Software Engineering Intern Review
at NatWest Group
Internship (1 Month+)
Software Engineering
Edinburgh
Review Submitted: August 2024
Overall Rating
3 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
2/5
-
Overview of Role
2/5
-
Skills Development
3.5/5
-
Support and Guidance
4.3/5
-
Company Culture
2.5/5
-
Overall Experience
3/5
-
Future Career Prospects
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.
I was in a group with a small number of other Software Engineering Interns, under a manager from one of NatWest's SE teams. Each day there is a morning and afternoon standup to discuss our work. Oversight was very limited - we were broadly left to spin our wheels for the majority of the internship.
Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?
We had the opportunity to volunteer for some internals projects, wherein we as interns would govern ourselves and the development of the project. In this voluntary projects we were completely responsible, and this was very rewarding. However, in our placement work, it felt very much like we were shielded from anything "real".
Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was
2/5
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?
My technical skills were unfortunately not well used in this role. To the extent that any skills were developed, they were organisational (Agile ways of working, coordination with other interns etc).
How would you rate the training provided during your experience?
2/5
How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?
1/5
How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?
3/5
Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development
2/5
Support and Guidance
How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?
The work was not challenging, so support was not generally required, but I am confident that if it were needed I could have reached out to many of my colleagues at the bank and would have received help without complaint.
How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?
4/5
How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?
3/5
Company Culture
What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?
The Grad Placement people all seemed quite enthusiastic about their work, which was great to see. As you get more senior, naturally people are less energetic, but nowhere in the company was any sense of dourness or dissatisfaction.
How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?
4/5
How would you rate the social opportunities?
5/5
How would you rate the diversity initiatives?
4/5
How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?
4/5
Overall Experience
To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?
I very much enjoyed meeting and working with my colleagues (other interns plus grads), and found the work done in the voluntary projects engaging. Unfortunately, the dullness of the placement work my team was assigned reduced my job satisfaction quite significantly.
Please rate your level of enjoyment on your placement / internship
3/5
Please rate how your experience met your expectations
2/5
Future Career Prospects
Please rate the future employment prospects at NatWest Group
3/5
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend NatWest Group to a friend?
No
What advice would you give to others applying to NatWest Group
Regarding the Software Engineering programme specifically, be aware that NatWest goes out of their way to hire people from less-technical or entirely untechnical backgrounds. This provides a much greater diversity amongst colleagues, but unfortunately also means that the company cannot assign challenging technical work to interns, as a significant number could not take it on.
