Intern Review

Overall, I had a decent experience during my internship, although this varied greatly from task to task. I enjoyed certain aspects of it, although my daily work was rather tedious. This was greatly moderated by all the activities on the side, as well as by the great working atmosphere at RBS.

From the day I joined, my colleagues made me feel extremely welcome. They always tried to engage with me, and even beyond my immediate team, everyone was very helpful. There were several events where we did some stuff together after work, as well as intern specific activities that were organised by the firm.

This was one of the aspects of my internship that was less good than certain others. Unfortunately my manager or supervisor was absent quite often (mostly for business related purposes), which meant that I didn't always have an immediate contact person. This also meant that I didn't necessarily get the continuous feedback I would have hoped for.

This varied greatly throughout the duration of my internship. There were times when I was very busy and had to stay at the office for extra hours, such as when I had presentations or reports to prepare. Overall though, I was not really that busy, which also lead to me procrastinating a lot.

During my placement I was given a fair amount of responsibility. As I was an intern, I was in theory not allowed to participate in certain tasks, which were of regulatory nature. But my team tried to work around that, and link me in on as many more advanced tasks as possible.

The degree that I am currently pursuing at university is not really related to the job I was doing at RBS, which is of course not their fault. I would say however, that I did learn certain things from the shadowing and training sessions I attended, which could potentially benefit me in my further studies.

I think this relates to the previous question about how I felt treated and valued by my colleagues, and as I stated there, I felt very warmly welcomed. Although there was of course still a professional atmosphere, this doesn't mean that there wasn't an opportunity to develop real friendships and relationships.

I think that this varied across the different aspects of the internship. In general I would say that the set up was good, as there was a fairly clear overall structure, and we were told from the beginning what would happen throughout these 10 weeks, and how we would be assessed.

The firm actually showed a lot of interest in our personal and professional development. There were countless workshops and spotlight sessions organised for us, and although they weren't all great, we certainly had the opportunity to participate in activities that were clearly meant to benefit us in developing our skills and capabilities.

After the conclusion of the internship we will all be presented with either a rejection or an offer letter for the subsequent graduate scheme. The grad scheme is quite attractive as it offers the opportunity to rotate through 4 different placements, six months each, and thereafter one has the possibility of rolling of into a job that is already quite familiar.

I do think there was a very good social scene amongst the interns, and the grads sometimes joined in as well. While there were various activities that were organised for us by RBS itself, some interns also showed initiative in organising events over the weekend, either for going out, or doing short trips outside of Edinburgh itself.

I think it entirely depends what you compare it to. There were some people that complained about the prices of drinks and the like, but having come from London I actually though it was quite cheap. Rents are affordable, and public transport within the city itself is very cheap if you get a monthly pass.

The nightlife in the area I worked was non-existent, as Gogarburn is slightly outside of the city in a very rural district. The nightlife in Edinburgh proper, however, is quite good. This being Scotland, there are tons of pubs, but there are also several good clubs in new town and elsewhere in the city.