Group Technology Summer Intern Review

I had a fantastic line manager who made sure I always had work that would help the company in some way (i.e. not busy work) and was always able to take 5 minutes out to answer any of my questions. However the actual work my department was involved in didn't interest me.

My team was spread all over the world, however all were very friendly whether chatting on the phone or when sending e-mails. Everyone was happy to answer my questions or provide feedback on my work and always made sure that everything was going well.

My line manager was always happy to answer my questions about where to next take a project or provide suggestions on things for me to do. There were two official feedback sessions which were informative but I was also give praise or constructive critiscism regarding my work as the internship progressed.

I always had some work to do, though it wasn't always interesting work. A lot of my work involved e-mailing people so I had a lot of switching between projects whilst I waited for replys.

I was given plenty of responsibility on my projects, which were useful to the company, though they did not have pressing deadlines so if I ran into trouble there wouldn't be much trouble. My discoverys and recommendations were presented to senior people.

I have acquired a lot of knowledge both about the work performed in my department and in general how IT systems in a large corporation work. Furthermore I have picked up a multitude of transferrable skills such as team work, problem analysis and communication which will be useful throughout my career.

My office had lots of teams who worked together. As such the majority of people stuck to their teams and the atmosphere was very work orientated. Everyone was friendly, but proffesional and there wasn't much socialising outside of the office.

In general the HR team did a very good job in providing information both before and after the internship. The training was of high quality and everything ran on time. The assesment process was friendly and I was kept well informed.

There was 4 days of training at the start of the internship as well as plenty of online courses to complete during the internship itself. Employees within the organisation were always happy to help in any way they could for example by providing software specific training.

Every intern in my department has a chance of gaining a place on the graduate scheme. However there are large cuts taking place and the interns in one business are were informed that there were no places available.

There were plenty of after works drinks organised amongst the interns, as well as various other things such as day trips at the weekend or football games against other banks.

Londong is expensive, and the city even more so. However Shoreditch is not far away which is a bit cheaper. And there are good tube connections so you could easily get to other areas in the city.

Plenty of (very expensive) bars near to the office, which were always generally quite busy. Shoreditch was a popular location to go to a club or more lively bar.

There were after work socials organised by HR as well as plenty of volunteering opportunities. There was an intern football team, which was given a UBS sponsored kit and various other official sports clubs, though I don't know if interns were able to join these.