Summer Analyst Review

Generally speaking, I enjoyed my time here but I have to say that this was largely due to the other interns and the socialising aspect of the internship. I came in with certain expectations - some of these my own, others that had almost been instilled in us from the job application process, the AC, the induction, etc. - and I feel that quite a bit of this wasn't met for me personally, although the other interns found their experience to be more fulfilling. I didn't learn many technical skills but I did learn more about what the bank do as a whole and some general industry knowledge. I appreciated the sessions put together for us on the different parts of the bank and the willingness of people to meet and speak with us. You can tell that certain people in the bank truly value the interns and see us as future investments. This internship is partly a case of 'what you put in is what you get out', but so, so, so much of it is dependent on the team you are allocated and that is simply down to pure luck. This has not truly encouraged me to take the grad job were I offered it aside from the fact that I would have a job waiting upon the completion of my degree.

Of my team I can confidently say that on the average day 3 people would turn up, one of whom would be me. There would be no work for me to do. My line manager was on leave for over 2 weeks at the start of the internship and then worked from home/out of the office for a significant part of the remaining weeks. There was no consideration for this, despite the leave having been known for months in advance. I genuinely felt like if I hadn't been there it wouldn't have made a difference. There were days where I was the only person sat at a huge empty bank of computers on my own. It was depressing and lonely and honestly, if I hadn't turned up no one would have known. On top of this, I had no work to do so I was relentlessly bored. I asked EVERYONE I possibly could, but given how infrequently people came in my only hope was email, and people would tell me that the next time they were in they'd have something for me, they would come in, I would ask and there would be nothing. It was an endless cycle and rather disheartening. Eventually I moved myself to another team as I knew their intern had sufficient work and the team had enough that a second intern could help with. This massively changed my experience and I felt like I was doing something of value. It took 7 weeks for me to go to a client meeting despite my original line manager's role being very client facing. I felt far more a part of a team once I moved, but I have to point out that this isn't due to my old team's behaviour but more the lack of consistency in the team's presence or engagement. In the time that my manager was absent I could hear the other members of the team whispering about how I had nothing to do, I was bored, what were they supposed to do with me, they don’t know what to do with me etc. indicating that everyone was aware of my situation.

In the 10 weeks I had 4 catch ups/check ins/one to ones, and one of these with someone else in my team because he felt sorry for me not having any direction. My line manager was absent for most of my internship, did not care that I had nothing to do, would hand me off tiny tasks like finding an address and emailing it to someone and expected it to keep me occupied for the day. I would ask for more work and be essentially ignored. For over 2 weeks he was on leave and left me nothing to do in a team of people who often do not work in the office and no one to cover for him – bearing in mind this was almost immediately after the internship started. It was an insulting experience really to expect certain tasks to take days when in reality they could be done in a morning - I made sure to make him aware of this. I also made clear that I really had nothing to keep me occupied and there were really only so many coffee meetings/chats I could go on with other people as I really needed to have done some proper work and contributed to the team as per the internship guidelines. Even when he was present there was a serious lack of interest in me as an intern which contrasted massively to the other team I moved to where they would check on me regularly, check that I had enough to do and whether I needed anything else. I would not say I was well supported or guided – in terms of work related issues (actual work, systems access etc.) or in general advice in internship related issues.

Not busy at all, I had ample free time to the point it was frustrating and there seemed to be nothing or no one to help. My line manager had a customer facing role and never took me to meetings unlike other interns who went with their managers. Instead he would leave me alone in the office for the whole day with nothing to do while he went off. I moved to a different team at the end of the 7th week and went to my first meeting. I was assigned very, very few pieces of work and all of those easily completed and quickly completed. More often than not I had to source the work myself, asking and emailing people in the team who hardly had anything to give me anyway. I was cautious of asking other teams as I was aware that they all had their own interns and some of the interns were just about getting enough - it would not be fair of me to take their work. Of all the work I was given to do in my 10 weeks here, I could have easily condensed it into 1 week, with generous lunch and coffee breaks.

Little to no responsibility. I was set a piece of work to be completed for 5 clients, but this was something that had to be completed in steps, using software/systems that I would have to be walked through at each stage. It reached the point where it was left such that the last stage was never completed because I was never able to use the system to that stage, and my line manager did not seem to care. As I said before, if I hadn't been there it would not have made a single difference to the team. They were clearly struggling to find things for me and resorting to things like finding addresses and sending letters.

