Internal Audit, CIB Review

My internship was in Internal Audit in the CIB team at London. There was a large range of flexibility in what you wanted to gain from the internship, so it gave me an opportunity to speak to different people about recent events in the news to learn more about it. We were given an individual report to talk about what we learned, CSR fundraising project where we developed an idea and take a day off to fundraise for the Prince's Trust with interns from all areas, then a group project presentation with other IA interns. The project was presented to out line managers to be assessed, and then to the Executive Committee afterwards which wasn't assessed.

The people in Internal Audit were very welcoming and approachable. When I met them on my first day, they were open to having coffee meetings and to answer any questions I had. The recent graduates were also very friendly and gave advice about career choices and their experience. Because of this, it's easy to go out for drinks after work, because being seen as a member of the team is highly supportive of the choice to be offered a graduate job at the end of the internship. It also allowed me to have exposure to a range of areas to support meeting my objectives by going to a range of meetings and doing work across different areas.

I met up with my line manager fortnightly to discuss how I can meet the 5 objectives that I was set, which were aligned with the RBS Values, like building trust and communicating well with the team. He gave me advice on how I can meet certain objectives to fit the criteria to be offered a graduate job. He had his own audit work to do, so at times it was easy to ask for work, but sometimes I asked other members of the team. My buddy was also useful as we met up to catch up with things I've done, and advice to how I can do things that would make me stand out.

Because I was in Internal Audit, my day was from 9am-5pm, which was different with some other areas like Markets because they tended to stay in until after 7pm. In my first few weeks I wasn't busy at times. If I was to go back, I'd try to make the most of this by arranging meetings with the Head of Audit or to look into learning more about other areas in RBS. Other times I was quite busy and had to get multiple things done, but most of the time the work was fairly constant. The CSR and project presentation took up a lot of time, which is something to be focussed on because it's one of the things which contributes to the final decision of a graduate placement.

Because I was a summer intern, there are limited opportunities that I can make a real difference. But if you do tasks well, then you're likely to be given things with more responsibility. I'd suggest making a contribution to meetings and asking questions so you can show people that you're engaged and willing to learn, which will then lead to people giving you more responsibility. I was asked to do things like draft a section of the audit report, write logs in the audit issue log, and write summary pages to help organise information. All the audit work that you do will be checked by other people to support their work so most of it will be adjusted, which is understandable as interns don't have a complete knowledge of the audit.

There are many skills which I developed that will be useful in my career. We were always told that no question is a stupid question, so it helped improve my contribution to meetings, the ability to question in formation by being sceptical, and also analytical abilities. My confidence and presentation skills grew with numerous opportunities to present and attend networking events. My knowledge about specific audit methodology improved, were I learned the various stages of the audit life cycle and the requirements of how to write a report. I learned more about the investment bank structure and investment bank as a whole, which was useful to support my studies in an Accounting and Finance degree.

RBS has a very welcoming environment, where everyone is so friendly and helpful. They're happy to help you out with anything and have a coffee with you

Apart from the two projects and report, there wasn't much of a formal structure in my internship. This can mean that you don't have work to do, and I was worried that it would go unfavourably towards me if I didn't have anything to do. The on-boarding process to join the internship could also be improved, as our location was only provided a few weeks before the internship, so didn't give a lot of time to sort out accommodation.

We could go to various audit meetings, but not much training was provided apart from the 3-day induction for IA. This was in Edinburgh, so we were provided with flights, hotel, lunch and a formal dinner when we were there. Also, there was a mid internship event and an end of internship event which was very enjoyable.

There are many opportunities within the Internal Audit function, as there are various sections to rotate if I ask to e.g. CIB, CPB, PBB, but I've heard it's not often people change. Because the investment bank is restructuring, getting smaller, and operating in fewer countries, the future of the investment banking division may not be so wide. However there is also an opportunity to move into the business too from internal audit, which is something I'd look into.

There was no tension or a competitive environment between me and other interns. There was only IA 10 interns, with 6 in Edinburgh and 4 London, where me made friends quickly. In other areas in the business like Markets or Private banking there is a slightly more competitive environment, but nobody had bad tensions because everyone got on so well

Living in London is very expensive, but I managed to stay in the same accommodation for uni, so I was able to pay the same rent. I know people staying with their parent/family too, but some others paying £800 per month for no hot water.

So many bars around the office to network after work, but because of the working hours, nobody went out after work unless it was a Friday

There was the IA Olympics, IA recognition food and drink, graduate parties, and after work drinks. It's best to take advantage of all of these opportunities when you can to get to know your team better and know people in other areas, which makes it so much easier finding opportunities in work to gain exposure to many areas.