Intern Review

The internship had much longer work hours than I expected and which was an initial shock to the system. Although the work was quite mundane, I found the people to be extremely interesting and fun to work with. This definitely helped me decide whether this industry is for me or not which was useful.

Although I did have to get coffee for everyone a couple of times, I felt that my team did actually listen to my input and this made me feel part of the team. However, I would liked to have more contact with senior people from the bank and be able to talk to them for support and guidance.

My manager was very easily approachable for any problems/ issues that I was having, but I would have liked more formal and more regular meetings with him for feedback and guidance that could have been brought up during the internship. HR were always there is you needed help though.

I was given several different projects from different people which meant I had to manage my time efficiently, though I found this difficult to manage and did mean I had to work late quite frequently and on weekends. Much of my work was unsupervised which meant that I had to spend a lot of time myself figuring things out.

As I was not certificated, this meant that I had very little contact with clients and therefore, did not have many important responsibilities, but the work I did do meant that other people had more time to do their duties. I was not expecting to be given much responsibility because of the fact that I was not certified.

A lot of the skills and training I received were quite technical and will not be transferrable to my studies or other jobs. However, I did learn more about working efficiently in a team and this should assist me in other areas and I learnt more about the industry in general which should help me in future jobs.

I found the atmosphere to be extremely fun as it was pretty relaxed and the team I was assigned to was easy to interact with. We also had many social events which helped to develop the strength of the team bond as well as office sports competitions such as football, despite the long hours that I was working.

The overall work placement was pretty well set up by HR in terms of the amount of events that we had, but actually the micro supervision when I was assigned to my desk was pretty poor and this was definitely an area that could have been improved on. The training at the start was well set up though.

We did have a week of training at the start of the internship, but this did not really prepare me for the work that I would be doing when I joined my team, but I found the on-the-job teaching to be adequate. This will hopefully stand me in good stead for the future because I have some experience.

Employment prospects within the organisation are not that appealing because the industry is going through a tough time and headcount is being reduced across every division. If you manage to make it past the first couple of years, then the employment prospects definitely pick up and promotions are possible.

Yes, HR organized frequent social events for the interns, at least a couple of times a week. Also, the team that I was assigned to invited me to drinks quite a few times which was fun to socialise with them outside of work! There were also office activities such as team sports which added to the strong social scene.

It was actually cheaper than I expected living in central London, after all the horror stories that I had heard from other people. Also the money that I was getting paid meant that I could afford to spend on social events frequently and this will mean that I will have money left over for spending at university next year.

The nightlife in central London was much better than what I was used to at university, even if everything was more expensive, there was so much more choice. All the interns would go out together quite often and this would add to the strong social scene and good environment within the office.

There were quite a few opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, but they were all very similar in that they were either networking drinks or some kind or corporate social responsibility event. I would have liked more variety in the activities that were available outside of work.