Summer Intern Review

Giving the current situation, I thought the online format worked rather smoothly. I was still able to network with people from across the business, learn a lot about the various products and desks and overall had a positive experience. I think the work was rather varied, even if it did consist of full days spent in front of a laptop screen. Almost everyone was willing to help and found time for us, regardless of how busy they were.

Whilst I got constant feedback and felt integrated on the desk I was interning on, I think that valued is the wrong word to use. This is because the tasks I did had no use to the desk so didnt add any value as such to what the desk did. I think this doesn't at all reflect negatively, since it is almost impossible for interns to do anything which can be actually used by the desk since it is a leaening curve for us.

The support and guidance i received was amazing and my line manager was incredibly helpful. I was able to call and message anypne on the desk if I had any questions and get an immediate response. Any worry or question or help I needed in terms of networking or reaching out to specific people was easy becaude of the guidance I had available. The only negative would be that HR were often unavailable or did not reply to queries.

I think thid varied a lot. During the firdt 3 weeks of training, I was busy during the session times. On the desk rotation, there were some days I was not busy and had to find thingd to do for myself and 2 days I wad incredibly busy in the lead up to my final presentation. Post final presentation, I was given a lot of time to network, so my level of busyness depended on peoples availability.

I wouldn't say I was given any responsibility as such because the work I was doing wasnt to be used. I did however have the responsibility for my own learning and for reaching out and networking on my own. I also had a deadline for my final project, thus had to complete that by a given time. Again, I dont think that the lack of responsibility reflects badly on my experience, since it is hard to be given responsibility in such internship.

Since my degree subject is not directly correlated with the area I was in during the internship, I don't think anything I specifically learnt is applicable to my studies. However, I will say that the presentation skills I learnt is applicable generally in my degree and studies since there are many times I will have to present my ideas. Also, the thought process and the reflection and feedback elements are very helpful in terms of my studies as a learning method.

Non applicable. Given the corona situation it was a virtual experience, thus we couldn't experience the office environment. Unfortunately, I was stuck in my tiny student dorm room so not the most ideal home office location. However, the glimpse at the office environment I got via speaking to certain people made it seem very lively and an enjoyable atmosphere. I am very much looking forward to experiencing this next year as long as covid allows it.

I think that given the corona situation, they had to adapt and that was a new experience for everybody involved - interns, HR and the desks. I think, however that a good job was done and we were kept in the loop whilst changes were made. Whilst there were some tech issues as expected, I think that a good job was done to ensure these were sorted out as soon as possible and without cauding much hinderances.

I think that a lot of time and effort was invested in us interns. We had 3 weeks of intense training with an external company which primarily focused on such development and that wad done very well. We had a good trainer and the sessions were interesting, insightful and interactive, thus a beneficial tool. During the internship we had access to a mylearning platform, and so had access to a variety of courses and sessions we could attend for personal development.

Since I very much enjoyed this internship, I think that personally the future employment prospects of working at Bank of America are very appealing to me. I also think that there is a lot of mobility within the firm, and since it is such a big company, there are a lot of jobs available, thus something for everyone, so on a whole very appealing. As a reputable investment bank, I would say it is a good start to any career.

Unfortunately due to the virtual situation it was fairly hard to network with fellow interns. We did meet virtually on the first week of the internship, however, this was organised by us interns and not the company. I think I was quite lucky that I knew a few people from the spring insight week I had attended the year before so was able to socialise with people I already knew fairly easily. I do think that from the companies view, more could have been done on this front such as networking events.

Not applicable since virtual experience.

Not applicable since virtual experience.

I think that an effort was definitely made to offer other activities to us interns outside our actual work field. On the social side there was a virtual gallery tour of the tate and a portrait class by the National Portrait Gallery, even though the latter couldnt happen due to tech issues. We also had an ESG volunteering project, however, I think this was very unengaging and useless. It very much seemed like an additional chore to get done than an enjoyable project.