Corporate Tax Associate 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 company so it is satisfying to know your work is important.

My colleagues were great at spending time to ensure I learnt the processes involved thoroughly and that I completely understood my role. They helped me build my network across the bank for help for my project and for my own career progression.

I had weekly one to one meetings with my manager to gain feedback on my progress and project work. This also allowed me to ask for support on any problems I had or issues to resolve.

I was able to take on as many investigation cases as I wanted, in addition to my own research for my project. I also undertook numerous work shadowing and attended speaker sessions.

I was assigned my own set of cases to reconcile and investigate. My project was independent work which I had to arrange meetings myself with other business departments.

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 atmosphere in my office was probably one of just a few disadvantages of the internship. The offices were big with loads of teams working in each and nobody really knew each other well. I haven't met anybody in my office apart from my team.

Excellent attention to training, then the project worked well alongside my BAU tasks to increase my knowledge and expand my skills. The regular networking sessions helped me meet other interns and expand my knowledge of the other roles available in the bank.

Had many training sessions both at my desk and in meeting rooms with various people. Work shadowed other members of staff and also helped train other new recruits.

I got an offer for a graduate program within the company which I am very pleased about. The only disadvantage is that the graduate program needs to be in the same department and location as the internship which makes it a bit inflexible for such a big company.

Most of the interns lived together in accommodation organised by the company. This ensured that everybody knew each other and there was a lot of social life going on. There was a lot of bonding events at the beginning as well.

I lived at home so was able to save money on living expenses and food. The bus fare to work was expensive though.

Bournemouth is quite fun to go out a variety of bars and clubs. It was good to discover new places with the other interns.

Took part in a corporate social responsibility day at the Purbecks to help the local community. There were also some sports club and charity work.