Intern Review

The internship was held virtually this year given the circumstances, but I was still able to enjoy the internship. My team were very nice and I learned a lot by working with them over the course of 2 months. The regular team and divisional meetings were also a nice way to understand how different parts of the Bank of England function, and the variety of work that is undertaken. I would recommend applying for a programme.

My internship was 2 months long, and I worked on a project throughout this time period alongside my boss. My inputs into the project were valued by him, and I was able to freely ask questions to various people in the team. This meant that I could learn and pick things up, and to be able to contribute. Furthermore, as I gained confidence in my work I could begin taking on more responsibilities and working independently on tasks.

My immediate boss was very supportive, and we would call regularly to check in how things are going, and give feedback to me. Other members of the team who were not directly supervising me were also very helpful in answering my questions. A lot of people in the team reached out to me to set up a 1 on 1 chat where I could ask questions about the Bank of England's work in general and how projects are managed.

The workload was quite varied, particularly at the start of the internship which had a lot of induction material to work through, and also getting to grips with some relatively basic knowledge of the markets. However, as the internship progressed I gained more and more responsibilities and became busier. That being said, the Bank of England does not have particularly high hours most of the time, but some people do choose to work more as they are so passionate!

I worked on a project alongside my manager who was leading it. At the beginning of the internship, I was still getting to grips with a lot of relatively basic information, as well as working through induction material. However, as my confidence and skills grew, I was able to take on more responsibility and independence. The internship was only for 2 months but I can see how quickly people are trained within the Bank of England and moved onto interesting work!

Over the 2 month internship, I gained a deep insight into the financial markets which is often overlooked in Economics and not covered in as much detail. It was also very good to see how to apply many of the theoretical topics from university and the relevance that it has for real world policy analysis. It is definitely useful to complete the internship to get a grasp of the importance of economics and policy analysis.

The atmosphere at the Bank of England within my division was quite relaxed, and the senior managers were very open to talking to you and putting some time aside for a chat. The atmosphere is relaxed but people are very passionate and working hard on their projects. There is also effort put in to ensure a work life balance is maintained and that people are able to work productively in a way that suits them too.

Given that it was a 2 month internship, there was not as much training but I did gain an insight into the training offered on the graduate scheme. I think that the graduate scheme is a great opportunity which mixes on the job training with a bit of studying and people will be very well equipped afterwards. During the internship, I was able to spend time develop my programming skills which was something I wanted to focus on, and my manager was supportive in finding me ways to do this.

I think that the future employment prospects within the Bank of England are good. In particular, the graduate scheme that the Bank of England operates has multiple rotations across different teams which allows you to get a wide variety of exposure. People that I had met on the graduate scheme had clearly learned a lot within a short time frame, and were also given opportunities to take on more responsibilities if they wanted to. Overall, I think they are great in terms of knowledge development.

Again, given that the internship was run remotely this year, the social scene was very limited. There was a virtual summer party (that would usually be held in a park) and I assume people would also socialise more after work (e.g. drinks or dinner). This was obviously not the case this year, however my team were very nice to extend an offer to meet up in person once the situation has improved. Generally, people seemed open to socialise.

Given that the internship was run virtually this year, as everyone was still working from home, there were not as many activities as usual. I suspect there would usually be more intern activities, and also activities outside of work. For example, there are different organisations within the Bank of England that you can join and be a part of, and also take part in charity events or school outreach. There are also usually more out of work social activities.