Account Manager Support - Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Handelsbanken. I was an intern in the RA region (Bristol area, south Wales and the South West). There were around twenty interns in the region, and each branch welcomed one intern. Branches are of varying sizes: mine consisted of nine full-time staff, whereas others consisted of as many as twelve or thirteen and some as little as four.

Aside from my intern projects, I was asked by colleagues to help out with varying tasks. This made their life easier and so I felt my work was valued. They also took time out of their day to explain to me what they get up to and what their daily tasks consist of.

My supervisor was the branch manager, and he was more than happy to help out. He very rarely said he would come and help me out later when he had finished with what he was doing, and always came straight over to see me when this was the case. I had weekly meetings with him to discuss the internship, and these were always productive.

As I had a couple of projects to complete under my own steam, I was always able to work on something if there was not much I could do to help my colleagues. There was occasionally down time but I made use of this to familiarise myself with all the rules and regulations that the branch must abide by.

Due to the short period of time I was at the branch, and that regulatory training took up the first week or so of my internship, there was a limit to the amount of responsibility I was allowed to be granted. However, I did feel that I was given the maximum amount of responsibility possible, given my lack of experience in the banking sector. For instance I was allowed to contact customers, and open and close accounts.

I developed both professional and interpersonal skills during my internship. Indeed, I learned a great deal about the financial sector, and how a bank operates. I was required to conduct research and I also made several presentations during my internship, both to the branch manager and to HR and other interns during a day at Regional Head Office in Bristol.

The general atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed. Everyone was very willing to chat if I had any questions, and were keen to talk to me about their own experiences working for the bank. I learnt a lot about the differences between Handelsbanken and the other high street banks. It was not a stressful environment to work in.

The internship was very well organised. All interns in the region had a timetable detailing what they would get up to in each week. However, this served more as a set of guidelines and were by no means set in stone. The branch manager would decide to switch things round or ask me to devote my time to something else instead.

We were very well looked after on a personal level. During the first week all the interns convened in Bristol for an induction day, where HR talked to us about the bank and made us perform team-bonding exercises. We were provided with food and drink as well. At the branch, I felt that the branch manger took a real interest in how I was finding the experience, and I felt that everyone was genuinely concerned with ensuring that my time with them was both enjoyable and productive.

Future prospects are very appealing. The bank is very well aware of the importance of maintain a healthy life-work ratio, and is very family-friendly. Some colleagues were in the office at 8am but the rest of us arrived for 9am and then people left between 5pm and 6pm. The bank operates a no bonus policy, which discourages any perverse behaviour. Instead, the bank operates a very generous pension scheme, and it is compulsory to take a two-week paid holiday at some point in the year.

Not really applicable as there was only one intern per branch.

The area was not too expensive, and as I commuted from home I didn't have any additional expenses beyond travel and lunch.