First Year Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship. I enjoyed having the opportunity to experience both RBWM, and CMB, as it helped me differentiate between the two, and decide which one matches my characteristics and skills better. I thought the internship offered a fantastic opportunity to learn how to adapt your interpersonal skills to a corporate environment.

My colleagues did not treat me as an intern in either placement. I was given a great deal of responsibility in both of my placements, and felt a sense of belonging. It did not take long to feel like a member of the team. It is up to you to develop and gain the trust of your colleagues.

Both of my placement managers ensured that everything I wanted to do during my time in each of my placements was completed, and they went the extra mile to make sure that I felt incorporated and happy with what I was doing. Outside of my placement managers, all of the managers in the branch acted as a support network to me whilst I was there, and my team in CMB also acted as supervisors, so I could go to any of them for advice and support.

Most days in both of my placements I was kept busy doing anything that needed to be done or assisting in any way I possibly could. I enjoyed being kept busy, because before beginning my internship I was worried that I would not have enough to do whilst on my placements. There was never a time where I felt too busy, but that was because I made sure that I organized and allocated the appropriate amount of time for each task given. If there was ever a time where I did not feel busy I would ask seek out another task to complete.

In both my RBWM and CMB placements I was given a great deal of responsibility that built up throughout my time in each placement. This responsibility was gained after showing my team that I was capable of taking on tasks and completing them accordingly, and showing my eagerness to continue learning, a combination of the two helped gain their trust, which was accompanied by an increase in the amount of responsibility I had.

I believe the skills that I have gained will be extremely useful during the rest of my degree, and after graduation, as you learn the art of organization and how to prioritize tasks by importance and difficulty. I have also gained excellent presentation and communication skills, and the ability to adapt your style of communicating depending on who you are interacting with.

In my retail placement, the atmosphere felt more intense and it was a little more difficult to speak with your colleagues as you spent all your time assisting with customer inquiries, however, in my corporate placement the atmosphere was excellent. Everyone was very friendly and extremely helpful, you were able to work and be able to connect with all of your team.

I the internship was overall very well-organised, you placement managers have guidelines of objectives that you should aim to achieve during each of your placements, however, they are very flexible and if you feel if something is missing or if there is something more you would like to experience then they would happily adapt the structure of the internship objectives to best fit you.

You are required to complete a lot of online learnings within the first couple of weeks of your internship that help you understand the basics of what you will be learning/ doing within the 8 weeks, and the induction before the start of the internship was well structured with training sessions and speakers there to assist you. There was also a global discovery day training where you had the opportunity to learn more about the bank and meet individuals from across all 4 global businesses.

The future employment prospects are very appealing within the firm, as they seem to take care of their employees very well, and there is always the opportunity for progression, which is largely due to your own personal drive and ambition. It is a large organization and there is definitely a role out there for everyone, it is just up to you to go after it.

I found all of the individuals that I worked with extremely friendly, and am happy to say that I have become very good friend with my peers in my intern cohort, everyone was extremely friendly and combined together it was a massive support network.

I was fortunate enough to live at home during my placement, but Reading is similar to London cost of living wise, socialising there is a shopping mall, a cinema, and several bars and pubs, it is a lively and friendly town, and to remain entertained is relatively cheap.

Compared to London and some other cities the night life is not the best, there are a couple of clubs, and several bar chains in the town, it is quite lively and a nice place to go out with your friends on the weekends for a relatively safe night out. However, overall Reading does offer a decent selection of nightlife.