Intern Review

I really enjoyed my internship with Santander - the internship was very well structured and I think I was very lucky with my team in that they were supportive and friendly, and provided great advice and development opportunities. The work was varied and interesting, and seemed to appeal to my strengths, furthermore there was definitely en effort made by my line manager to improve and develop some of my 'weaker' skills

I always felt extremely valued by my colleagues throughout my 10 week internship. The team immediately made me feel welcome and did everything they could to provide me with engaging and interesting work that would benefit the whole team. Not only did I feel that my work was making a genuine contribution, but my ideas were always encouraged and listened to, and on several occasions implemented to effect worthwhile change within the team

I feel like I always had the support of my line manager as well as the rest of the team. Through weekly one to ones I was able to have regular feedback and provide feedback on my own experiences as a new pair of eyes, which gave me lots of opportunity for improvement and development

On most days I was pretty busy because I was working in a team which had lots of tight deadlines, both on a regular and sporadic basis. I was usually given interesting work to do in the form of projects, which tended to vary in size such that I could vary the work that I was completing on a regular basis. There were of course some days that were somewhat quieter, but this was usually once I had just finished a project and was waiting for a new one to become available

I was give a lot of responsibility during my placement, which was exciting as it allowed me to do things in a way that suited me in line with what was required. It also showed a certain amount of trust on the part of the team as I was mostly left to get on with work and stand alone projects after I was clear on the brief

I think that the skills I have developed during the last 10 weeks will be more useful in my career than in my degree, as my degree is a literature degree and doesn't have much application to nature of work carried out during my internship. However, I was exposed mainly to project management style skills which will definitely be useful going forward, as well as more standard skills such as the use of software like Excel

I really liked the general atmosphere in my office. It was the first time that I had ever worked in an office environment, and so I was a little apprehensive before I started, however the office always felt open and friendly, and was overall a good environment to work in

In my opinion the overall internship was well-structured and varied, as it not only put an emphasis on the actual work but also made sure that the interns were taking part in other activities such as networking (mostly put in place by individual line managers) and charity work. I think that the charity work element of the internship could have been better structured, as there were some cases in which some teams were disadvantaged over others

For me I think that most of my personal training and development came from within my team, rather than from the company as a whole. This could, however, just have been team specific and so there may not have been many more ways in which the company could have invested in me

Based on this internship future prospects within this organisation seem very appealing and I am now very keen to get a place on their graduate scheme. I really enjoyed my time working here and as a result would happily spend a few more years within the company. There also seems like plenty of opportunity for movement within the company once you are firmly established within it

I managed to make a couple of good friends from among the other interns in my company, but on the whole there were only one of two that I chose to socialise with outside work, and this was mostly on my own terms. The team I was working for, however, did do several social events for us which were hugely enjoyable

Because I was working in London the cost of both living and socialising was high, however that did really depend on where you were living, whether or not you were able to split the cost by sharing, and where you chose to socialise

There are lots of bars in the area in which I worked, however I don't usually go out very much so I don't know in much more detail than that

In terms of activities outside work there weren't many opportunities provided by the company, however some interns would get together and do things in their own time. However, as part of our charity work we were able to put on events outside work including sports matches or pub quizzes