I&TS Summer Analyst Review

Loved this internship! It was a fantastic opportunity to grow not only technically but also personally. I was given real responsibility and had almost daily opportunities to network with senior colleagues. Every person I interacted with at RBC was so friendly and very welcoming, taking time to explain concepts in detail. You are definitely challenged and stretched however there is always a team or webpage that can help you. I would recommend this internship to anyone who is eager to learn more about the financial world.

From very early on during the internship, I was given real responsibility and was involved in live projects. Colleagues regularly asked for my opinion and encouraged me to share my thoughts. During team meetings, colleagues always seemed eager to find out what I had been learning, who I had met with and if there is anything they could help with. Especially as some projects I worked on were not led by my manager, having friendly colleagues helped me find my feet.

My manager was absolutely amazing! As part of the internship, we had scheduled reviews, but in addition to this, I had weekly meetings with my manager. We would go over what work I had been doing, whether I needed any additional help and she would often recommend people I could contact in different divisions/areas of the company so that I could broaden my understanding of the work RBC does. Really appreciated the fact that my manager wanted to find out what I wanted to gain from the internship and her feedback allowed me to gain confidence in the work I was doing.

It would vary throughout the week, as deadlines rolled in, days began to fill up with meetings but you would always have time during the week to arrange meetings with other interns and grads. The team I worked in was more project-based so there were no set tasks that had to be completed daily. Some days I had quite a few meetings to attend and participate in, but other days I could be focused on finishing a deck or researching a business area.

I had a good amount of responsibility! At the begin, I was introduced to several projects the team was working on and then I was assigned a few tasks across multiple projects that I was to be in charge of. It was great to have this responsibility as I then had people from various teams reaching out to me and thus I learned more about other teams. It also gave me an opportunity to add value to the team and be an actual contributing member of the team. Thankfully, I could (and did) reach out to my colleagues for help.

You have to complete multiple mandatory training courses which give you a good basis and insight into the financial sector. In addition to this, RBC has lots of internal learning platforms which you are encouraged to use. However, I gained so much more than just technical skills; from how to effectively manage my time, to creating prioritised to-do-list, to managing expectations and maintaining a work-life balance. Now back at university, I have implemented theses skills and even created prioritised to-do-list of assignments. The skills I developed during this internship has definitely put me in good stead for future studies and employment.

Although I worked from home, we had regular 'lunch and learn' events, other networking events and even had a team quiz call. There was a good working atmosphere, and people were encouraged to take breaks when needed. Pretty open teams with mixed seniority meaning the environment were great, especially for interns. Most meetings commenced with brief introductions of colleagues on the call and frequent talk about the weather (of course). Overall relatively relaxed atmosphere and multiple opportunities to get to know people beyond their work.

The internship had a good structure from the beginning, with the first few days focused on outlining the structure of the programme. Enjoyed the set review meetings with my manager arranged by the internship organisers. Also had SIP challenges throughout the internship which encouraged interns to reach out people, shadow colleagues, engage in internal events and write articles about our experiences, improve technical skills. We also had the opportunity to participate in organised charity events as part of the internship.

RBC has multiple training platforms that are available to employees, including interns during the internship. On these platforms, we could search for and self-enrol onto a plethora of courses from how to maintain a work-life balance to how to use visual basics VBA. This was in addition to the mandatory training we had to complete which provided a background into financial basics. As part of the internship, we had challenges arranged which looked at improving skills, including networking and Microsoft excel.

The next step would be the graduate programme which lasts for 2 years and allows for 6 rotations across teams within Investor & Treasury Services. Thankfully I have been offered a place on this programme to start after graduation!

We had access to interns globally and had a work "group chat" where we could discuss upcoming events, organise challenges and offer to shadow opportunities across our different teams. Social activities within teams varied but among interns, we had almost weekly events and challenges that often required us to work together as a global cohort. As UK interns we also arrange weekly catchup calls, that allowed us to find out what others had been doing and organise shadowing with one another.

Worked from home so did not experience typical spending, but we were given resources to help improve the home setup (e.g. monitor, laptop stand etc.)

Worked from home so did not experience the typical nightlife

As interns, we had opportunities to participate in charity events outside of everyday work, where we gave our time to help disadvantaged young adults. Previous years had also had similar charity work opportunities, spending a day out at the charity base helping out. RBC is big on giving back especially to local communities, so this was a very good experience seeing how RBC's work helps others. Other volunteering opportunities were also available and could be accessed via the internal charity page. RBC also gave money that we could use to donate to charity.