Corporate and invesment banking intern Review

The internship was very enjoyable, it was a rewarding experience and I felt like I learnt a lot. The hours weren't too bad (8am-6pm or (9am-8pm) depending on what area you worked in (sales & trading vs IB/CF). On the other hand the pay was abysmal, way below industry standard and way below livable amounts (they pay the living wage (paid as a salary) but you work 150% of the hours ). Made my experience difficult to enjoy as I was constantly worried about money.

The people at Santander are amazing. Very friendly and many of them go above and beyond to support you. Of course there are the occasional unhelpful individuals but I found that generally, both junior and senior colleagues are there to help. Provided helpful career advice. Complimentary of any work to do to help them.

It's a very independent experience. You rotate between teams and it does require a lot of effort to hit the ground running week in week out. Some of the assessment tasks they set were very broad so it could be difficult to understand exactly what the task was. But the supervisors would provide guidance if asked/they had time.

Completely depend on what desks you rotate onto and what the weekly assessment task is. Generally not very busy. No face-time culture so generally you can leave whenever it looks about right. No need to stay late or work weekends unless the assessment task is taking longer than expected. Somewhat busy.

I had the opportunity to prepare materials for clients and exco as well as gain exposure around a lot of different product areas. You never do anything groundbreaking but some of your work will be used and sent to clients. Generally depends on what desk you're working on but okay.

I presentation skills are definitely a lot better now. I've gained a lot of finance knowledge ofcourse and general workplace etiquette skills. My excel/powerpoint skills are now improved so I guess this could help me with my degree. No real intense training apart from one week of 'lectures' to start so not a huge amount to take away.

The atmosphere was really relaxed. Sales and trading floor was generally more chatty unless things weren't going their way. I found the IB floor to be pretty quiet which was a bit dull but I assume there mostly just busy. Everyone was friendly enough, especially on the S&T side. Office is a bit aged though.

Not bad. Lots of freedom especially during charity week so you really have to work independently. Not really a proper scheme, a lot of people probably didn't know we were there and there wasn't any real fuss made over us. No deal bag or cool stash unfortunately so you don't really feel part of the org.

We had access to Bloomberg terminals which is of course a big investment along with one training session (probably could've been better in terms of organisation). Other than that very little actual money was spent on the interns (wage included) and not many socials were organised and charged to the company (I can think of one).

They take about 2/3s of the intake it seems which is a pretty standard amount. Rotational grad scheme which is cool plus they're discussing a potential placement abroad too. Grad pay leaves a bit to be desired and a lot of the selected interns will probably end up elsewhere as a result.

No one organised anything for the interns but the group were a lot of fun. I guess it depends on your intake but ours were very social and organised a lot of nights out and dinners in London which was a lot of fun. Would've been nice to see Santander organise more.

Brutal because it's London.

Nightlife nearby is pretty bad. A couple of decent bars and pubs but nothing major. Company go out on Thursday for some Latino night, I didn't end up going. Not too far from where you actually want to be as it's quite central but would obviously prefer to work in the city.

Not really, a couple of sporting events.