Insight week Review

I really enjoyed the working environment and how everyone was open minded and keen to give us as much information as possible about Coutts and their role there. The exposure to different divisions within the bank was great in order to get a feel of working at a bank and the different roles available based on your skills and strengths.

I felt really valued during the insight week as employees were really keen to give up some of their during day, even the CEO, in order to give an insight into their work as well talking about their career path and how they got here. Moreover, I really enjoyed being able to experience some of their meetings.

I have received a lot of information about the roles of different divisions as well technical knowledge. Moreover, some employees were keen to give their honest opinion if I suited to different division depending on my skills without being biased towards Coutts. I have also gained some feedback on my CV as well as interview advice.

Although the insight week itself won’t assist me with my degree, it did gave me an insight into how the skills developed at university are used at work e.g MATLAB and different quantitative skills in asset management. I believe I improved my communication during the client role play activity which will be useful to different career paths not just banking.

The insight week could be improved in terms of structuring by giving a plan to the employees involved in the shadowing as they had organise what to do on the day which meant sitting without doing anything for short periods while the person that I was shadowing was busy with work.

Everyone was really welcoming and keen to answer any questions. The working environment seems great with a healthy work and life balance as well a healthy competitive environment between employees. A lot of focus to wellbeing of both staff and clients as well as philanthropy which makes the atmosphere at Coutts more attractive.

Some training activity to develop soft skills however this could be more organised and improved by offering more resources related to the activity. For example, for the investment activity more information about the different matrix used could be provided so that technical knowledge is developed at the end of the activity. Same could be done with the client role play activity.

The insight week gave a lot of exposure to the different divisions within the bank through shadowing the employees work and meetings which gave a good understanding of their day to day work. Moreover, the employees shared the past experience while being at Coutts and how supportive the firm is to changes such as having a family which helped understand the working culture at the firm.

Learned about the flexible working culture and how supportive Coutts is towards wellbeing and relationships.

The insight was really useful to learn about the different jobs available within the bank and the skills necessary for each one which helped me decided a possible career path for me.

It would be nice if lunch could be provided.

Although there was a lot of opportunities were had a chance to network with other employees while shadowing, this was difficult sometimes as employees were busy with work. It would be great if there was a networking or social event after work in order to facilitate networking without having to disturb people working.

No networking or social event.

Learned about the volunteering activities at the business briefing but not much about it during the week.

I would definitely recommend this insight week to a friend as I learned about the different divisions and new career paths within banking which I was unaware about. Moreover, I developed some soft skills as well as technical knowledge which should be useful to future job applications through shadowing and activities.