Intern Review

Days could sometimes get a little boring as there isn't always work to fill the time but on the whole was an enjoyable experience. Atmosphere was great and the teams I sat with were all welcoming. Expectations weren't too high and people were more than happy to help me learn and give me advice.

Wasn't a whole amount I could do for them in terms of work just because of restrictions since I'm an intern but the work I did was appreciated.

My line manager was incredibly useful, always pushing me to organize and fill my time well. Open to questions at all times, happy to teach me whatever I wanted to learn and made sure I was achieving what I needed to throughout.

It varied, some days I was very busy, with a few projects taking my time up well for days at a time. However, there were quite a few times when I didn't have any projects and didn't have anything else to fill my time so felt like I was just killing time until the end of the day.

In my first rotation, not much at all, just because of the nature of the work. On my second I was given some more minor responsibility that did actually have an effect on the bank, albeit small, but was supported by the team. Did a couple of internal projects on both desks that were to help them with specific tasks, but nothing that was particularly wide reaching.

I think it's always good to get experience of the work place, the hours, the people, managing time etc. The experience probably won't assist in my degree as it's somewhat unrelated but beyond that, I'm sure it will assist me in my future working life. However, since I haven't really been able to do work for my teams that they do themselves on the day-to-day, if I was to get a job here, this experience wouldn't be too helpful in preparing me for that. It's been good to learn about what goes on, but I haven't learnt how to actually do the job yet.

Quite relaxed and welcoming. The second desk I was on was more like this as the job had less pressure involved but the first too was relaxed the majority of the time. Summer time meant that flow on the first desk was a lot less than it could have been so I'm sure that made things easier and there are certainly other parts of the bank that are much more intense, I just didn't experience them. For me though, the atmosphere was great, relaxed, friendly and welcoming at all times, although wouldn't go as far as saying it was exciting.

The early stages, the first few weeks or so were incredibly well organized and there had clearly been a lot of work put in. However, as the weeks went on, this seemed to drop back a little and some things were overlooked. I guess this is somewhat expected as it is difficult to keep track of hundreds of interns for 2 months but it probably could have been improved a little. I'm not really sure how prepared some desks are to have interns though as a lot don't really have work for them to do and after a couple of weeks, you can be left with nothing.

The first three days were in a hotel with extensive talks and training, and free lunch so there was clearly quite a lot of investment in that. Beyond that, the investment only really came from the time people took out of their days to talk and teach you. This was a lot, and the majority of people were more than happy to help whenever but it was up to you to seek out and there was nothing officially invested in further training or development. The programme definitely did encourage you to get involved though, with lots of networking events and objectives throughout the internship.

Not sure if the industry is for me really. There are a couple of desks within the bank that I might enjoy but I'm not sure if there are spaces on those desks, and even if there were, the hours are so long that I would really have to enjoy the job for me to think it was worth it. Think it's unlikely I'll work here but think they do have quite a high conversion rate so chances of getting a job are quite strong.

Yes, made lots of friends on the programme and pretty much without fail people would be out every night for drinks for you to join whenever. Quite a good group of people so socializing was a good part of the internship for sure.

Very high. Right in the middle of London so was unsurprisingly expensive. Stayed in a relatively shoddy student accommodation which was far more expensive than what you'd pay for the same place outside of London. Eating at restaurants or cafes was certainly expensive and a pint of beer was extortionate in a lot of places.

Nightlife was good if you went a little further afield. Bars and pubs around here don't stay open that late so you'd need to venture out if you wanted to continue, but it was still good.

Not particularly. There were a couple of events available but nothing particularly adventurous. They organized a party on the penultimate evening for us to enjoy which was nice and there was a citizenship event that you could sign up for but beyond that, not a huge amount.