Account Manager Support Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship. I was coached on a one to one basis by a number of the Corporate Managers, Wealth Managers and even the personnel in the Head Office. There were some dull moments, however banking isn't always glamorous. There was more than enough filing to be done!

I was treated as if I had worked for Handelsbanken for years. Everybody I came across was more than willing to offer assistance whenever it was needed. I do feel that more responsibility could have been given to me, however due to the nature and sensitivity of the customers, it is understandable why there isn't much responsibility given to interns.

If I wasn't sure on something, I could easily ask any one of the staff and they would sit me down and talk me through the problem and we'd invariably arrive at the solution together.

The business of days varied. At the beginning of the internship, I was extremely busy as the learning curve was rather steep. Towards the end, the days became less busy as it seemed that there.

As mentioned earlier, I was hoping to have been given slightly more responsibility, however due to the sensitive nature and my being an intern for only eight weeks, the lack of responsibility was understandable.

The skills and training received assisted with my degree directly. Two of the modules I studied were Principles of Banking and Principles of Finance. It was great to see how the theory studied in a lecture room related to Banking in real life whilst working for Handelsbanken. It showed what was realistic in banking and what was just theory.

The atmosphere in the office was fairly relaxed. There was a bit of banter here and there but it was nothing like the Wolf of Wall Street. Everyone had their own tasks, however still maintained a friendly atmosphere.

The internship had a checklist of objectives and tasks that the interns were expected to complete, however there wasn't necessarily a weekly plan given to the interns on what they would be doing/learning on a day to day basis. It was more of a 'go with the flow' thing.

Any opportunity that I wanted to take or try, all I had to do was tell the Branch Manager. As long as it was feasible and reasonable, then Handelsbanken are more than willing to invest in your personal training/development.

Even though I'm not entirely sure whether banking is the career for me. Financial Management is definitely something that interests me and working for Handelsbanken would be a great opportunity that I would love to take. HR always discuss with you your future prospects of working with Handelsbanken.

As I was a fair distance from the rest of the interns, there wasn't necessarily a social scene for me among the interns.

Everything in the area was fairly cheap. The cost of living isn't bad at all in the midlands and socialising doesn't cost much either.

I wouldn't necessarily go out in Leicester, however Birmingham has a fantastic night life and isn't too far on the train.

In all honesty, there weren't many opportunities to get involved with outside of actual work.