Cards & Payments Intern Review

It was really enjoyable - the best thing about it was the amount of work, projects & sessions we were able to get involved in. This started right from the first week of joining - the managers weren't afraid of giving us responsibility, but they were also more than willing to offer us guidance, advice and support when we needed it. The fact we had the chance to get to know the other interns really well also made the whole experience more enjoyable.

This was a really positive aspect of the internship from my experience. From the first call I had with my line manager, he was very open about the opportunities I'd get - and his expectations of myself. This meant it wasn't difficult to develop a good working relationship with him, as well as the rest of the team. I think the colleagues definitely feel as though you have something to offer because you can see it from a fresh perspective, without the legacy of working on something for a long period of time.

The style of management and governance worked very well within my working style and meant I was comfortable enough to ask for help and advice when I needed it, whilst also feeling independent. Some people may have preferred a more hands-on approach with more regular check-ins but, for me, it worked perfectly because I work well independently and always felt as though I could check in and ask for help should I require it anyway.

This very much depended on when it was during the internship. During the first few days of the internship, we weren't particularly busy because the main focus was around training, setting the scene and getting all of the IT set up (given it was a virtual internship). However, from weeks 2-6, I'd say the work level was about right - we had plenty of meetings and things to be getting on with but we never felt as though we had to work late/on weekends just to keep up.

Obviously, as an intern, there are some legal and compliance considerations that mean you can't always be given access to sensitive data and projects. However, there was still a decent balance of support work and actual responsibility. Our objectives were set out from the first week and it was largely down to us to go and work towards achieving them. I would say we would have been given more responsibility had the internship not been virtual but, considering it was, there was definitely enough to get stuck into.

I'd say this was a really positive aspect of the internship. Probably less so from the degree studies side of things, because a lot of what I was doing wasn't directly relevant to what I do during my degree. However, in terms of learnings for my career, I feel it was invaluable. Being able to speak with senior colleagues, learning how to effectively come across in presentations, and how to treat clients, were three of the big ones for me in terms of tangible learnings I can take away.

This was obviously made more difficult by the fact that the internship was virtual. However, given this fact - and the short period of time that HR had to re-jig and change the format - the atmosphere was pretty good. There was no pressure being put on you and I always felt as though they appreciated my view. The one thing that might have made it better is a session before the start of the internship between the interns in my division so we could all get to know each other straight away.

I was really impressed with this given the challenging, virtual nature of the internship. The only hiccup came about because of IT issues - some of the interns struggled to access the virtual desktop on which we were working for a number of days. However, in the first week, we were provided with a fully calendar of events throughout the 6 weeks that went into hour-by-hour detail. Learning sessions etc were also set up several days in advance.

Learning sessions were an absolutely pivotal part of the internship process. These sessions effectively involved a colleague from different parts of the business explaining their role, how their team works and the key output and deliverables that they produce. These were really beneficial because we also got an opportunity to ask lots of questions and discover areas that we were particularly interested in. These individuals were also more than happy to catch up afterwards and discuss things further.

Yes. Everyone was really friendly, willing to make friends and wanted to learn more about the people they were working with - from interns to grads to team members to senior colleagues etc. This was definitely more challenging with the virtual set up, but we were still able to meet on a regular basis. I actually feel as though I know all of the people I worked with really well, even though I've never seen any of them face to face.

There were actually a lots of these sorts of opportunities. This is something I was really pleased with given the fact that it was a virtual internship. For example, there were a lot of virtual socials organised - both with the other interns and the other graduates. We had a number of quiz nights that were enjoyable and we were also given plenty of opportunities throughout the working days to have informal social catch ups etc.