Change and Business Internship Review

I really enjoyed my placement. Everyone I've met in the bank is lovely and always happy to help you out. The flexible working hours mean I can still have a good work life balance and enjoy the new city I have moved to. Also the fact that there are lots of interns means it is a very sociable 10 weeks.

I do feel valued by my colleagues and I am given work that contributes to real projects which makes the work I do seem important. However, I found it frustrating at first as there are some things I cannot do as I do not know enough about the business area I am working on.

I am in a small team which supervisor me on the day to day jobs. I also have a line manager however because he is based in a different location I do not seem him as much. I think I would prefer more direction from my supervisors however it is good to learn to become independent.

How busy I am varies as I am working on two projects which have low and high point. I would prefer to have slightly more work however it is nice to have spare time to work on the other internship projects we have been given and my own personal learning.

Throughout my placement I was increasingly given more and more responsibility. This was good as it made me feel like I was actually helping my team out. We also have an independent project we research ourselves. For this I would've preferred to have more guidance as I have struggled slightly.

I do a science degree so the skills I have developed will not help me with this. However I have learnt many valuable skills that will hopefully help me secure a job in the future. For example I did a business analyst course on the intranet and have improved my analysing ability

Everyone in the office is really nice. We have big team meals out which are fun as everyone, even managers, are very welcoming. We have a relaxed working environment which means you feel able to ask people questions and have a chat and a laugh during the day. I will miss everyone!

The internship was well organised; there was an on boarding portal and welcome calls. However I felt that some of this information was not passed down to the line managers well. Also I thought the portal could've had more useful information on it. Overall, given the number of interns, it was well organised but experience varied by manager.

There are lots of opportunities for development in RBS but many require you to take the initiative. I enjoyed the Natwest accelerator events I attended which gave us more information about how to be successful in business. In general you got the impression that the company wanted you to do well.

I have heard good reviews of the graduate scheme - you are able to do three rotations which means, unlike the internship you see more of the bank. However, I am not sure I want to stay in operations so I will still be looking around for other jobs but I will still think about accepting the Graduate Scheme offer if I get one.

Yes there was a very good social scene with the interns - there were two intern events run by RBS but we also organised lunches and nights out between ourselves. The people on the grad scheme also made an effort and invited us to the pub twice which I appreciated.

Manchester is quite an expensive city so I had to rent from halls. Luckily I was living with someone so this wasn't too bad! The bars surrounding are expensive but there are plenty of week day and lunchtime deals and lots of happy hours! Also some restaurants give a RBS discount.

I haven't been out much in Manchester but I often go to the Northern Quarter which is full of really cool bars and clubs. Since it was the summer I was told that most of the good student nights were not on. Around the office there are also lots of good bars.

There were many intern events outside of work, including a CSR Challenge in which we ran a raffle and a quiz. I also got involved with running my teams charity events and summer social which was fun. How much you go out depends on your team as some teams are more sociable than others,