Intern Review

Overall the internship is informative, and the Edinburgh induction is a boost. However, the internal admin is extremely poorly-coordinated and I spent lots of time trying to solve relevant problems, some of them are still not sorted. The other systems have some issues as well, and of course, as an intern you will have to do manual work to sort them out. That leaves little room for the really valuable work and learning. The CSR challenge is not well-coordinated, either. The team members are in different offices, which makes it tremendously difficult to meet up and really get to know each other. It is more like a task that we have to do rather than something that is enjoyable now, which it is supposed to be.

My colleagues are all friendly and supportive. Although everybody knows it will just serve as an extended interview, it doesn't prevent you from making friends. Even the more senior people are happy to talk to you. The only down side is that I did not really get to talk to our counterparties, but I suppose that can't be helped.

My supervisor is very supportive and empathetic. He is touchingly patient and ready to guide me through, and even if I make some mistakes occasionally he will not scold me. He supported my shadowing in other teams as well, which is nice. The only down side is I feel that my circle here is a little confined, and would like to get to know more about what other people in the team are doing.

I have a good work/life balance generally. As long as you take reasonable time to complete a task, people will not constantly chase you up. If occasionally I have nothing to do, I can always do my presentation or learning, which I suppose is why they exist. I generally leave at around 6:30pm, but occasionally it can be later, at 7 or 8pm. Overall not bad at all

I mostly do some subsidiary work, delegated some tasks by my supervisor or graduate. I would like to learn more about what is going on in general and what are we generally doing, and participate delegating the tasks, so that I know what the tasks weigh and where the tasks are in the whole deal.

I have certainly learned much more about banking and the financial world in general. I have learned to write work emails, do office admin, use excel and analyse data, etc. But I would like to get more practice on the broader analysis, so that I can really understand the concepts I have learned, rather than still understanding them on a conceptual basis.

Generally it is okay. There is more fun during the World Cup, of course, which I happen to catch. And there are always some social events every week for people in the office, or in the team, and as a result I get to know more people I wouldn't otherwise have known. Sometimes, of course, it can be dull. You are in banking after all.

It is generally well-organized. We have a three-day induction, 1:1s with our supervisors once every two weeks, a presentation to do, some social events and a CSR challenge. I don't think the intern social event is particularly well-organized, though. We are among lots of other people, and there is barely anything to eat or drink at all. Once again, I definitely think the CSR challenge should be organized by office. They arranged the team on a cross-office basis to 'let us get to know each other'. But to be honest I don't really have time to get to know fellow interns in my own office, so it really makes a very poor 'added bonus' to my internship.

The three-day induction is nice. All of us went to Edinburgh and get to know the company and each other. Afterwards, the webminars afterwards are not particularly helpful, though, but we have some team learning, which to some extent makes it up. But I would really appreciate it if the firm could organize some follow-up training on what every team does in the bank, because I still don't really know. And also it is a pity that nearly all the workshops should be in Edinburgh, while the firm has such as large basis in London.

It rather depends on your manager, I think, and whether you get on with each other, from my observations. The graduate scheme is okay, but little opportunities to move between locations and brands, which some other bank could offer. There are some secondments opportunities afterwards, but of course there are no longer any international ones, and even for that it is almost impossible to move between broad areas of work. The evaluation system is rather chaotic and sometimes in the back office may not be sufficiently reflective of employee's performance, from my observation

It is nice during the three-day induction. But afterwards there are barely any opportunities to know each other. Because trainings are organized in webminars instead of face to face, and CSR challenge teams are not organized by office, which makes it almost impossible to meet.

The cost of living is high, because it is central London. But the socializing is also nice, because it is central London. The white-collared office staff generally get together on Fridays, which gives the area a touch of family. Oxford Circus, of course is the paradise of tourists and shopping maniacs, so it is always over-busy as well.

I don't know much about the Nightlife because I am not interested. But there are plenty of pubs nearby. The only problems there are far too many shops and far too few restaurants nearby, mostly fast food chains instead to suit office and touristy needs. So it may be difficult to find somewhere proper to have dinner, but you can always do a 15-minutes walk and bingo.

There are some social events, as I have mentioned, and there is a quarterly division meeting as well. But other than that we have no sports club, no canteens, no gyms, no onsite anything, so it is very difficult to socialize and involve in any community-building activities. I think it is still an issue of money strains.