Credit Risk Analyst Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my internship. I was slightly nervous before beginning here at Santander, but I have been encouraged to develop my technical and personal skills and am coming away with a wealth of knowledge. Everyone has been very accommodating and it is evident that we are pushed to be our best selves here!

I felt that I became a very valued member of my team. I built a great rapport with my colleagues and that was what made my 10 weeks really fly by! It was at the end of my internship, when I started to realise how much I would miss everyone that I realised how valued I had been made to feel during my internship.

I felt very supported throughout my internship. I was given the perfect amount of guidance and support by my management and I did not feel that there was a barrier between myself and more senior individuals. My line manager was great at supporting me when I needed it but also letting me be independent.

On the average day I found that I was fairly busy in comparison to what I thought I would be doing (the cliché copying and making coffees isn't what happens at all!) I was entrusted with a lot of responsibilities and became a valuable member of my team. There was always something to be doing.

I was given a great amount of responsibility - much more than I thought I would be given! I found that I was really included in my team and feel that I became a valuable member of the team by the end of my internship. I was given a lot of tasks that were beneficial to the rest of the team and added value to the work that was being carried out.

I am sure that the skills that I developed will be valuable to me wherever I choose to go after graduating university and within my degree as well. I have not only developed technical skills during my internship, but have also learnt how to network and how to better communicate with individuals from different backgrounds.

The atmosphere in the office was great - everyone was really supportive throughout my internship and there was a lot of opportunities for me to go and shadow individuals from other areas of my department. In general, I found everyone to be very welcoming and kind, which was particularly seen in the way that senior management was accessible and there was no barrier in place that made me feel alien to the office,

Once the internship started it ran very smoothly and was very pleasant to be a part of. In the initial stages of application, there were periods of time where the HR team was not the best at informing us of what was going on with our applications, however I assume this is because of the high volume of applications that are received.

A lot of time was invested into my development during my internship. My colleagues were always willing to help and give me support when I needed it. I also found people in the wider office to be very helpful and open to giving overviews and shadowing opportunities. There was a lot of training on offer through the Santander Knowledge courses and also internally within my team I developed a great deal in coding and Excel.

Future prospects have been very appealing and after my great experience on the internship I can really see myself as working for Santander! There a wide variety of opportunities available and I felt very encouraged to go out and network with people outside of my team to gain an insight into their areas.

Myself and the other interns became very close throughout our internship, with plans to stay in contact afterwards as well. We were encouraged within our initial week at our internships to meet each other and this was also helped by the Corporate Social Responsibility task that we were assigned over the 10 weeks.

The cost of living and socialising in the area was quite reasonable. I found there to be many reasonably priced places to live and everything is quite close so there isn't much need to use public transport either. The office, accommodation, the central shopping centre and the train station are all within walking distance of one another.

The nightlife in the area I worked was okay. There is not much near and around the office, however and a slight distance there are many places to go for a night out. I found that you do get close to the other interns and everyone does tend to go out altogether.

There were many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. For example, everyone in the office was very welcoming and extended the invitation to join the weekly sports socials that took place after work. There were many instances where I joined colleagues for meals outside of work. Due to the Discovery Project I also had the opportunity to go out and volunteer in the community.