Research Assistant Review

All summer interns work on a project, mine was interesting and I had a lot of choice in the direction it would take. In many cases interns' work will be used to guide future work by economists in the bank so it is satisfying to know your work is important.

All of my colleagues were very friendly, however I worked in a large division and during a time that was particularly busy so I had less opportunity to get to know my colleagues. There is a variety of team sizes in the Bank so this can vary based on which division you work in.

I had regular meetings with my line manager with a lot of opportunities for feedback. My manager also arranged for me to go on a course to learn to use statistical software which was very helpful in working on my project.

The final two weeks of my 8 week internship were extremely busy, the summer internships involve giving a formal presentation of your results and writing up these results. These activities are usually in the final two weeks and can be very time consuming, however I found it satisfying to put a lot of work into them.

During the internship I had a lot of autonomy in deciding how to do my project. All of the interns I spoke to this year (including myself) found that we were responsible for projects that really mattered.

My internship was very useful for developing skills, as mentioned above I was sent on a course to learn how to use statistical software. I also learnt a lot about empirical econometrics which I hadn't learned in my degree yet. I also learnt more about data analysis, which is important in a working environment but generally not dealt with in academic economics.

The people I worked with were very friendly, and I found that economists in the Bank are generally very approachable and happy to help if I was having difficulties. People can also be very busy however so there is not always a lot of interaction.

The organisation was excellent by HR, they had an induction on the first today for all summer interns. They made it very clear what steps we had to take, and organised several nights out with food/drink paid for by their division.

As previously mentioned I was sent on a course to learn how to use statistical software, additionally all interns are sent on a course to practice presentation skills. My colleagues were very happy to take time to help me learn new things.

I would be very happy to work at the Bank in the future, they perform extremely interesting economic research and there are a lot of opportunities to get involved in extra projects with other people working at the Bank.

Yes several nights out for the interns were organised and paid for by HR. Most of the interns also went out together one night a week for drinks, and many of the interns had lunch together. We all still keep in touch.

The Bank is in the financial district in central London, so it is unlikely to be cheap. There are a number of pubs nearby that are reasonably priced, it's probably best to find these on the internet and book a table in advance.

There are a lot of pubs/bars nearby which are always popular on Friday nights. I went to a few of these with the other interns. The nightlife seems to be very good in this area, but I wasn't there long enough to experience a lot of it personally.

There is a gym on site. The Bank also has a sports club at Roehampton which interns get free access to. This has a wide array of sports teams rugby, cricket, football etc and a variety of teams which play for fun or competitively.