Operational Quality Control Intern Review

As this was my first ever placement I was a bit nervous to start with as I didn't know what to expect but after 10 weeks I can say I really enjoyed it, its been one of the best experiences I've had and would definitely recommend it to anyone

As an intern I felt very valued by the people in my department and especially my manager they treated me like a valued colleague and I had meaningful tasks that impacted the bank in different ways while working with everyone in my department

My manager was very supportive right from the first day she always in contact with me asking me whether I needed help with anything or if I needed anything in general. Even when she wasn't onsite she would always call me or email me and we had weekly 1-2-1s where my manager would ask me if I needed any support or guidance with anything

My department in general is busy an my manager didn't just give me meaningless tasks to do just because I was an intern. I was given important work to do on a daily basis as well as working with other managers in the bank and helping them with projects and reports.

I was surprised as to how much responsibility I was given especially with some of the reports I had to produce for my managed which once produced were used by senior people in the bank. I was also given work to do where the team wanted me to get on with and wanted my opinion and then that opinion was used in a big report I enjoyed having this responsibility and it was a great learning experience

The skills learnt will be vital not just for university but any future jobs that I intend to do. I learnt things like time management, team working, showing initiative all these skills and many more will help me with my goals at university and also in my future career

My floor was really busy but I liked this atmosphere as everyone was always working on something. In my department it was very busy but relaxed it helped having a graduate in my team and she helped me a lot especially in the first couple of weeks but everyone was always very friendly and everyone was always willing to help if I needed it

Overall it was good most things were in place before arrived our logins were all setup and we had portal access aswell as access to anything else we needed

We had weekly 1-2-1s with our manager where we would discuss what I wanted to achieve out of the internship and how my manager and Santander could help me achieve this

All the interns had a chance to become graduates and we were told this was the case from the beginning this was important and also very helpful. We could become a graduate in the same position as we were interning in

Yes all the other interns based in my location were very friendly and we met up everyday as well as spend time together after work. As well as this Santander had a CSR initiative in place this bought all the interns that are based in the same location together it was fun and gave everyone a chance to interact with each other

The cost wasn't too expensive as i wasn't based in a major city although Leicester is a nice place to live the apartment rental prices were very reasonable and all the interns would regularly meet up to spend time together after work and we found the prices to socialise to be very reasonable

The nightlife was not too bad there were a lot of restaurants and many other shops open but everyhting does seem to shut pretty early especially when compared to Birmingham or london

There were many things go do especially as we were based not too far from a retail park as well as the city centre