Technology Intern Review

I enjoyed the placement the majority of the time. The intern group and grads in my team were nice and good to spend time with. I was working in Technology so it was frustrating when code wasn't working and I was sorting through errors but that is part of the job.

I had an individual project so wasn't working on the same projects as my colleagues but they always made time for me when I asked questions and needed help.

My manager made time for us to meet fairly regularly and talk about how I felt the internship was going and what skills I wanted to develop. All interns also had a mid-internship review where we were given more structured feedback on how we were doing and how we could improve.

I had an individual project for the extent of the internship which took up most of my time. It meant I always had something interesting to work on though! I usually worked from 9 to 6/6:30 - the same as my team. We also had frequent training sessions, talks and intern events to do. I also spent some time work shadowing others in the business, although it's up to the individual intern how much you want to do.

Because I had my own project I didn't have any responsibility on any of my team's work but I had a lot of freedom with my own project and had the responsibility for delivering it.

My programming skills have definitely improved a lot although I worked a bit with the in-house systems so those skills aren't directly transferable. The whole experience gave me a good perspective of the industry and what working as a developer is like and it will influence which options I choose to study in my final year at university.

Where I was working there was a good atmosphere. It was easy to be yourself and talk to the other employees. There was a good balance of concentrating on the work to be done and being a bit more relaxed.

It was very well organised with a structured plan of events across the whole summer. For Technology we weren't directly asked which division we would like to go into and only found out which desks we'd be on about a month before the internship started.

There were many training events for the interns. Some were more effective than others but it was clear that the bank was investing in us.

At the end of the internship you are told whether you will be offered a graduate job with the company. In Technology interns will usually go back to work in the division they interned in.

The Tech interns were all nice and we got on well when we had events together. I spent more time with the interns and grads in my division than with the intern class as a whole though. We went for lunch together nearly every day and occasionally did things after work.

It's pretty expensive to live in London but then that's only to be expected. You get what you pay for in terms of things to do and opportunities. You also get used to the cost after a while and stop noticing it.

It's London so I guess there's good Nightlife as long as you are willing to pay for it.

There were opportunities to get involved in some sports events such as a charity run and touch rugby. I didn't get involved in those myself though. There are also employee networks which host events but the internship was too short to really get involved/take advantage of that.