Business Analyst Intern Review

I greatly enjoyed my internship at Capital one. Both my team and the intern cohort as a whole were exceptionally welcoming and friendly thoughout the entire internship. The coordinators were also incredibly helpful and active in ensuring that all the interns bonded well and were able to quickly settle into their roles.

I felt very valued by my colleagues since the project I was given was one that had real business value. During meetings people would actively seek my opinion and my contributions were given honest feedback throughout. The team I was placed into were a particular highlight and I was made to feel like an employee not just an intern.

My mentor and team were very supportive throughout the internship and I often relied on them to guide and teach me, especially at the start of the internship. They did this freely and frequently, this helped me greatly with producing a good project that was enhanced by contributions from many people

I was kept busy all day by both my work and my team with odd jobs. Additionally long lunch breaks for foosball, meetings, and training kept me moving around all day and on my toes. This was tiring, but kept me engaged and interested and looking forward to work each day.

I was given free reign to approach my project how I saw fit and left responsible to produce a high quality final presentation. This seemed daunting initially but I enjoyed the trust my team had placed in me through this. This was furthered by my mentor etc providing guidance but often leaving me free reign to fulfill tasks.

Strong time management was the main skill I developed throughout the internship as having to work for 8 hours a day in a single block is very different to university. Additionally, I am now skilled as SQL which helps me understand other coding languages used at university. I have also gained better business acumen.

The office is large and often quite noisy, although a set of noise cancelling headphones sorts this out. People are very friendly and it is encourage to move around to speak to people of any level. I often spoke to senior directors who were sat nearby by simply walking up to them

The first few weeks had a lot of structured training classes which were often dull and tiring but can be considered a necessary evil. The rest of the internship had little formal structure and mainly consisted of one working on their project, this required strong time management skills to be made effective as no one would actively tell you what to do.

Soft skills were developed as with any other internship. Personal development was strong with classes etc on presenting skills and the sort, these were not often the most useful but they were good fun and a nice break in the working day. I had little to no tips from my manager but my team and mentor were very useful.

The grad scheme has a strong sense of community and all of the grads on it currently seem to really enjoy their work. This makes it very appealing to get on to but few interns move onto the scheme due to the competitiveness surrounding it. Management opportunities etc are avaliable after time but again highly competitive, as those positions are.

Pub trips and socials were a weekly event which was a good break from work. Further to this there is a company wide event in the first few weeks that ends in a large festival with live music in a nearby park. Students and interns also made the most of the Nottingham night life

Nottingham is a cheap city to live in and the internship pays very well so every intern made a good profit overall. Subsidised food in the canteen also helped manage money.

Nottingham has a strong night life and the interns took full advantage of it, especially with some interns living in student halls during the internship. Locals bars were also visited a lot at the start of the internship, especially any bars that have a foosball table and offer discounted wings and cocktails before 10pm.

One major charity event was planned to do some hiking in the lake district however not many interns did this.