SCIB Intern Review

The internship was overall good, but not excellent. However, it is only the third year Santander has been running the scheme, so there will of course be a few issues to iron out. I enjoyed some aspects such as all the learning experiences I was given. On the flip side, I didn't' enjoy having no tasks.

All my colleagues were lovely and so helpful. However the point of this internship was not to be useful but for us to learn. Therefore I was no value at all. As emerging talent we were valued, but in terms of helping the desk day to day we could do very little.

This was varied. We had an overall line manager who was always there if you emailed or spoke to her. However, she had a full-time job to do aswell and ten interns to give feedback to. I often felt like the feedback was too little too late. There were many people 'looking after us', each very helpful if you asked for it.

Usually not busy at all - rather bored actually. There were good occasions where I had things to be getting on with, such as Friday presentations.

Because we were never in one desk long enough to learn any useful skills, we were not given any real responsibility. I was glad for that though, as I needed the time to work and learn.

I'm not sure how it will affect my university career. I do know that my Excel skills have improved, and just generally learning about a new thing is really good. But the internship will not really affect my university degree. For the future, the things I have learnt will be invaluable, whether I go into banking or not.

Dependant on which desk I was on, as this is a rotational programme. Some desks barely interacted and were very quiet. Other desks were friendly and lively. In general, the office is reasonably casual for a bank, which I enjoyed. People are friendly and willing to help. The floors are open plan which add a bit of buzz.

I think this was were the internship was let down. It is part of an overall Santander internship. However, our specific internship was quite different. This meant there was some miscommunication. For example, all interns across the country took part in a charity competition. We had been assigned the last week alone to raise money. Later we were told the charity competition ended on the Wednesday of the last week, leaving us with nothing to do for the last two days of the internship.

This was a strong point of the internship. They allowed us to talk to as many people as possible, and strongly encouraged it. We had the opportunity to try out five different desks for a week to see what we enjoyed and where we fit in. We spent a lot of time learning, and less time doing.

Personally, I am not entirely convinced with banking. As a workplace I liked it, and the future employment prospects look really good. They have good internal movement, and they have a lot of strong mentors trying to help you progress.

Amongst the interns, we made good friends and went out for drinks often. I would say I did not spend much social time with colleagues outside of work, albeit occasionally. The grads tried to organise drinks and events for us which worked well, but were occasional. The office itself is sociable, but less of an after-hours scene for the interns

I was in London, so obviously the cost of living and socialising is high. However, you can have as many or as few drinks as you like. I also lived at home which cut costs significantly. I am lucky enough to live in London, so I didn’t have to pay rent as I lived with my parents. However, for the other interns I know that they had to pay a significant amount for living. Saying this, we were paid well on the internship and the other interns did not complain about the living costs.

Pretty good - it is London. I didn't really experience it much with work.

I don't think there were any opportunities, expect charity fundraising which was part of our internship. We were only there for 10 weeks so this is to be expected. The charity aspect was to raise lots of money over the 10 weeks, which Santander would then double for the two chosen charities. This was fun to do, and was a nice way of testing our ability to balance with the work we did on the desk. We did go out and socialise after work a bit, and the grads organised a trip for us to celebrate the end of the internship.