Technology Summer Intern Review

Overall, the internship was very interesting. I was able to obtain some coding experience and learn more about the bank. There were a good number of other interns which gave the internship a community feel and made the time more enjoyable. The work was varied but at times there wasn't a lot of it. I spent most of my time learning ReactJS and doing front end dev and web design. We also completed a group project, which was very enjoyable.

Overall, the internship was very interesting. However it took quite a while for the real work to begin. The first few weeks were spent without much to do which was very frustrating but by the end I was engaged in a meaningful project. By the end of the internship, I felt like a valued member of my team.

My manager spoke to me regularly and made an effort to include me in meetings. However I was left to choose my own objectives which made it a bit unclear on what I was actually meant to be doing. My manager and the team I was in were happy to give me help when asked. My manager was happy to talk to me about his own experiences and give me advice for the future, I enjoyed working with him.

At the beginning of the internship I was not busy. This is due to the lack of tasks that I was given to do. However by the end of the internship my project was established and I was more busy. It would be better if the projects were established by teams and managers before the internship programme started. The standard working hours were 9-5:30 for me.

At the beginning of the internship, I was not busy and not given much responsibility. As time went on and I got to know the team more, I was given more and more responsibility working on my own project. The project felt useful to the team and it was a good feeling to be working on something that had real impact.

The training at the beginning of the internship we received a weeks training, 2 days of which were technical. It would have been good to have more technical training. I was able to develop my technical skills on the job, learning ReactJS for front end web dev. I also completed a group project using deep learning for sentiment analysis and learnt a lot about these technologies.

The atmosphere in the office is standard of a bank I think. People were happy to talk but a lot of the work was individual and people were focused on that. It is not like the atmosphere of a start up and is not as relaxed. There were little team events organised and due to the fact that lots of the team members were from consultancy companies, there was a lack of a community atmosphere.

The internship was well organised in terms of being placed within teams and speakers coming in for events. However there were not many social events organised for the interns. The teams had varying levels of organisation and some people did not have projects to work on. We were kept well informed by the HR team who were happy and responsive to any questions we had.

Aside from the training we received at the beginning of the internship there were few technical training options available. It would have been good to have some more sessions organised on the different technologies that the bank uses. It would have also been good to learn about different positions within the bank to understand what teams we could be in if we were to return in the future.

The pay, bonus scheme and pension scheme for the bank are very good. There is plenty of opportunity to move around within the bank, internal mobility is very good. There are womens mentorship groups and seems to be a good level of progression within the bank. There does seem to be a lot of internal politics, which is understandable when working within a bank.

The social scene was very good with the other interns. Although there were not many events organised by the bank, we organised our own events. There were a good number of interns, over 30, which meant there were lots of people around to meet up with. Being in London meant there was always a lot to do. I made lots of great friends on the internship.

Canary Wharf is an expensive area, meaning that pints after work were expensive. However there is a Spoons which offers reasonable rates. Rent in London is very expensive and so is the cost of travel. The canteen was not subsidized which meant lunch could be expensive if brought there. Many people made lunch at home to save money.

In Canary Wharf there are plenty of bars, and as we worked reasonable hours there were plenty of opportunities to socialise there after work. Also being in London meant there were countless places to visit on Friday nights and this meant that the internship was very social and enjoyable in that respect.

If there were opportunities then they were not well advertised to us. Some teams participated in the volleyball pitch that was located outside of the building but my team did not. We could not join the gym in the building. The interns organised their own activities, including golf at the nearby range.