Internal Audit Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my 10 week Internal Audit Internship at Santander. Having so much exposure to the business and getting an oversight into some of the operations within Internal Audit was extremely interesting. Having the opportunity to take part in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project was great fun as it enabled all of the interns in groups to get competitive and raise as much money as possible for Santander's charity partners.

Throughout the course of my internship, I felt extremely valued by my colleagues. Being able to directly contribute to the work done within the audit, as well as some of the final reports that were produced made me feel valued and respected. As well as this, I was encouraged to network with as many people as possible within the business, and this was useful as all members of staff were really appreciative and were always helpful.

Having weekly 1-to-1 meetings with my buddy/mentor and regularly being a part of team meetings ensured that there was a clear structure to my internship. I was able to discuss what I had achieved in the past week and what I would have liked to learn more about, alongside taking on board some of the feedback that I had received.

In both my rotations, I was working and helping out on 2 audit which meant that I did not have too much free time. However, when I did have free time, I used most of it either doing work for our CSR project or doing the online training to further enhance my knowledge.

Being able to help out fellow members of staff on the final report for an audit and being asked for input into pieces of work shows the level of responsibility I had during my placement. Taking initiative for the CSR project to ensure we met regularly and to ensure each member within our team knew their role clearly was key, and it was great for networking with teammates in various different departments.

Through the internship, my communication and analytical skills have improved significantly. Extensive use of Microsoft Excel will be beneficial at university and in my future career, being able to appreciate the complexities that arise of using such an application and the various different things you can do with it. Working with members of staff who are much more experienced than me was helpful as I was able to try to understand their thought process and how their approach to certain tasks are.

The work atmosphere was friendly, welcoming and. Members of staff were extremely approachable and had no hesitation to take time out of their day to have a meeting with you in order to discuss a topic or subject area that you are unsure about. Teammates were more than happy to sit down and talk about the internship as well as future career steps and progression.

Overall, the internship was very well set up. During the first week, we spent the majority of our time getting set up onto the system and had to complete the mandatory training. The 1-to-1 meetings with my buddy/mentor helped provide a better understanding of how the internship will go, in terms of the two rotations.

The company invested a lot into my training and personal development. Having the opportunity to complete training in relation to the audits I was working on was useful as it enabled me to get some background information into the topics. Having methodology training in our first few weeks was also beneficial, as this allowed us as interns to understand how the entire process of an audit works.

The internship gives you a platform to get onto the graduate scheme. Through the graduate scheme, you rotate through all the various departments at Santander, within Internal Audit, and then you can choose your preferences. There is a lot of opportunity to move between teams and locations, and the internship gives you a great start to join the company permanently.

The CSR project ensured that all the interns within our group were constantly keeping in contact with one another. Holding fundraising activities together such as a bake sale and a raffle meant that everyone was speaking and coordinating with each other to make sure we raised as much money as possible.

In Central London, the living costs are extremely high. It's extremely difficult to find a good place to socialise at a very decent cost.

Outside the office, there are quite a few bars and places to have a good night out, although I didn't go to many.

There were many days where employees had the chance to go out and help the wider society, which was similar to our CSR project. In our project, we hosted a bake sale, a raffle, and had a coffee run which got us involved with people outside of work. There are also many social events during the evening such as bowling or other sports to bring teams together.