Bank of England Insight Day Review

The insight day proved very useful in terms of making my mind up as to whether I wanted to undertake an intership or placement year with the Bank of England. It gave a good experience of the values and culture that underly the Bank and which helped in my decision as to whether I would be a good fit for the institution.

The time and effort taken on the day made me feel valued throughout - everyone was very welcoming and answered every question I had. I think what made me feel the most valued was the talk that we received from the senior director and the time he must have taken out of his busy schedule just to present to us.

We received a lot of guidance and there was a whole presentation dedicated to tips and tricks of the interview process, not to mention the chance to network with other graduates and placement year students, which gived the greatest insight as to what working in the Bank is like. Surprisingly, I found a lot of guidance/support in the fellow students that attended the insight day; some of them already had work experience or previous internships, so they also proved useful in providing advice.

As mentioned above, the tips and tricks session as well as the networking proved the most vital part of the day as everyone wanted to know how best to prepare for the interview process and this was answered. The information received will help me with possibly all the application process of any firm as their assessment methods are very similar. The best way though to make the most out of the day was to communicate with the other employees and gain as many contacts as possible.

The timings of the day as outlined in an email sent out to us before were adhered to and the timetable of the day was run through with us before. In this sense, the day was structured in quite a rigid way with no real room for flexibility, but I don't think this came at a disadvantage since there were only a few things on the agenda and time was limited.

The atmosphere was great as everyone was very friendly, from the other students that attended right up to the senior director who gave us a talk and answered all our questions. Everyone at the Bank was very willing to help us and give us feedback and the atmosphere was perhaps more inviting than I had expected. What I found most encouraging was the atmosphere between the graduates, placement employees and staff, which gave me a good idea of what the working relationships are like in the Bank.

It was a short insight day so one could say that there wasn't much scope for personal training and development. However, I think the Bank invested as much time as possible to give us presentations on how to enhance our application, what they're looking for, and useful advice on the group assessment. In this way, one could tell that the Bank genuinely wanted us to get the most out of the day and to succeed as far as we can in application progress.

This question was actually posed to a graduate employee of the Bank by one of the students, so I think the grad's answer summarises this question up nicely! The grad told us what a day in the life of a worker would be like, right from the time he work up to the time he went home. As well as this, speaking to the placement students gave us a real insight as to the variety of roles within the Bank.

Very much so - it is evident from the positive things the student employees had to say that the culture at the Bank is very relaxed, fun and includes a lot of variety in their work.

The majority of the content on the day was helpful in deciding my future career path, especially the opportunity we had to ask the grad panel and placement students about what work they do in the Bank, whether there was any way they could progress in the Bank and/or rotate their line of work. Looking at the flexibility of work and progression of work is something that interested me paticularly and since I spoke to the grad panel about this, it helped me decide whether I would enjoy working at the Bank.

The Bank reimbursed up to £35 for travel expenses, be it by car or train, and up to £100 for journeys that lasted longer than 3 hours. I believe that if accommodation was necessary, the Bank also reimbursed for this too.

Plenty - the day began with networking and ended with networking! I believe the whole day was basically revolved around networking as opposed to presentations in order for the Bank to give us as much exposure as possible to the employees so we could ask as many questions as we wanted.

The networking over lunch was good as it provided a nice relaxed atmosphere to talk to the placement students about their work life at the Bank, as opposed to maybe the graduate panel near the end of the day which was more a Q&A session. Both neworking opportunities were very helpful though and the employees were more than happy to answer all of our questions without hesitation.

Not really, and when an employee was asked about social activities, it seemed very similar to any job social activities such as team sports, gym membership and out of work dinners.

I would definitely recommend this insight to a friend - even if they're not that interested in joining the Bank of England, it is such a prestigious place that when you arrive, you are in awe and sometimes this is enough to get people interested! The day was run in a very relaxed yet rigid manner and the whole experience was very enjoyable. It definitely served its purpose to get us to communicate and build up contacts with other employees and help us decide whether we would want to pursue a career with the Bank of England.