple of times when we went for drinks after work and a couple of team lunches on a Friday.