I don't think I learned many technical skills - there is a great disparity between what we as interns are able to do in Microsoft Office or how we can pick up new systems and what our managers actually think we can do. There is a great underestimation on their part. However, I think I have grown more in terms of soft skills and workplace skills in areas such as workplace conduct, how to write emails, workplace etiquette. I think I have grown massively in confidence - moving teams was a really big step for me to take personally as I am quite a quiet and shy person and I almost expected myself to suffer through the entire internship in my situation. I think I also developed networking and socialising skills - still a very awkward thing as it is for most people, but I've definitely become more confident and natural at initiating and holding these kinds of conversations. I felt I really expanded my network across all levels and departments as it was how I passed the time.

It differed from team to team but the busier teams definitely had some banter. There was a conversational atmosphere - you could get up and talk to people and people came by the desk regularly. I had a good number of other interns on the floor with me which made things easier.

It started off quite well, the induction was well organised (even if the content was a bit questionable), everyone had hotel rooms etc. There was no clarity on the evening food allowance for the 3 days and even more confusion when it came to claiming expenses for travel and food - most people gave up because the process was so unclear and everyone was told wrong and different things with none of us having access to half the necessary systems. As a side point, there was never enough of the one vegetarian option at the breakfast and 2 of my friends often didn't have anything in the morning. On the actual internship everyone seemed to have different experiences, and a lot of this came down to how the line manager saw the internship. I don't think there was enough clarity and agreement between them all as to what they should and shouldn't have been doing and by when. HR/Early Careers probably should have stepped in. Many of us didn't have systems access for up to 2-3 weeks into the internship which was totally unnecessary. Our arrival was well known in advance and steps should have been taken to ensure we weren't wasting this much time. The intern specific activities were quite well organised, many of these were run by grads so I imagine they know what it's like to be in our position and therefore knew how/what to do.

There were plenty of workshops and intern specific sessions to learn about the bank, meet different people and socialise. In terms of technical training we had online learning modules to complete which were pretty straightforward (and the only thing I had to do for weeks). These covered bank specific policies and general regulatory guidelines. In regards to specific systems, we learned how to use them as we used them pretty much. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it's quite easy to pick these things up and sometimes it goes easier when you do it yourself as opposed to having someone explain every step because they don't know what you do and don't know. I think the bank as a whole invests a lot in its interns and grads, and value them as future investments. My team in particular, not so much.

I am conflicted on this as I massively see the appeal of the graduate programme here, mainly because it is rotational and I'll get a lot of exposure to different areas of the bank and develop well rounded skill sets. It also helps if you don't know what you want to do, you get a look at a few things. However, the suggested plan going forward indicates a change in the rotational choices. Whereas at the moment grads can pick and apply to the rotations they want, in the future this choice will be removed and you will allocated all 4 of your placements. This is rather off putting as my fear would be being placed in a bad team or an area I had no interest and therefore would not enjoy or simply having a repeat of my internship experience for 6 months. For those who have a general idea of the rotations they would pick, this is not great. It might help to know on what basis the rotations will be allocated. I also have a personal aim to work internationally, or move abroad and my options are really limited for this with RBS.

Very quickly groups of interns form and with this the degree of socialising. I was in a very social immediate and wider group and we went for drinks/dinner at least twice a week. Group chats for strands, locations and the whole internship are created during the induction and these were utilised infrequently to send out notifications for bigger plans but generally everyone had their own friend group chat. This being said whenever anyone was planning drinks/socialising/birthdays etc, everyone was always invited - you texted whoever you knew and they texted whoever they did and it spread like that so there would always be a good bunch. Some people were not into socialising - not just drinks but other things too, and that was fine, we encouraged them to come but never forced anyone. After a while you know who is up for what anyway. All in all, I think the other interns and the socialising and lunch plans and everything were the real highlights of my experience. The people make or break a job, they're one of the most important aspects.

I am lucky enough to live in the London suburbs so didn't occur any living costs, just travel costs, which were rather expensive but less so than living in the city would be. Given that it is a capital city, there was a high cost of socialising in terms of drinks and things but people expect that in London - we were not thrown by this. There are happy hours at most bars including the ones immediately in our vicinity so we took advantage of these.

I interned in central London so there was a great night scene with bars and clubs and just general other leisure places that stayed open later (mini golf, bowling etc., all with alcohol or club like twists to them). It can be more costly compared to other places given that it is a big city but there are plenty of happy hours and deals. I interned over the period of the world cup so everyone would get together for drinks to watch the game so it was always very active, even after the world cup ended. There were several proper nights out between the interns across all the divisions which we organised ourselves.

There were a really good number of extra activities, including some directly targeted at interns/grads. There was a very good range of these and some gave you exposure to senior staff. We had the chance to take part in hackathons, do some pitching, networking events, talks, workshops, audio sessions, Q&As with MDs etc. Really good level of opportunity. There were also some organised social events as part of the internship for example, we had a charity day for all the interns (CSR), drinks and nibbles at the Gherkin, end of internship event.