Research Assistant Review

I am still currently performing my role at the Bank of England as I am completing a 13 month placement scheme. Therefore, I am enjoying my role so far as in many ways I am still within the learning stages of the placement. Although the placement is virtual the role has been enjoyable as my team have made a concerted effort to try and communicate with me on a friendly level. The Bank are very interactive and this is apparent even providing the current situation.

Initially, my colleagues all made sure that we had bilateral calls to get to know one another individually. I believe that doing this really helped to feel valued by them as they knew who I was before I had really begun my role in the team. I think that this value also comes with time and by making contributions off your own accord and this will come naturally as you develop through your role within the firm.

I was given a lot of information once starting at the Bank and this came in the form of a large document filled with links to various important sites and contacts. I also had bilateral calls with each member of my team and this provided me with various guidance as they all shared their pearls of wisdom for working at the Bank. There was a lot of mandatory learning to do which of course provides guidance to your role.

My work flow is mostly operating on a quarterly basis and so running up to those quartley processes there is a lot of work, nothing overwhelming, but then afterwards there tended to be a lull. This was a nice balance because you knew when the work was coming and so you could prepare easily but also nice to know when it will calm down so you can complete the tasks you normally would not get time to do.

My role at the Bank is centered around this one process, firm feedback, and it is mainly up to me as to how this process is executed. There is a calendar plan for when certain things obtaining to this process need to be done but I am the person in charge of ensuring the completion of it is on time. Aside from my central role, I am also given responsibility in other areas within the teams processes but this tends to be fairly small scale.

In my role there were many opportunities for learning development through virtual seminars and courses and so this directly helped with my degree as you could pick which seminars you were interested in and use this information as you wished. There were many choices of seminars, from data analytics to machine learning etc. In terms of my learning through my core role at the Bank, I learnt a lot about current affairs which can be applied to your studies at university.

I am unable to comment on this due to the current pandemic meaning that the staff members are encouraged to work remotely from home. There is however the opportunity to go into the office if you are finding working from home challenging and I believe that many people have taken advantage of this offer. I believe that we will begin a phased return to the Bank and so I am hoping to go into the office at some point soon.

I believe that the organisation depends on the team you are placed in as it is up to your managers in that team to take care of you and ensure that you understand your role. Therefore, for my personal experience, the placement is well organised because I am at the stage now where I am able to perform my role fully and so the organised was smooth to allow me to get to this stage.

I think that through all of the additional learning development the firm promotes it is easy to see how much they invest in you. There are so many courses and seminars available and they are mostly open to anyone to participate so you can grow your knowledge in a completely new area of the Bank. My manager also prompted me to complete an online virtual course that was relevant to my role and so it is evident that they are wanting you to grow during your placement.

The future employment prospects are very appealing at the organisation because as an Industrial Placement student I have been trying to find out more about the Graduate scheme that the Bank offer. The Graduate scheme includes the ability to do the Central Banking Qualfication, or CBQ, and this is equivalent to a masters. I think that through having this qualification it will benefit my employment prospects internally in the Bank and even externally if I planned to move on in the future.

This year has been an anomaly to previous placement years due to the current pandemic and so being social is obviously more difficult given government restrictions. However, even considering this point, the Bank has done a lot of virtual socials to try and compensate. It is also down to you as an individual to try and socialise with the other placement students. Everyone is willing to socialise as you are all in the same position and so everyone should be very welcoming.

Although I did not need to move to London because the Bank encouraged staff members to work from home I still wanted to move for the social aspect. It is clearly expensive living in London in terms of housing, food and drink and entertainment. However, from a placement being in London you will automatically get paid more than being at the same firm in another area of the UK because the firm will take living costs into consideration in their salary.

Again, I am unable to comment on this as due to the current pandemic there are government guidlines that restrict the operation of things like nightclubs. However, there are clearly many bars and restaurants in London which are substitutable to nightclubs. Even during this time I have still been able to enjoy nightlife just through other means. Part of enjoying the nightlife is up to you to search for what is available in your area.

There are many different community groups and networks within the Bank and they each offer different opportunities and activities that you can get involved with. For example, I quite like to do sports in my free time and so I saw there that was a sports community which had the opportunity to join a variety of sports such as, cricket, netball and golf. Aside from sports there are many other commnities you can join all of which are available on a single website which clearly shows what is available.