Commercial Banking Penultimate Year Summer Intern Review

The internship was well organised and the people and environment was great but I would have preferred to have been given more challenging work, as there were often times when I had no work to do - although I understand that this was partly due to the fact that I had only just begun so my knowledge of banking and how things worked there was limited and that other people in the team could sometimes get the job done more efficiently. I was based in HQ in Canary Wharf, which I would definitely recommend.

I was regularly thanked by my team for my contributions and made to feel like my work was valued. I helped to update databases that were used by the whole team (made up of roughly 10 people) that I worked with. However, as an intern who was new to the team, I didn't feel like my role was necessary, rather more like a bonus.

I had two managers who were pretty supportive throughout the internship. They were very approachable and helped me to organise meetings etc. when I felt that I would benefit from spending time with people from other areas in the bank to get exposure to a range of different types of roles that are available in the company. They sometimes struggled to find me challenging or interesting work to do, however.

I didn't have that much to do for some of the internship, as I was in quite a fast-paced team. People needed to get through a lot of work and quite quickly so it would sometimes slow things down a bit to assign me work and explain it when it would take the same amount of time for them to do it themselves. So sometimes I didn't have any work to be getting on with.

I learned a great deal about communicating in a professional manner, which has and will continue to help me in my role as communications officer in a university society. I also developed skills in using excel spreadsheets which will surely benefit me in any future jobs. I also learned a lot about networking.

It was busy and fast-paced in my team, but everyone was friendly and approachable so it was easy to talk to people. People seemed relatively comfortable and when people were stressed, they received support from others. It was social and there was often a space to sit with my team, however, I would have to hot desk it sometimes as the office could get very busy at times.

It was fairly well organised once we were on the placement (some aspects pre-placement were organised late e.g., location of placement). There were several intern/grad events and plenty of opportunities to socialise outside of the office. We had a volunteering day, and a fundraising charity challenge. We were also invited to 'lunch and learns' each week, in which we would be introduced to different areas of the bank in an hour-long presentation.

Yes there was a good social scene amongst other interns and colleagues. We would regularly go out for a drink or dinner after work and we were able to form good relationships with each other. The grad committee arranged several events to facilitate this. I believe that it could have been a lot worse if I had been somewhere other than London.

I worked in central London so the cost of living was obviously very high. The company provided a territorial allowance of roughly £600 (pre-tax/national insurance) for those in London, however accommodation is pretty extortionate if you try to stay in central London. £5 a drink was the norm and food was generally pretty expensive too.

There were plenty of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work such as the charity stairway to hell (a fundraising challenge in which people ran up the 40 flights of stairs to the top of the HSBC tower, which is one of the tallest buildings in Britain, for sponsorship). The grad team organised a lot of events too including pub quizzes and a summer party day, for example.