Risk Intern Review

I enjoyed working at Santander greatly! This was my first insight into a banking role and it has more than met the expectations I had in mind. The staff were very inviting and helpful, the workload was challenging but appropriate and I have learned a lot from this experience. I was also given the opportunity to move around to other teams within my department and see how they relate back to my team which improved my understanding of work I was doing.

The staff at Santander were very welcoming and helpful. My whole team (including line manager) were always available to answer any questions I had and were more than willing to sit down for ten minutes to explain in further detail. The surrounding teams that I had sat with were also very inviting and were willing to give up some of their busy schedule to spend half an hour to an hour with me to go through what they do and how it relates to my role in the department.

My buddies were both very helpful and were always willing to spare time to answer questions I have. My line manager was as helpful also and she had introduced me to the Director in charge of our team who was very down to earth and very inviting. He was always happy to talk and wanted a weekly update of how I was finding the internship / any improvements that could have been made.

The role at Santander varied day to day. I was taught our team’s Business As Usual which I would complete whenever necessary. My line manager had also set me some projects which I would complete in my spare time and eventually present to the Director of our department. Along with the Charity Project Santander had set for us I had also spent time with other teams to see their importance not only to our team but to our department as a whole.

I feel like I was given a fair amount of responsibility given my role at Santander. Once I had Business As Usual under my belt I was left to complete that with the eventual check up by members of my team. Some projects I was set were used in the Half Year reporting as well as sent to External Audit.

I have developed many skills as well as learned new ones in my internship. These will assist not only in my degree but in my work life as a whole. Being in a working environment has changed the way I think and the way I approach different tasks as well as different people. I have also developed many technical skills which will be more than useful throughout my life.

The office I was working in held the perfect balance between work and social. This was mainly due to the people I was surrounded by. When we had to work we would work but whenever anyone wanted a break you could just wander to someone else’s desk for five minutes and catch up.

The internship was very well organised. Especially seeing as I was a late entrant and my assessment centre was only one week before I had started. The only issue I encountered was with network and internet access etc. within the first week but this was swiftly sorted. This was through no fault of the organisers however as they had sent it all off in time, it was just that IT had not taken action and so had to be chased up.

Santander had set up regular training exercises for all the interns. Initially there were mandatory training tests which did not take up too much time. Also throughout the internship there were regular seminars about different work in Santander and how we should approach working at Santander etc. which were interesting. My team were also happy to explain any technical questions I had and I do feel like I have learned a lot during my time here.

I would love to work with Santander in the future. However it was disappointing to find out that the Graduate scheme for my department (Risk) was not being offered as Santander have chosen to pursue apprenticeships instead. There is the option of full time roles rather than the graduate scheme within my department but it would be difficult to take that on with a year of university study still left to complete.

The interns in general at Santander were very welcoming and social. Initially Santander’s Charity programme was a good way of meeting other interns in the Leicester intern day. I don’t think many other banks offer an intern day like Santander do. The fact that we had to spend time weekly with the interns top complete this charity task had meant that we had gotten to know them a lot better and so would spend more time together in general.

I was based in the Triton Square Office in London. When looking this was quite expensive to live near but fortunately I had family nearby in Slough so would stay there. So I was lucky in the sense that my wage from Santander would go towards travel, food and socialising.

London in general has a vast nightlife and everywhere is so easily accessible. So everyone can find a place that they would enjoy and the tubes, trains and buses had meant that it was realistic to go to. However being London everything in general is quite expensive.

There were opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work but it would vary day to day. If something had been organised in advance, that would happen so long as it didn’t interfere with work times. However there were some days (working day one and pre working day one) where we would be required to stay a little longer to help sort everything out for the upcoming month and previous month.