Intern Review

Thoroughly enjoyed the internship; found the work I did insightful and learned a lot about both the bank and the industry. Also proved valuable in terms of personal career direction and giving myself a cleared indication of what I would like to do in the future/what kind of work my skills are most suited to.

Given the short time with the bank it can be difficult to prove your worth/value if not given much responsibility but the team was very welcoming and the work I did received positive feedback. This included offering to undertake clerical work on behalf of colleagues which most accepted and found useful.

My line manager was pretty supportive and we had semi-regular catch-ups but given he also led a team he was quite busy. Therefore my contact was another colleague who I worked closely with and who provided work for myself. In combination the support I had was really good and I could contact the wider team if I needed any help/guidance.

Overall I was pretty busy, particularly in the first half of the internship as I settled down and learned about the bank and undertook mandatory training. Often work ebbed and flowed so some days were quieter but I often used this time to research about something I was interested in or learn about the different divisions/structure of the bank.

The responsibility I was given included a project in the first half of the placement that involved producing some management information for my line manager using Excel which I then presented at the team meeting. I was also involved in helping my supervisor/colleague produce credit papers and carry out clerical checks. Ideally I would have liked more responsibility as I performed really well on the project but I realise that isn't always possible particularly during the summer months when work flow is quieter.

Specific skills I learned such as analysis of financial accounts will certainly be useful later in life as well as consolidating softer skills such as communicating with new people and networking. My role was customer-facing so going out to customer meetings was valuable in learning the different skills needed in such an environment.

I think the atmosphere was pretty good although in other offices I think there may have been a bit more banter etc and it was often quiet with people getting on with their work although it all depends on the personalities within the team so all-in-all I was pretty happy with the interaction/atmosphere.

Organisation was pretty spot-on; there was a itinerary/plan for the 10 weeks with the things we would be doing/skills developing that also provided some flexibility within the team you were working in. I also had personal development goals created that I worked on through the placement in order to measure progress.

In consultation with my line manager/supervisor, I had personal development goals created in line with the skills I wanted to learn/develop over the placement. My colleague often helped me with these particularly if it involved skills specific to banking that I had no prior experience of. In terms of learning I could complete online training/use online resources.

The organisation is very supportive of personal career goals and there is a wide range of jobs available within that can develop different key skills. The internship obviously gives you an advantage over other graduates applying to the grad scheme although you still have to go through much the same process which is surprising.

There was a pretty good social scene but I didn't really partake as it's not my sort of thing/went home every other weekend.

Given I don't live near the office I was allocated to I was provided with accommodation in nearby university halls which were high quality and paid for. Had to commute into the city centre but transport links (metro bus) were good and cheap so the commute didn't take too long.

Didn't experience any so can't say.

There were quite a few opportunities; one of the main things we did was a Charity Challenge in a team of other interns based in the same office where we organised certain activities, most of which took place outside of work. In addition there was a charity quiz organised by a colleague.