Credit Analyst Review

The team was very supportive and the working environment was enjoyable, although the work could get a bit dull at times. Furthermore, there was no real opportunity to use any skills gained through my studies and I believe my secondary school aged-self with more familiarity with Excel could have completed many of the tasks more efficiently.

I felt very valued by my colleagues and received verbal praise as well as written mentions in the team newsletter, specifically referring to pieces of work that I had done. On many occasions I was entrusted with important pieces of work and asked to provide feedback on the work of others in team meetings.

My line manager was very supportive and allowed me to get settled in and down to work early on, providing feedback and help throughout wit clear instructions given at the start of each week in a 121 meeting. However, as a busy employee herself, she was occasionally unable to set specific tasks and I was left to my own devices for an hour or so.

I was usually working pretty solidly from 8:45-5:30ish, occasionally starting earlier and/or finishing later in order to meet important deadlines. In the first couple of weeks there were occasions when I was less busy and had to ask to be given tasks or was just set reading and training to do but these instances were increasingly rare as the weeks went on.

Although all my work was double-checked by colleagues, I was often left to build completely new processes and write the procedure documentation to go with them so they could be implemented by the rest of the team after my leaving. Furthermore I was allowed to bring my own ideas to the work and was not required to go with the status quo.

I am confident that the improvement in my practical Excel and VBA skills will be applicable in a number of different areas of academic and professional work. The insights into banking law and governance, as well as the general internal structure of banks, could be very useful in any financial career.

The team always worked together and helped with each other's work and the mix of personalities meant that the banter was friendly and easy to join in. This appeared to be highly variable on a team-by-team basis, however, as some groups in the office appeared to barely speak to each other whilst others were constantly making jokes and laughing.

Before the start of the internship, there was a lot of late communication and important details about place of work were not sent out until very late. There was also a requirement to visit a branch on multiple occasions to hand over documents and make phone calls to the recruiting department. Once I arrived however, my line manager had a clear programme of work set out for the whole duration.

Aside from mandatory training in the first week and a short departmental induction, opportunities to develop specific knowledge and skills never really materialised outside of wha tI picked up during my regular work, which admittedly was often a great deal. Although many online learning resources were available, they were difficult to access and not engaging.

I would be hesitant to accept any job offer as I suspect that the majority of my enjoyment was down to my line manager and team rather than the company itself.

There was a small group of half a dozen of us who ate lunch together everyday as well as a larger group of all the London interns who would go out for drinks at least once a week. Everybody was friendly and came from a variety of backgrounds with different experiences of the internship programme.

Having moved down from North East England for the first time, Central London seemed incredibly expensive for certain things like drinks, travel and rent, and I had to have a very stringent budget for food and often walked home to avoid spending my whole salary on the cost of living.

It was generally too expensive to go out clubbing, but there are a wide variety of bars in Central London and as the weeks progressed the interns found some regular spots which weren't too expensive but still lively enough to have a good time. Cost and distance to tracel home generally put pay to any big nights out though.

Aside from team nights out there were no real opportunities.