Summer intern Review

I really enjoyed my placement, I learnt a lot and met lots of really great and interesting people. However, it wouldn't be my dream job but was a great experience.

All of the employees were friendly and welcoming when I arrived. They were happy for me to shadow them and keen for me to see as much of what they do as possible. For example, I sat in on premier meetings with customers and the premier manager wanted me to see all the different types of meetings within the process.My colleagues helped me get the most out of my experience. They also gave me a card when I left signed by the whole branch which made me feel very valued as an individual.

My line manager was open to all of my ideas and had many ideas himself to get the most out of my experience. The only downfall was perhaps that my line manager was not always present and at one point was away for a whole week (the second week of my placement) which limited me on what I could do as we had not organised anything the week before.

It varied from week to week, the first few weeks I was mainly put on meet and greet which I found boring at times although for the large majority of this time I was learning on the floor.( I enjoyed it when the banking hall was busy.) However, when my project was set in motion and I was given things to do by my manager and another manager in the branch I was able to vary what I did in the day - for example, write up my mystery shopper report at my desk and then go on meet and greet in the afternoon which made it more interesting. Nevertheless in general I never had a large amount of things to do.

I was trusted on the banking floor to help customers with basic queries on the machines and questions which I could answer through picking up advice from my colleagues. I was also given responsibility of delivering a mystery shopper report which I presented to the branch managers in our region in their monthly meeting which I found very interesting.

I definitely learnt a lot as before the placement I honestly didn't know a thing about retail banking and I have come away with a wealth of knowledge. I think this will come in useful in understanding how retail branches work if in the future I end up working for a bank. However, in terms of skills learnt for my degree studies I don't this experience was particularly useful apart from encouraging me to work hard so that I can get a good job when I leave uni!

Good, everyone was very friendly and encouraging. There were various fun competitions within the branch to reach targets and individual employees were always pointed out in the '5 to 5' meetings if they did good work during that day - for example, one of the cashiers performed a record number of Individual Solutions in the branch so we gave here a round of applause.

I think there could have been a few improvements but overall it was well organised. However, I thought some of the processes that I had to go through before the internship were quite problematic - the HSBC website to log on kept on freezing, not allowing me to edit and at one point in the final stages it said I hadn't even applied and wouldn't allow me to access the attachments that I had to fill out like my contract. Also i was told I had to complete a private portal interview over the phone - I had no idea what this was and when I eventually got through they didn't know what I was talking about. The internship itself however was organised and my line manager got in contact with me before it started which made it less daunting.

I think they put a lot of effort into making our experiences fulfilling and worthwhile. I think I developed a lot within my time at the branch and learnt a lot thanks to my colleagues in the branch however, I didn't undertake any formal training apart form the mandatory training on the computer as that wouldn't have been necessary and wouldn't have been worth the training time as I was only there for 6/7 weeks.

Very appealing, the final internship review day cemented this especially as talking to other interns in other departments like commercial as well as talking to graduates/ the graduate panel made me realise the amount of opportunities that are available if I ever entered onto a scheme like the ET programme.

I was in a quite remote location from any of the other interns so only saw them on the induction, charity shop takeover and review day, although I would have liked to see them more. It would have been very expensive for me to travel up to london where the main social events took place. However, I made some good friends from the branch and many people tell me to keep in touch. I am also going out for drinks with the branch on Friday even though I have finished my internship already.

It depends on what I was doing, I had to travel around 30 miles every day and get the park and ride and lunch became expensive if I bought it every day but the branch had facilities to heat up food so I soon brought food in from home.

Bath university is based there so inevitably there is quite a bit of nightlife in Bath.

We were given opportunities through the charity events however, the other events that were organised for interns I was not able to attend as they were based in London which is far away and expensive to get to.