This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
The experience working within a large business is beneficial for me to develop skills and commercial awareness. Big employer has complete corporate conduct, training sessions, dress code and working timeline, which means it is good for student to become professional with good working habit. Also seniors are friendly, enough support from LM, so overall the working experience is enjoyable.
My colleagues are always willing to answer my questions, spend a lot of time explaining why it works and what they think could be improved. Although I do not have full access to all our systems, they still show me how to use so I understand the work they are doing. Because of that I feel that I am valued.
My line manager and other senior colleagues are easy to approach and they are very patient to answer my questions. Also I was assigned a graduate as my buddy and I prefered to share my thinking / understanding with him, asked what he think and what I should do next. The office environment is good and I feel I got enough support.
Not busy but that is not because of the work is easy, but just because the internship is too short and our division cannot give me full access to all systems for that short period, which means I am unable to do the same work as other colleagues. Internship students assigned to other sectors can be more busy.
Just as I mentioned, I am unable to take a lot of responsibility because I do not have full access to all systems for a short period. But colleagues did teach me the functions of different systems, answered my questions patiently when I was doing my research about improving the business efficiency. Also I attended a customer meeting together with one of my colleagues.
From the chairman's presentation as well as the introduction about the working content by my colleagues, I got a better understanding about how banks are currently treating risk prudently, and what we should consider before making the decision of whether approving the finance or not. Whats' more, the experience working alongside relationship managers also improved my understanding about how to maintain good relationships with customers and how to negotiate for a better price.
The Company
The atmosphere is pretty good as all of my colleagues are friendly and helpful. Every week we will have team meeting and teammates discuss their recent progress, share information and knowledge, raise suggestions to the director. The company has business dress code but every Friday we are allowed to wear casually.
The internship was structured and organised with proper induction and different event included.
As it is internship which is not very long, I cannot give a proper answer. But we did have session with chairman, and the induction weeks are well-organised. So I am pretty sure that RBS values its interns.
Flexi Time
Working from home
From the career aspect, graduates scheme includes 2-year rotation which aims to enable that graduates will have the chance to experience different sectors, get various knowledge and understand different parts of the large group. From welfare aspect, reasonable salary, full-time employees will have internal benefits - shopping discounts and reward point collection etc. Not bad.
The Culture
Yes
I rent my accommodation from my friend in Edinburgh with a good price, and as I am not a local, can only give my guess. For interns and graduates (no local) the major part of their living cost should be rent. The rent in Edinburgh is not as cheap as I thought, but should be much better than in London. I spent a year doing placement in London and the rent is incredibly high.
Lots of bars I think so impossible to get bored. But usually I prefer stay in my room.
Yes actually the intern programme is carefully designed, and interns are encouraged to get involved in fundraising activities. Interns are assigned to groups with the target of raising as much as money on the specific data, with special event. The fund will be donated to the Prince's Trust supported by RBS.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Commercial Banking, Banking
Scotland
July 2019