Business Operations Intern Review

I enjoyed the internship a great deal. I was given several meaningful projects to work on that allowed me to both work independently and collaborate with my colleagues. I was working within a training team: my first project was to survey colleagues at various levels in the department and use their responses to improve the induction programme; the second was to redesign the digital training material library to make it more user friendly and up-to-date. Both of these projects were enjoyable because they felt meaningful and I felt as though they could make a long term impact.

All my colleagues were very willing to help and participate in my projects and several even approached me afterwards to get an in-depth download on what I had been working on. However, as the day to day work in the operation required a certain level of qualification so I was slightly detached from what the rest of my team were doing.

My manager and I had 1-to-1 meetings every week to discuss my work for the week, set objectives for the week after and have a general catch-up. My manager was really easy to talk to so I felt comfortable asking her for help or support. Other team managers in the department were also very friendly and participated in my focus groups and offered feedback on my work.

On a day-to-day basis I had a lot of work to do concerning my individual projects. In addition, as part of the internship, I had to complete a group project presentation, a charity project and submit and individual report. These kept me busy when things were quieter in the office. However, the deadlines for these were all in week 8 of 10, so after that my workload was pretty minimal.

I was given a great deal of responsibility during my internship. The projects I worked on were given to me as a very rough outline, so it was up to me how they were carried out and achieved. I was also responsible for then presenting and feeding back my work to colleagues. With the different aspects of the internship all happening at once, this taught me to better manage my time.

Although the subject matter of the work I was doing isn’t applicable to my degree, the experience I gained will definitely help when I enter the work place. I have learned what its like to work in a corporate environment; I have learned how to work as a part of several teams and how to deal with people I don’t particularly get along with; I have had to manage and organise my own time; I have developed my presentation and report writing skills…the list really does go on!

The atmosphere in the office was very relaxed: everyone around me was very friendly and chatty and willing to help if I had any questions. The dress code also wasn’t as strict as you would expect from a banking atmosphere (although I know this wasn’t the case in other departments.) We had a dress down day every Friday and a quiz once a week at our team huddles. Overall, a nice environment to work in.

The lead up to the internship was very organised. I got my offer in October and had signed all my paperwork etc. long before starting in June. However, my department weren’t informed that I would be joining them until 2 weeks before. So my first week was relatively slow because nobody really knew what to do with me! Other than that it was a well organised experience and the early careers team were always responsive with any queries.

All RBS employees have to complete Group Policy Learning online every quarter. This gave me a general understanding of company policy as well as how the banking sector works as a whole. There were also several events organised for us over the course of the internship, both social and professional, to give us a better idea of the different activities the bank is involved in. Some of these were more engaging than others.

RBS has a brilliant graduate scheme which, off the back of the internship, I have been offered a place on! The scheme is 2 years long with the opportunity to move department and location every 6 months. The scheme is well organised and sought after among graduates for the wealth of experience it will provide.

Yes, but that never really appealed to me personally. However, there were grad/intern sports clubs and societies, pay day drinks every month organised by the grads as well as other events that were organised outwith the organisation. The social aspect of the internship was very much encouraged but as I was in a department without any other interns, I didn’t personally experience much of it.

My placement was in Edinburgh which is where I live and go to university. Therefore the cost of living was no different for me than it is the rest of the year. Living and socialising in Edinburgh is definitely more expensive than Glasgow, but cheaper than London. Generally, I found it affordable.