Finance Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my 10-week finance summer internship. My favourite part of the internship was the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) challenge. I was elected as the Team Captain and I managed a team of 9 interns. We were competing against 5 other intern teams from across the UK to raise the most money for Santander's Charity Partners. We had weekly meetings and we organised many fun fundraising events.

I felt very valued. I was encouraged to network with as many different people from various teams across finance. We had regular team meetings and I had a weekly 1-to-1 meeting with my line manager. One of the finance graduates acted as my mentor throughout the internship and he was really helpful in terms of training me and providing me with lots of great advice. I was encouraged to set ambitious goals and I was given the responsibility of leading work projects.

I had a weekly 1-to-1 meeting with my line manager which was a great opportunity to go over what I had achieved over the week, what challenges I had faced and what I wanted to do going forward. This helped provide a clear structure to my internship. It was also very easy to arrange training sessions with other colleagues.

I was given 2 projects to do over the internship alongside my daily analytical tasks. There was still plenty of time free for shadowing in other teams and doing training. The workload varied throughout the internship with some periods being very busy and other periods being more relaxed. I could have probably handled a heavier workload, but the free time was useful to work on the CSR project and to arrange shadowing opportunities in different teams.

I was elected as the Team Captain in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) challenge. This involved managing a team of 9 interns. I was also given the responsibility to lead 2 work projects. These projects both required me to conduct meetings with employees from different teams which were great for networking.

My leadership, communication and analytical skills have improved dramatically over the internship. I enhanced my excel skillset and financial knowledge. My role involved extensive use of Microsoft Excel. These skills will be very useful in my future work roles and at university. Getting used to working with people much more experienced than me will be helpful when starting any graduate role.

The work atmosphere was very friendly and welcoming. Everyone in my area was very approachable.

The first week mainly involved shadowing and mandatory training. I started doing real work in week 3. I was given projects to work on. The 1-to-1 meetings with my line manager helped provide structure to the internship. I was given lots of notice in advance for any deadlines I had to meet.

The company invested a lot in my training. I received training sessions from multiple employees. We also had skills workshops. I was encouraged to read up on areas of finance that interested me.

The internship is aimed at being an opportunity to get on the graduate scheme. However, there are far fewer graduates spaces available compared to internship places. The graduate scheme involves 3 different rotations. There seems to be a lot of opportunities to move between different teams and locations across Santander.

I have attended leaving do’s and we have planned a leaving do for myself which will involve crazy golf, a meal and then going for drinks. We could have gone for drinks as a team more often. The CSR project ensured I had regular contact with the other interns in my location as we had weekly meetings and ran many fundraising events together. We also sometimes went for team lunches and breakfasts.

The living costs were quite high. It is hard to find cheap short lets for just 10-weeks as most landlords want someone for at least 6 months. There were lots of bars and restaurants nearby. There was a cheap pub next to the work building where you could have a meal and a pint for under £8.

There were lots of bars and restaurants nearby. There were some places to go clubbing.

As part of the CSR challenge we arranged lots of fun activities e.g. a sponsored bike ride, sports competitions and care home visits. There are some sports teams within the company, but not many of the interns got involved in these. There were lots of volunteering days where employees could help the wider society.