Internship Review

After the summer internship was cancelled, I was grateful to have the opportunity to participate in a week’s virtual internship. This experience was especially made enjoyable through the people involved throughout the process. This involved a personal 1-1 mentor who was able to guide and advise me throughout the internship, but also offer specialist insight in to their specific area of Santander. Having a mentor enabled me to build a strong relationship with someone inside Santander, who will hopefully be a colleague in the future.

I feel that everybody who participated in the virtual internship was treated equally, but also valued throughout the process. Communicating with people who had graduated from the internships into a role within Santander helped immerse us into the culture and see what working Santander would be like. Every question I had was welcomed and if the person I asked did not know the answer, they always forwarded me to someone who did - meaning no question I had was left unanswered.

Throughout the whole of my virtual internship I was placed with a 1-1 mentor. This was someone who currently worked for Santander in a senior role who would be able to guide me throughout the process. For my specific mentor, I found that I was able to build up a good relationship, in which I felt completely supported through different tasks that I completed as part of the internship. This was facilitated through meetings every day with my mentor throughout the internship, although I was also able to email any questions I had outside of these meetings too.

As I came from a degree background outside of business and finance , there were many skills that I found were transferable from my degree discipline that helped me throughout the internship. Equally, I would say that completing this internship provided me with a detailed insight into life working at Santander. This may not necessarily help with my degree studies, however it solidified my ambitions to work at Santander. Although I managed to secure a role after University with Santander, I feel this experience would have still been extremely beneficial for progression into similar graduate roles within the business and finance industry.

This internship was structured extremely well. Every day was planned in advance, which in turn allowed me to plan my days most effectively to complete the tasks that we were provided with. All the tasks were explained fully and I was able to ask questions wherever I was unsure about anything. A member of the HR team was an approachable point of contact at all times (in addition to a 1-1 mentor too). Senior members of the Corporate and Commercial Banking division were able to spare time aside to talk to us and provide us insight into their experience too.

I feel that the atmosphere was very welcoming. Ambassadors for Santander who had completed similar internships were available throughout the whole internship if we had any questions. They also helped facilitate and comfortable (but professional) environment where everyone could express themselves - in addition to completing the work too of course! These ambassadors also hosted more relaxed tasks too (ice breakers, fun games) that certainly brought all of the interns together - this certainly helped me learn more about some of the interns.

Although we knew there would only be so many graduate positions available after the internship, I feel that everybody was equally supported and everyone had equal chance to exceed. Prior to my presentation that was assessed, I was able to practice my presentation with my mentor. This provided extremely useful feedback that I was able to facilitate in to my presentation that was assessed. This was something I feel was very unique to this experience, as receiving feedback prior to my presentation allowed me to show my ability to act upon constructive criticism and react to feedback.

In terms of providing me an insight into Santander, I feel this experience was invaluable. Although I conducted a lot of research prior to applying for the internship, none of this compares to what I learnt from the people I interacted with throughout the internship. People are an important part of any organisation and this is certainly true for Santander. The people I came across provided me with an insight beyond what an applicant can read on a website - this certainly solidified my ambition and interest in a full time role at Santander.

The culture of Santander is consistent in everything that the company represents, but also how the people conduct themselves. A lot of the values at Santander are also consistent with values that I hold very close to me and this was very warming. It is very easily for companies to publicise things that they want people to read, however meeting people within Santander evidenced everything I had read prior to the internship about Santander - all of which showed me how valued each employee is.

This experience helped solidify my ambitions to work for Santander. Fortunately enough I was able to secure a role with Santander for when I graduate, this was something I was very grateful for Equally, for some people this process might help them realise that they do not want to work in the finance and business industry, but this is something you can learn by completing virtual internships. Considering how enjoyable I found my experience at Santander, I would recommend it to anyone who is even considering applying.

As this experience was virtual and did not require me to travel anywhere, there was no need for expenses. Anyone who had working arrangements (outside of the internship) was able to communicate this to Santander, who then facilitated the schedule of the day around them. I have previously not found many internships accommodating for students who work part time, however this was something that Santander managed very well to ensure everyone had the same experience and so no one missed out.

Yes there was a wide range of people that we were able to meet: members of Corporate and Commercial Banking, Retail Banking, Graduates, Apprentices and even Senior figures. This certainly helped provide a holistic experience where each of the people listed above was able to provide a different insight into their time at Santander. We were also given the opportunity to ask questions live if there was anything that we wanted to know - something that a lot of the interns (myself included) certainly made use of!

At the very start we were all provided with a 1-1 mentor. However, we were also encouraged to be proactive ourselves and make connections with anyone we came into contact with throughout the internship - the most popular form of which was adding them on LinkedIn. The experience of doing this was certainly beneficial for increasing my contacts of people within the industry, hopefully some of which will be peers and colleagues in the future.

My 1-1 mentor provided me insight in to a lot of charity and community work she had completed during her time at Santander. This was something that Santander seemed to value very much, even facilitating employees with the chance to participate in charity work/ events that are very rewarding emotionally. Mos got her companies seem to encourage this to be done after hours, however for Santander it is very much something that can be incorporated into day to day working life.

A lot of peers at University have asked me about my experience and it has been something that I have been strongly recommending to them. Whether or not they decide to complete the specific one that I did with Santander, the experience of a virtual internship was something that I found extremely beneficial for my understanding of the internal culture of an organisation. Therefore if someone was interested in Santander, I would strongly encourage them to apply for an internship so that they can really see what Santander is like.