Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed working for Santander, the exposure to a corporate environment is really quite something and Santander is the best place to experience this exposure. As well as this an opportunity like this allows you to see whether the company is the right fit for yourself as well as whether you are a right fit. And as reinforced by my rating I believe this went well.

This is one of Santander’s biggest strengths, for me personally the team I worked in valued my input highly and even though I’m not qualified or any in position to oppose their views. They openly allowed me question methods and strategies and where correct, applied my logic and reasoning. As well as this they also offer very good advice.

Again reinforcing what I previously just stated, my line manager and all management connected to me and my team were extremely supportive whatever level they worked at, they all gave up a bit of their time to help me and offer guidance where they could. They also showed a genuine interest in what I was studying and how I was finding my time at Santander.

Me personally I was consistently busy and my days/weeks flew by! Usual BAU day would entail 2/3 tasks being due at all times hence a high capacity workload was required constantly which I embraced. During the last week I was less busy but this was appreciated as eventually some downtime is required.

The work I produced made an impact in my teams work. It would have been nice to be given the opportunity to create a piece of work which I could take sole ownership of and state as my entire work. But usually the responsibility was consistently shared amongst my team.

The technical knowledge you learn is knowledge you will only ever obtain by working within these respective fields, so the technical knowledge is very transferable and will help with a greater understanding with future university modules. As well as this the soft skills you learn of how to manage yourselves in this environment are also as important.

General atmosphere was good everyone had a role and everyone got on with what is required of them. Most people are very approachable and you are actively encouraged to speak to different people to ask about their job roles and any other questions you wish to ask. This can be within the same dept. or otherwise.

The internship was organised to an average standard there was not much structured opportunity to see in depth into other departments or even teams within the same dept. but the on boarding and off boarding events were appreciated, but more could potentially be done to engage interns amongst each other.

The firm spends some time in training you but it is very much of a process of the training and development will be applied more by the firm once becoming a graduate. I was lucky as my team personally took it upon themselves to invest a lot of time in to me and improving my skills but not everyone was as lucky as I was.

I would very happily work at this firm and would recommend it to many. As its a laid back environment but the exposure is great and your knowledge improves exponentially. But again it very much depends on which dept. as some have more employment prospects than others.

The social scene was a big down point as there was no structure in place to encourage interns to actively integrate it was very much the case you’re in your team, and the rest is up to you. This issue was bought up at a feedback session so I hope this gets taken aboard.

I worked in London and lived in zone 1 so pretty dear, rent ranges but as I booked at short notice i paid £275 a week which was practically all my wage I was receiving however, I was a stones throw away from everywhere and you have the best social activities and nights at your doorstep.

Central London, can’t fault it! A night out for all kinds of people and you are guaranteed to find somewhere you would enjoy, I was very much a Cafe De Paris and Tiger Tiger kind of person. But there are nights out for all kinds of people from different walk of life.

There may have been external opportunities but unfortunately due to other commitments I did not have the time or finances to commit to such. Hence I cannot give this a fair review but I am sure there are plenty of different things to engage in, if not you can always ask.