Business Support Assistant Review

I did really enjoy the internship, it was much better that I have expected. As I study biochemistry I have never thought that an internship in Banking would give me so much insight and knowledge not only in the work they do but also for everyday life. The Team was really nice, and he work I have done made me really enjoy it as well as I felt useful. I won't say it was the best job ever as there are always pros and cons, being in a desk all day does become tiring but they were always quite flexible and told me to go for a walk to stretch my legs!

I have nothing bad to say about my colleagues, they have made me feel welcomed since the first day, anytime I needed help they were there for me. I am honestly so grateful for being part of this team. Every job I have done they have always given me positive feedback and if there was anything I could do to make it better they would suggest it without criticising! :)

My Line manager has been unbelievably careful. From the first day when I had all my insecurities, he has been there to guide me and support me. He made sure to always book at least an hour in order to explain to me the different areas of the business and gave me some guidance to book some time with other members of the team to be aware of the work they do at the bank. Even when away to Chester he would call me in the mornings to check up on how things were going and told me if there was anything I needed to just tell him or anyone in the team.

It really depended on the work I had to do and how I was feeling. I would for example be saying what could I do and be given a project and instead of going slowly I would work on it very intensely for the first days and then calm down when I was nearly over and still had plenty of time to send some feedback, so I would be more careful with tiny improvements on that day. Overall I can say that I had quite a good balance in terms of work and being busy!

I can say that my colleagues put a lot of trust on me by giving me delicate pieces of work and allowing me to manage my own tasks, time and priorities. I felt a great sense of responsibility but obviously I didn't have all the background I needed in banking so from time to time I would require their help to explain me some things and they knew it so they would always check up on me on I was doing.

As I have mentioned above, I got some skills for life specially in terms of banking. I had no background at all on banking, I disliked banking and never considered a career on it, never thought that was a job I would be able to do and saw no connection between banking and biochemistry. This internship has changed it all. It all started when I started seeing the similarities between banking and my degree in terms of methodology and analysis and therefore I was able to put those skills I had in practice and made them even better thanks to the feedback and all the tips. The analysis project that I have done have definitely improved my analysis and research skills which will be essential in my degree especially when it comes to the final year where I will have to work on a project from scratch, do the analysis and present it which is what I have been doing here! In terms of skills for life, again, I now understand various terms and regulations in banking which will definitely help me manage my own money. Lastly, I know consider a career in banking and I know it is not impossible since I have been through this experience.

The atmosphere was always calm, we would always have a lot of fun and interesting talks even when it was about banking issues! From time to time we would be a more quite as when we had lots of work to do we would focus on it for most of the time but if anyone needed anything all we had to do was to ask, no one ever got mad they were always so helpful I really feel grateful for this internship and for meeting such wonderful people during these 10 weeks.

We had lots of information on the placement, lots of resources, lots of meetings, everything was very organised. There were templates, power points, conference calls, everything explained, with all the deadlines of what we needed to do and what we didn't have to. Therefore Overall there is nothing bad to say bout their organisation, us interns, had every resource you could imagine.

They did invest a lot in me, I had a new phone, a new laptop, a laptop bag, a cup for coffee, a t-shirt for the charity challenge, and I even travelled to Chester and stayed in an hotel for 2 nights! I had mandatory training as well, coffee mornings with head of departments and this all was to accommodate me , make me feel included and make sure I would get a great insight into every bit of the job. I learnt the skills required in the job, the basics of banking, methods of working, learnt about the career path of plenty of people and I feel much more prepared for working life than before this internship.

You never know. Many people have asked me if I am applying for the graduate scheme or even would like to work here in the future. But my career path is science and I am unable to choose until I have a similar experience on the sciences' side. It would definitely be a job to consider and if they accepted me in the future I would love to come back!

We had our wee misunderstandings especially due to the Charity Challenge as we all come from different backgrounds and have different ideas, however most of the time everything went well and we were able to create a good social atmosphere, we have organised plenty of meetings and have always shared the work we have been doing and how the placement was going!

I think I can't really say much as I did not travel for my internship, stayed at home. It was a bit expensive and time-consuming to travel everyday for 1h/ 1h:30min but it was definitely worth it! However, from what I know from Belfast it is not very expensive, it is quite recommended for people even to come and do their placement here compared to places like London!

Again I can't really say anything since I didn't go out at night. That is why I put the middle term because I feel like I can't say extremes when we are talking about something that I haven't done during the placement but I am sure it is great since we are very close to queen's university Belfast and plenty of students like to go out at night during uni.

Definitely quite a lot of opportunities! I believe there are more in p-laces like London as my manager has said that there is always going on every week! However even if there is less we had quite a good bunch of opportunities whether it was marathons, walks, bucket collections, digital skills projects to help people who have not yet developed enough their digital skills, we have gone to see the skyway club to learn more about what they do, etc...