CSBS Intern- Operations Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time working at American Express. Most significantly, I was pleasantly surprised by the company culture. The culture of the company, particularly the Brighton office, where I was based, is very relaxed and friendly. A welcome change from the stereotype of the financial industry! This comforting culture combined with the dynamic and fast paced nature of the work was the ideal setting for an internship, in my opinion.

The work you do as an intern is valuable. The projects that each intern is individually assigned is work that other people would do, if they had the time. As a result, your colleagues, particularly in the team you are working with, value and support the work you are doing as it will benefit them and their working life. You are truly integrated into the team, and not treated as a 'typical intern'.

The department I was working in was incredibly supportive. It is the nature of the internship to encourage you to use your initiative, however, this does not leave you without guidance. Instead, you are given the outline of your project and from that point on you will receive regular 1:1 catch ups with your line manager to support you for the project work, a well as 1:1's with the campus recruitment team to support you on a more personal level

What I really liked about the internship was that it is much more faced based and productive than my degree at University, and I felt that this was an environment in which I really thrived. I relish the feeling of productivity and in the internship you go home feeling productive almost every day. Working in CSBS is basically front line Ops, there is never a dull moment.

The internship provides each intern with an individual project. You alone are totally responsible for your project and from there the work is what you make of it! If you choose to really broaden the scope of your project following your research/focus groups, then you can! Alternatively you have a more narrow focus but really go into depth with these ideas.

I believe the skills I achieve will be incredibly valuable going forward. Specifically I think the internship really provided the opportunity to develop skills of deployment and initiating change. An internship at American Express allows you to develop your skills from being theory based , to putting them to use in practical scenarios and making real changes and influences.

The atmosphere of the Brighton office is unique and I believe this is a very good quality. The office works as a call center and it is a hub of conversation and knowledge for this reason. You immediately feel at ease because, unlike many offices, you can hear chatting and laughter not dead silence and keyboards!

The internship was well organized d I feel as though it has really great balance between working and social networking. American express provided the opportunity to socialize with the London and Burgess hill interns which a rely interesting, not only to hear about their projects but to just meet a variety of interesting people! In terms of work, the individually assigned projects were well thought out and it allowed the interns to feel as though we were tackling real problems, because we were!

The company seemed deeply invested in our personal development. They were keen to help us succeed, you feel as though you are being set up to succeed not to trip you up. There was also a number of training opportunities for me, within my team as well as more generally, for example we all attended a strength finder session and an excel training day.

The graduate scheme is a hugely appealing concept and if I were to be lucky enough to be offered a place, I think I would gladly accept. There also seems to be a whole host of opportunity on the other side of the graduate scheme, many of the colleagues I have spoken to have moved around many different areas of the business, even across a short tenure. I think this would be an ideal opportunity for me as I enjoy variety in my work.

The social scene of the internship was great! It was particularly enjoyable because it was coordinated by the company so fit in very well with your work- life balance. It also was a great guidance on cool places to meet and go, as many people were new to the areas where their internship was based, such as London and Brighton.

I was lucky with my rent in Brighton, as I rented a university student's room out for the summer at a very low rate. However, other interns found rent was very expensive. Nevertheless I would NOT recommend commuting as the trains were ofen delayed and on the few days I tried to do this, it was very stressful. Generally Brighton was reasonably priced for drinks and eating out, perhaps because with 2 Universities it is partially a student city.

I rarely experienced the nightlife in Brighton as I often commuted home for the weekends to spend part of the summer with my friends from home. However, as it is a student city there are many nice cocktails bars and a number of the clubs are on the seafront!

10 Weeks is a fairly short time to actively involve yourself in many networks in or outside of the organization. However, a number of interns participated in sports (such as squash), meals out or other clubs with members of their teams who knew the area. There was also a number of activates inside work that were good fun.