Emerging Technologist Review

Work provided was engaging and involved working on real projects at the company. It was both challenging and educational without being too hard to get stuck into in the short 9 week period. A couple of frustrating moments when I was unable to contact the people I needed to complete the work but this was also educational in terms of learning how to approach some difficult scenarios.

All colleagues that I came into contact with were very friendly and more than willing to give me their time to talk about what the company was like and their specific role. A couple were unresponsive to emails but it was also a busy time on the project I was working on.

My line manager was very supportive throughout the duration of the internship and helped me with completing the work I had been set and learning more about the company. They were very willing to talk about any issues I was having and to put me in contact with other colleagues who could help me out. I also had a buddy and a mentor who were very good at talking on an informal level.

Most days I was busy working on the various task I had been set although it there were a few quiet days as a result of my work being reliant on being able to engage with other colleagues who were busy at the time I needed to contact them. I was given other small side tasks on top of the main project I was working on and this helped to keep me busy.

The project I was working on was used in a range of meetings with the rest of the team which meant that it’s accuracy was very important, giving a sense of having some responsibility. Only being there for 9 weeks it was not possible to become fully involved with an larger projects which meant the responsibility was limited to the specific work that I was doing.

The knowledge I gained on project management will help me in the final year of my degree greatly, particularly because I have a module based on it. The networking and personal skills I developed will be very useful in future employment because some of the skills are not the type of skills that are learnt on a degree.

The atmosphere was a very positive and relaxed one which was assisted by the more casual dress code. It allowed me to get to know colleagues around me on a more personal level. A lot of video conferencing is used and this meant that the office usually had people talking on different calls for most of the day and so everyone was very busy most of the time

Work set up by my manger was well organised although the overall internship could have been organised better. There were no computers available at the start of the internship which prohibited progress and communication between the relevant people didn’t seem to be particularly good, for example I was allocated someone as a buddy who had not signed up to be a buddy.

As a group of interns we had a number of talks from different senior people within the company and there was also an initial two day induction scheme. This scheme gave a basic overview of the different areas of the company and some information on cyber security etc. There were also online training modules to complete which further educated the interns on key issues within the bank.

There is a potential to move onto the graduate program next year which has a well structured format over the course of two years and the potential to go back into the same team as I completed my internship in. All round this makes the graduate program very appealing as long as the company wishes for you to return.

The group of interns got on very well and usually socialised together at lunch time. Some also socialised outside of work although this was organised separately from the company. Social events and housing could have been better organised by the company in order to put interns in houses together before the internship started. As a result of this happening many interns were living by themselves when they could have been with other interns.

I lived at home for the duration of the internship and travelled there each day. The overall impression that I got of the cost of living was that it was reasonable without being particularly cheap. It seemed to align with the rest of the south east of England in terms of prices.

The nightlife was reasonable although there was not a great range of it in Northampton itself which was where the internship was based. The company arranged a night out at a bar before the end of the internship to give the interns and recruiters a final opportunity to socialise before the end.

Personally within my team there were not a lot of opportunities for activities outside of work although I know of other interns who got involved with activities with their teams outside of work so this depends on the team which you are placed in. Activities outside of work were arranged by the group of interns for those living nearby.