Intern Review

I enjoyed my internship due to meeting all the other interns and becoming quite close to them, therefore it made the internship more fun. I like the culture of the bank and the focus on improving the culture to improve the wellbeing of every colleague. On the other hand I found that this internship did not challenge me much and it may be due to the time of year that the internship is set but I found that there was not much work for me to do on a daily basis and so I was often bored.

I felt valued by my colleague when proactively going out and looking for other sectors of the bank outside of the team I had been placed in to work for such as the inclusion & diversity team. By going out and seeing ways I could make an impact I did feel like my work mattered, but on an everyday basis with my team , I did not believe I was adding much value as there was not much I could really do.

My Line manager was great. I found that she was very approachable and when I was going through family troubles during the internship she was very supportive and always made sure to never put too much pressure on me. I feel like I have learnt a lot from her and she was always directing me in different pathways and routes such as the I&D forum to help me grow further.

I was not really busy at all on a daily basis. I often had to make up tasks for myself or set up random meeting to help me get through the day. I was often on the hive page reading articles keenly waiting for 5:30pm to reach, so I was not busy much on a daily basis.

I was not given a great deal of responsibility however I was not babied either. I was placed in a role of leadership once, when my line manager assigned me as head organizer for an upcoming work experience day. This involved me rallying other interns to help and pushed me to take charge of meeting and plans surrounding this event.

I don’t believe I have learned many skills in terms of technicality. I have learned a lot however about navigating the office and what constitutes as polite office behaviour, so the internship as taught me a lot about people relations and how to go about dealing with different types of individuals.

The general atmosphere of the office was pretty calm. It never felt too pressurised as everyone works in quite close proximity there was always another intern nearby for me to have a quick chat with if work was getting too boring or overbearing. I would often hear laughter from different corners of the office which was nice to have.

The placement was generally well organised. I liked the induction I had on the first day to help me get to grips with life working in a bank and luckily for me my laptop was working fine, however i do know of individuals who had trouble for the whole of the first week. I liked having access to my line manager detail before the internship actually started, as it meant that I could contact them and prepare myself prior.

The company had link to sites such as Lynda.com and Softskills which did help me develop personal skills and learn new ones such as data coding. It was nice to use when I was pretty free however I do not believe that it is advertised enough as I did not know that they company provided us free access to Lynda.com till the second to last week of the internship.

Personally for me not that appealing. I do like the culture of the bank, however my passion lies more with Psychology and I do not see many ways in which I will be able to use my degree in the bank and would just much prefer to focus on becoming a psychotherapist

The interns on my placement were pretty close and we made a group chat together which was nice. Through these chats some social events were organised which was nice to have after work. There was an intern drinks formally organised by the bank towards the end of our placement and a boat party too during mid-placement.

The cost of living was quite expensive since it was based in London. The bank did provide accommodation near enough to work that I could walk everyday which saved me the expense of transport. I found food shopping to be quite pricey as I did not feel comfortable enough in the accommodation to cook so would often snack or order takeaway.

I do not know as I am not very interested in nightlife activities. However where the accommodation as based there was a lot of bars, clubs and restaurants nearby since we were based in the heart of London.

There were quite a few opportunities to get involved with activities outside of work. The bank had organised two challenges for us to get involved in. The intern challenge and the charity challenge which focused on raising money for mental health UK. I enjoyed having the challenges as they added a creative aspect to the placement and allowed my thoughts to take a turn from typical every day work. I also found that the intern challenge helped me further develop my presentation skills and I found it mentally stimulating. I was also part of the I&D forum which I really enjoyed helping out in.