Contractor - Digital Fraud Review

Enjoyed the team that I was a part of because it was friendly and fun. Colleagues interacted with me and made the effort to both get to know me and include me. The work was enjoyable to an extent, I especially enjoyed the freedom and independence of having my own project. However, doing just this for 8 of the 10 weeks it started to get repetitive and it would have been better if there was other work for me to complete alongside this project.

Enjoyed the team that I was a part of because it was friendly and fun. Colleagues interacted with me and made the effort to both get to know me and include me. My line manager was especially good at making me feel welcome and consistently checked up to see how I was doing. I was invited on various team socials and this made me feel included.

I was given a significant amount of support and guidance by my line manager who made the effort to keep track of my work and the progress of my project, but also to get to know me as an individual. I especially enjoyed the one to ones which helped me to air an issues and talk about any worries I had.

I was given my own project to work on and take lead on and thus the business often depended on demands and deadlines for that project. I was busy enough not to be tremendously bored but I would often find myself sitting around waiting on emails or replies which my work depended on and in these instances there were gaps where I couldn't do anything and would often just complete more training.

I was given my own project to take lead and run with. This was a significant amount of responsibility since I had to set my own deadlines, decide what the best way was to complete the project, speak with stakeholders interested in the project and question them where necessary to the development of the project, and finally presenting the work back to various stakeholders and members of my team.

It developed my work ethic so that I am now more willing to study etc for longer hours and am more comfortable in a professional setting and the demands of this. It improved my communication skills which will allow me to write more concise and to the point essays. This will also allow me to communicate more efficiently in a professional workplace. My time management skills have been improved significantly by running my own project and this will be helpful in both professional and educational settings.

It was a friendly atmosphere which felt open and everyone was approachable. I was happy to ask colleagues questions on matters I was unsure of and ask for help when I needed it. There was also a lot of joking and socials outside of work which made it a fun atmosphere and that was my favourite part about the internship.

The development journey was a good way to track my progress throughout the 10 weeks. The work itself and the initial setting up of a work laptop, obtaining a pass and other basic admin tasks were not well organised and was a hassle in the beginning. The balanced score card was also not organised particularly well and it was unclear to both me and my line manager what each of our roles was in regards to this.

We were provided with an internship development journey over the 10 weeks, with an email containing new tasks and videos every 2 weeks which was good but it was generic and not tailored to skills I had wanted to build as an individual. We completed online training, but this was compulsory training for all employees and again was vague and general and I didn't learn that much from it. The Professional Bankers online course was helpful to allow me to develop my understanding of the banking industry but was offered later on in the internship and should have been offered at the beginning, especially for those of us (interns) that have no knowledge of the banking industry. My team helped me to develop skills I had wanted to build upon such as public speaking but the company as a whole did not tailor training for us as individuals.

Given that this is my first internship employment prospects haven't been a particularly significant part of my internship and wont be until I am on my second internship next summer. Therefore I am not decided on how appealing the future employment prospects are. As a whole I have enjoyed working for the bank and would consider the grad programme but I would keep my options open and apply for other internships and grad programmes, especially considering the bank has been cancelling a lot of the grad programme streams I would have been interested in, such as GCA.

There was a good social scene amongst interns but this was self organised by interns and the only bank organised social was the boat party, which was very enjoyable. The lack of formal/bank organisation did not matter and I made some great friends through living and working with other interns.

The cost of living and socialising was particularly expensive, especially when compared with uni or home, but this is unavoidable given that I worked in the City and lived in Angel, both central London. The fact that the bank paid for accommodation helped with the cost of socialising in the area that I worked in.

The nightlife was good in the area I worked in as well as lived in. Fun areas such as Shoreditch were nearby with a wealth of fun bars to choose from as well as big central nightclubs being nearby. There were a number of pubs nearby where I worked as well. The best part was the choice and variety, the biggest drawback being the cost but this is to be expected in London.

There were lots of work socials, which I was always invited on, such as a charity fancy dress pub crawl or a celebration evening when we moved buildings. There were also a variety of pub quizzes organised by other interns as part of the charity challenge. Furthermore some fitness opportunities were advertised to us.