Summer Intern Review
by NatWest Group
This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
4.1
-
The Company
4.1
-
The Culture
4.4
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
Thoroughly enjoyed my experience with RBS, there is a good balance between having your own specific deliverables and also getting a good wide perspective on the company itself through shadowing meetings, insight sessions and challenges involving collaboration with other interns. There are also a lot of learning opportunities and chances to interact with senior colleagues.
Well valued by colleagues, my line manager had holiday for two weeks and gave me a number of tasks to work on whilst she was away which had real responsibility attached. Well on the way to 'like family' as LM and the other interns even bought me birthday presents as my 21st fell around halfway through the internship.
Absolutely fantastic support from line manager, felt I could speak to her about anything I needed to. Also assigned a buddy from the Graduate programme for the duration of your internship (and actually given her contact details before beginning) so that I could ask any questions I wasn't comfortable speaking to my LM about.
Occasionally had slow days where there were few meetings and I was left just to complete tasks myself, but alongside main work there is also a Corporate Social Responsibility challenge to get involved with, a sustainability challenge, and intern spotlight sessions. You also have your intern project to work on, which is a presentation in one of the final weeks, so there are always things to keep you busy.
There was some responsibility given, still only an intern so would be unrealistic to expect to be giving presentations to senior directors etc. obviously. But I got to work on documents which were used in business meetings, act as secretariat, present on some occasions and travel to different office locations.
There are a number of programmes with RBS which translate well in to returning to university, such as the highly popular Writing Simply programme. Also general skills I built up such as diary management, note taking, attending meetings, creating PowerPoint presentations and infographics will all play in to future business roles.
The Company
General atmosphere was good, quite quiet over the holiday period but great Friday atmosphere with casual dress and people popping down to get team bacon rolls etc. There is also the 'Street' where little pop up market stalls would come and sell things.
Brilliantly organised, induction days right through to actual work was great. There were also a number of social activities arranged which provided opportunity to interact with the other interns.
E-learning, GPL, optional learning modules, conundrums challenges, intern spotlight sessions - good investment in interns!
Flexi Time
Subsidised Canteen
Sports and Social Club
Subsidised/Company Gym
National Travel
Company Parties/Events
Staff Sales/Staff Shop
Healthcare/Dental
To be confirmed!
The Culture
Yes absolutely - with around 100 interns in Edinburgh you could pretty much confirm you always had someone to socialise with when you wanted.
Edinburgh is a reasonably expensive city - especially when Fringe Festival is on!
Cannot fault
Sports teams including football, netball, cricket etc Social clubs Gardening club Grad councils
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Scotland
July 2018
