PRA Intern Review

by Bank of England

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

2.6/5
  • The Role
    3.2
  • The Company
    2.2
  • The Culture
    2.3

    The Role

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
  • Varied internship with good amounts of responsibility and work that can be deemed to be useful. Access to attend firm meetings, opinion asked of you, good office environment albeit can feel slow at times. Good breadth within PRA to learn about many different practice areas, and therefore not be restricted in terms of learning. Very good support in place albeit review mechanism is questionable.

    4/5

  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
  • Happy that was able to partake in firm meetings, opinion asked from colleagues when needed but always felt that what I was saying was valuable. Work being completed throughout internship was useful for whole team and department, hosting internal meetings and fully made to feel part of the team and to know what was happening across the team function.

    4/5

  • 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
  • On the large part, very good support mechanism and everyone outside immediate team willing to support and give insight into what they did and how they could contribute to my development at the bank. Line manager very good and supportive, contributing to internship project but sufficient independence given throughout to complete work too.

    4/5

  • 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
  • Not very, occasionally new tasks were given that required a quick turn around time but this was rare. Work atmosphere quite slow albeit positive. Long term project may have contributed to this but allowed for a relaxed environment that on the whole was too relaxed and thus did not allow for a huge amount of variety in the tasks being completed.

    3/5

  • 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
  • Good amount, able to contribute to a department wide project that was sufficiently interesting to warrant being completed but also useful for research across the team and department that I was working with. Access to senior level meetings on a regular basis, asked for opinion from all colleagues, felt valued.

    3/5

  • 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
  • Very little. Next to no technical training, and nature of the work being completed whilst of a new nature and of a new industry, have not really broken beyond what I have worked on before during my studies. This is most likely because I study in a business school environment

    3/5

    The Company

  • 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
  • Positive, friendly team, relaxed however too slow. Whilst work was valuable felt like there was not enough provided. Largely depends on department but due to being public sector interaction with other internal teams will slow your own work down and working with other external public organisations does so even more.

    3/5

  • 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
  • Not entirely evident. No training provided on arrival at the Bank, technically based anyway. Very little introduction to how the bank works, is organised etc. Only basic introductions on how to use computer equipment and security procedures etc. Most of organisation left down to line managers and largely becomes dependent on that.

    2/5

  • 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
  • 3/5

  • 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
  • 2/5

  • 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
  • Being a young grad, very stagnated, public sector like hierarchy structure which slows the process of promotion down and whilst lots of people do stay at the organisation for a long time, they tend to move around horizontally without being promoted or otherwise move to the private sector. Very reputable organisation from the outside, from the inside questionable long-term prospects.

    2/5

    The Culture

  • 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
  • 3/5

  • 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
  • High. Central London after-all. Good variety of places to go and to mix with other interns and team working with but subdued by central London pricing. Not to say that other interns do not congregate at their residences and therefore make catch-ups cheaper as well by not always being held in the city.

    2/5

  • 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
  • 3/5

  • 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
  • Aware that the Bank does have an external outreach charity scheme, but no of this was made apparent during my times on the internship. briefly spoken about but no opportunities to get involved in this. Internal online system did allow for access to internal talks outside the department but nothing too much externally published.

    2/5

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Details

Internship (1 Month+)

London

August 2018


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