Summer Analyst - CTO Review

A very good experience where I got an insight into how a large organisation is run. I was actively encouraged to spend time building relationships with other teams, not just confined to mine. This allowed me to find where I would like to come back into the company If i came back as a grad and build out my network, both crucial things.

I got assigned a mentor and a buddy both of which were great. My buddy sat next to me throughout my internship and if I ever needed anything I could just ask away. I went to breakfast every week with my mentor to catch up and he always helped out to make sure I was on track.

My manager was super supportive and wanted to make sure I always had interesting stuff to do always. I had weekly catch ups to discuss my goals and make sure I was on track but if I wanted anything else in between he was always on had to answer any queries.

The first few days were a little slow in terms of work as I needed to get access to programs. But they tried their best to give me other tasks to make sure I had stuff to do. After that, I always had lots of projects on so had stuff to do when needed. This meant I was busy but it was never too much and I never worked outside of 9-5.

I was given ownership of my own project which was contributing to the actual work of the team and is going to be used after I leave. I was tasked with making sure it was delivered on time and to a high level. To do this, I liaised with global teams and been responsible for keeping it on track.

I feel my knowledge of how businesses work and are structured will be invaluable. I also learnt the ITIL foundation framework which I feel will be usable at all my future roles. My presentation and project planning skills have improved which I'm sure will help me on my return to university.

It was a great atmosphere in the office. You could ask anyone anything. Everyone was super friendly and happy to help. You could even arrange a meeting with members of staff who were pretty senior - everyone was happy to help and connect to make sure you got what you wanted from the internship.

Although I found the job descriptions vague leading to many people I met not being quite where they would have liked to be, the issues fortunately ended there. After that everything was run very well, with an initial training week followed by learning sessions and events spread throughout the remaining 9 weeks.

As the bank is such a large organisation across many countries, the ability for internal mobility and to work many jobs within the same company is an exciting prospect. It also allows for you to travel with work across the world which is a great opportunity for a young person to have.