Commercial Banking Summer Intern 2021 Review

My role has mostly consisted of working with senior members of the analytics team to deliver 2 projects, as well as talking and meeting with senior leaders of other teams within the bank to get an understanding of the different roles within the bank. Furthermore, I was able to attend some of the important meetings between senior leaders to listen and learn about the work the team does as a whole and that was beneficial.

The internship helped me develop and nurture my time management, networking, data and analytical skills.Time management due to the fact that we were allocated tasks with deadlines and we were able to choose how we want to allocate our time for the majority of the internship as well as keeping in line with the meetings and other requirements. Networking was quite difficult especially because of the challenges of the virtual structure. Data and analytics was my team so I learned a lot about the work they do by participating.

I was responsible for delivering a project and deliver it on the deadline which was very nurturing in terms of time management and responsibility. I was also given the responsibility of safely receiving sensitive data and how to classify it as such. I'd say the level of responsibilities assigned me was quite reasonable for my role as an intern, although I would've loved to take on more responsibilities within the bank if possible.

I had regular weekly meetings with my mentor who was assigned to me by my placement manager, as well as my Gradcoach who helped me a lot in learning to navigate my work and adapting to the virtual environment of the internship. I think the level of support I received was good, however it's much harder to seek guidance and support while working remotely as opposed to being in the office and learning that experience first-hand.

Supportive in the sense that we were always being given opportunities to get in contact with people and some were quite helpful, friendly and inclusive in terms of diversity which is very good for me as a minority, however banking is a very competitive industry and you get a bit of a taste of that in this experience. Overall I'd say the company culture is open minded and supportive and welcoming but it's vital to be proactive.

To the extent that I got an insight into the middle office in banking which was quite enjoyable and a good learning experience, but I think the virtual aspect of the internship made it a lot more difficult and less engaging than it would've been in person which is quite unfortunate. Overall, I'm glad I had the opportunity to go through this internship but I wish it would've been possible to do in person.

Yes

Keep an open mind and try to reach out and be proactive as much as possible at the start. I can't stress enough on how important it is to be proactive and chase things because with a heavy workload on the more senior members of the bank, it is quite easy for things to be forgotten about if you don't chase up and show your initiative by getting in contact and doing the necessary work to maintain this.