Commercial Banking- Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed my internship because I got given a variety of things to do and was helping with certain things that will be seen by the heads of divisions and the CEO. My team was incredibly nice and friendly so I never felt like I was asking a silly question as they were all willing to help.

I felt really valued by the team as although sometimes I was given menial tasks and admin, I still did it with a smile and this was definitely pointed out to me. My team let me take ownership of certain deliverables and and it was really well received by everyone. I was also always invited for team drinks and to get lunch together.

As I said above, I was given a lot of support from the whole team and was always given previous years materials or a template to base my work on. Also, HR organised lots of sector overviews which covered most areas of the commercial bank allowing us to gain a well rounded insight into the commercial bank. There were times however, where I had to repeatedly ask for some guidance, but overall it was very good.

It was very varied. Some days were really busy with a couple of things going on at once. For example alongside our duties we had to take part in a charity challenge and an intern challenge which required a lot of collaboration with other teams and interns. However some days were extremely quiet even though I went around asking my team if there was anything I could help with.

I was given quite a bit of responsibility with certain things such as taking notes during calls and distributing them to the wider team. I was also responsible for collecting financials for clients and providing some research on the client if needed. I always had a more senior team member check the work I did but there were certain things I just couldn't do because I didn't have the experience.

I further developed lots of skills such as team working, attention to detail, ownership and being able to network to build a rapport with people. This will definitely help me in my studies when taklimg group assignments and the other skills will definitely help me in any role I do in the future. We had mandatory online training to complete aswell but some of it was not very useful.

The atmosphere in my particular team was great. We worked hard but we always managed to have a laugh and joke around aswell. There were times when my team were clearly stressed and focused when definitely showed but the majority of the time it was good as the entire team was talking to one another including us interns. I became closer to all the interns on the floor and we always had some sort of plan.

My team set our internship up very well as on the first day all the interns got to know each other. Then we had regular meetings to discuss our placements and any concerns we had. We also had someone from a different part of the commercial bank come in every week to talk about what they do. However, the induction was about 3 weeks into the internship and it was not made clear to us at all about referrals until the end of the internship.

The firm definitely invests in its interns and it's Scholars in particular. They give us a lot of training to complete during the internships and they are always willing to answer any questions we had. However sometimes we are not allowed to get any formal feedback on certain aspects of the internship which hinders personal development as you dont know what ou should be working on.

Future job prospects are appealing as I had a great experience during the internship and loved the team I was with and what they do on a daily basis. I would definitely want to work at the firm as the culture is good. I did get a little discouraged because we no longer can convert to a grad role straight away but I completely understand why they have changed the process and I still do want to work for them.

All the interns on my half of the floor always ate lunch together, we made weekend plans together and really got on with one another. In regards to my colleagues, again we were all quite social and went for drinks and did loads of other fun activites after work like virtual golf.

Being London, the cost of living, commuting and socialising is very high so that would sometimes put me off going anywhere, however it was always worth it ,and if you asked around, there would always be someone that knew of a reasonably priced place to eat or socialise during or after work.

Although I didn't go out too much, I heard from other interns that the nightlife was great. Also the fact that its London definitely had a part to play. I was told the music was really good and if you didn't like a particular place, there would always be something else nearby.

There were opportunities to do this for example the charity challenge where some of the tasks you had to do in your own time. I had quite a few opportunities with my team which I thoroughly enjoyed, it depends on your team really so in that sense, I was really lucky.