Human Resources Support Review

Overall, I enjoyed my internship a lot. This in part was due to how welcoming everyone was from the beginning. As well as the support that was provided throughout to make sure I understood the reasoning behind each assignment. Which gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about HR and the banking industry as a whole.

Right from the start, the HR team that I was working with were very welcoming and inclusive. This was by how they included me in team meetings, valued my opinions and gave me a mix of challenging assignments to push me out of my comfort zone though out my internship.

At the beginning of my internship I was provided a folder that had instructions on how to use the different system and input data correctly. This provided me the opportunity to work independently. However, if I ever had any questions, someone was always able to help or provide an alternative perspective on what I was working on. As well as second check data inputting, so that there were no incorrect changes.

Due to the nature of HR, it is hard to predict how busy you are going to be. However, I felt that the work provided was enough to be getting on with on a day to day basis. But of course some days where busier than others and so it balanced everything out.

For my ability, I think that the amount of responsibility given to me was appropriate. One example was that I was given the opportunity to help organise an event which meant that I had to directly communicate with department heads and the invitees so that I could plan the day so that it could work with varying schedules.

Though out my internship I was able to develop my own skills and learning. At the beginning of my internship I had to complete a number of compulsory online modules covering a side range of topics. This provided me a wider context about the financial industry. By completing different assignments I feel that I will be able to apply a lot of what I have learnt to my final year assignments and dissertation.

I felt that there was a good friendly atmosphere within both the team that I worked with and the rest of the office, which included a number of different departments. I think that this was because of the strong rapport which meant that you could build good interpersonal relationships, so the conversation wasn't just work, work, work all of the time.

Personally, I liked the structure of my internship as it meant that if situations changed, my workload would do as well. And so I was able to experience a number of different department as well, which wasn't planned at the beginning of my internship. But from the start there was a timeline provided outlining a number of pre-planned tasks or branch visits.

The internship as a whole was a learning experience. As people gave the time to teach me about multiple different systems used in HR, credit and finance. Even in the intern induction day there was a training session where we also learnt about a number of other systems used in the branches.

Once I finish university, I think I would consider any opportunity within the bank very highly. This could be within HR or a branch as I feel that learning about a more customer centric environment would be a opportunity to further my understanding of the bank so that I could hopefully in the future apply that to a HR role.

Though out my placement there were a number of team breakfasts and a Lunch. I felt that this was a good opportunity to talk about other none work related topics. With the other interns because of how geographically spread they were, it was harder to plan social events. However, there were a number of them that I saw when they were in Head Office or if I was in another local branch.

During my internship I was splitting my time between a student house and home. Meaning my most expensive expense was on train tickets. But I feel that it was a lot cheaper overall than where I go to university. I also think that it has to be taken into consideration that going out in Birmingham would be expensive, due to it being a city area like Manchester or London.

From what I was told by colleagues, Birmingham has a good nightlife, as would a city of this size would be. However, due to not being around at weekends I didn't experience the nightlife.

Due to the 9 to 5 nature of the bank I feel that I had chance to do other activities outside of work. Going to the gym etc. During my internship I was allowed a number of days off, which meant that I could plan trips with my friends, meaning it wasn't just work all summer.