Summer Intern Review

I enjoyed my internship quite a lot because there was a lot of variety in the tasks I had to undertake. I worked with coding graduates/developers, business managers, team leaders, and other interns to do various different things - from setting up my own call centre to creating posters and raffles for our own charity event. My only concern is that I'm not sure how many technical skills I learned. Whilst I learned a lot about the business world and the roles people have to play, I didn't learn much about technology itself, such as coding and developing.

All of my colleagues make a lot of effort to make me feel included in the workplace, and they always make sure to tell me how much of an impact to their job and to RBS the tasks they are giving me will have. This makes me feel very valued. However, I do feel like the tasks I'm doing could be done by anyone at all, so my skills and abilities that got me the internship in the first place aren't really be used.

Any questions I ever had were answered by my manager - so I can't really complain. My line manager told me exactly what she expected form me, gave me flexibility in the tasks I wanted to undertake, and made it clear that if I were ever not busy enough I could ask for my tasks if required.

I had plenty of different tasks to do, but none of them were hard and they were all very flexible with time. I never really felt busy at all, and sometimes found myself making work for myself (e.g. teaching myself Python code to better understand what some of the developers were talking about).

I don't feel like the tasks I had to do required a lot of responsibility, it was more that they just helped everyone else in what they wanted to do - which is perfectly fine. In terms of individual responsibility I was kept to my own devices, which is a good thing.

The skills I have developed will likely not help me with my degree as I didn't really learn any technical skills. I have continued to develop my people skills which is always good though. I've gained a lot of knowledge of the business world and the roles different people can play in a large company, and I am now familiar with a lot of different ways of working. This may help me after my studies.

A lot of people on phones and relatively busy, and quite a standard office in terms of the set up. However, everyone was really, really friendly and would often make efforts to speak to me between calls/meetings. Everyone also seemed quite happy, which made it a much nicer place to work.

I liked the fact there were intern specific calls and conferences for everyone to join - it gave me something else to do and also made it feel like there was a proper program in place. I think my internship was more flexible compared to others as my line manager gave me a decent amount of control over what I wanted to do. Sometimes I felt like I didn't have enough to do though. A lot of my work wasn't specific to my internship project at all, it was just joining in with what the team were doing, which I actually really liked.

I received training in developing my personal brand and adapting my mind-set to better my career. I didn't receive any technical training at all, but was introduced to many specific programs and features that the team used. Part of the internship was holding a charity event, but the rules for that were very specific and restricting, and also very unclear. Little to no guidance or training was given on this.

I don't thin I would take a job with this organisation, but only because I have realised this type of work is not for me. The internship has been useful in realising that, and giving me a good insight into the business world. The people I worked with were really nice, and the graduate scheme does seem good for someone who is interested in this sort of thing.

Yes - we ate lunch together every day, often spent time together after work and even had a graduates and interns football match every week. Multiple socials were organised over the course of the 10 weeks, which were really fun. Pool tables, darts, bowling alleys, beer pong and shuffleboard tables would be booked for us at really nice local bars so we could play for free.

The area is in general quite expensive, but you can still find plenty of places to eat or drink for a normal price. I lived at home during the internship as I am local, so can't comment on the cost of any accommodation. The cost of socialising would usually probably be quite expensive, but at company socials everything was booked out for us for free.

Lots of places to go, bars, pubs or clubs. It's central Manchester so anything you might want or need is quite close. Other interns may being living in apartments in Manchester if they live too far away to commute, so there are usually people about too. Overall, any sort of nightlife someone may be interested in should be nearby.

Yes, I got involved in a graduates and interns football match each week. There were also hack-a-thons for anyone to get involved in, technical ones and non-technical ones. Socials for the graduates and interns were organised too, three were organised in my 10 weeks there so a very good amount. They helped me get to know people I usually wouldn't have met.