RBS Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship as I was able to come into the bank and meet and engage with a variety of different teams in the Bank. I was able to take part in a variety of opportunities and was able to learn a lot from other teams and departments.

I felt valued by my colleagues as I was trusted with a lot of confidential information and I was able to actively take part in report writing for the Executives. Sometimes I felt as if I was only supporting my colleagues on easier tasks but that was only a small proportion of the time.

I was supported by my line manager very much and he was very much involved in making sure I settled in well and was always given the support I needed to integrate into the team and also gain the knowledge to add value to the work completed by the team.

This varied week to week as some weeks leading up to the Executive Forum would be busy preparing the report, while some weeks would be quieter and you would have to take your own initiative to fill in your schedule by organising days in other teams/shadowing other members of the bank.

I felt as if I was given a relatively good level of responsibility but there could have been more I could have been trusted with. Sometimes, it would be that I was just supporting my colleagues and there was no work that I could fully own as my own unfortunately.

The skills I have learnt from the internship are completely different from what I study at university and so won't be very helpful in that but they will be valuable when I begin my career as a professional after my studies. It depends what career path I decide to take but it will be useful to a certain degree regardless of my career path.

The general atmosphere in the office was relaxed and quiet. There were many occasions when members from my team would work from home so it would tend to be on the quieter side. It would have been better if I was in a team which had more people in the office in a regular basis to develop a stronger relationship with them.

The internship was well structured as we had weekly events and also weekly spotlight sessions to learn more about the bank from. There was a clear understanding of how we would be assessed and what would be expected of us throughout our time in the Bank and so that was good.

We were enrolled into GPL Modules which taught us the basic skills that we would need in our team and to learn about the operations of the Bank. We were also sent to Edinburgh for a 3 day programme specific induction to learn as much about our roles before coming to the office.

Based on performances in the internship, we are offered graduate roles in the Bank for the following year in the programme we interned in. We are able to complete four rotations of six months each which allow us to gain a flavour into various parts of the bank and develop a broader skillset.

Yes, there was a good social scene amongst fellow colleagues as we regularly went to lunch together and also went out to bars after work when work would permit. This allowed us to become better friends and led us to be very supportive to each other throughout the internship at the Bank.

It was expensive as London is an expensive city however I lived at home with parents so didn't have any costs there, however the cost of drinks and bars is very high and you would tend to spend a significant amount if you would head out after work to nearby bars.

The nightlife in London is great and very popular, there are a lot of places to go to but they would tend to be very busy and overcrowded especially on a Friday evening so if you don't manage to leave the office on time you would have to queue up for a long time.

There were a lot of opportunities to get involved in a lot of activities, these included client events, taking part in charitable causes and also being able join sports networks at work and then go out once a week with them to play either football/badminton which was very enjoyable to do.