Summer Intern in Markets Review

I think I was extremely lucky to be on a desk which gave me interesting and enjoyable work and people who were a joy to work with. Not everyone was as lucky as me but the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

My colleagues were extremely friendly and although I thought I would find it difficult to bond with people much older than me, everyone was friendly and always ready to help.

Some days were extremely busy and other days were pretty free. There were days where I would need to stay past 9pm and days where I had to pretend to be busy. You can always ask for more work if you feel you aren't getting enough.

People on Sales or Trading desks find that they were not given a lot of responsibility because it is not viable for them to be able to talk to clients/trade but my choice of desk meant I was able to do work which contributed to the desk and as the weeks went on, I was given more and more responsibility.

Although I am not too sure about how much my internship will help with my degree, it was extremely useful in improving my skill set. I learnt a lot about the banking industry in general, and desk specific knowledge which was incredibly useful.

My desk was particularly lucky because everyone was always laughing and joking around, some other students had desks where they weren't as lucky and had a pretty hard time. Around the office in general, people were usually nicer than expected but as always there were some people who werent as nice.

The internship was organised well although there were no rotations which I felt was not a good way to set up the internship. We had various extracurricular activities such as bowling and a sports day. Also we had various talks from senior department heads which were always interesting.

Since we were only there for ten weeks, we did not get much training or development. Our training consisted of four days but the training was pretty general and did not test us too much. More training was given once I started at my desk which was a lot more useful.

If I decided to work in the banking industry, I would definitely want to work with RBS because the the atmosphere at the bank was unrivalled and I had a great experience. Also the training programme for graduates looks very interesting and well thought out.

I think it depends who you make friends with, it is imperative to get to know as many people as possible, we found a really good group of people who always wanted to have fun and go out.

London is extremely expensive and since accommodation is not paid for except for the first week, living is very expensive unless you live far from the offices. Socialising is more expensive than other towns but since you're earning it doesnt seem that bad!

Since we were in London, the nightlife was amazing! Being from London meant I knew where to go and since it was a new experience for a lot of people, everyone really enjoyed trying new places and going out.

Yes, there was a great work life balance and we always found time to do things outside of work, whether those activities were organised by HR or by other people also on the internship.