Engineering Intern Review

Engineering interns were placed in "scrum" teams of 5-10 people and given a project to complete over the course of the internship. Day-to-day this involved daily standups with a scrum manager (an employee of the bank) and independent/ intern group work. Interns also have an individual project to complete, giving suggestions on how AI can be applied to solve various challenges faced by the bank. This was used for the final interview, on which return offers are partially based.

None really. We had very little meaningful contact with actual employees and real work being done in the bank. Some teams were doing work on which future development could be based. It was a lot of responsibility in terms of how much work was completed by the group, as we had to mostly self-organise and were responsible for all decisions and progress made.

I have learned to use AI for software development and started to learn how to use several tools generally used in agile development eg. Jira. There was very little help or training provided, especially given they hire interns from any STEM background, not just computer science. You have some time to complete any external courses via the learning platform, but nothing felt useful to the actual internship project.

Very little. Since it's summer, the two NatWest staff members responsible for the project were away on annual leave for the first three weeks, meaning our group had very little guidance or idea what to do. The daily standups provided a point of contact with the scrum master, but they had very limited technical expertise and were insistent that the intern group make decisions between themselves. Each intern was assigned a "line manager" who wasn't based in office. Mine was lovely, and we had a weekly 1:1, but this served more as a point of assessment and a point to raise any logistical issues than for any kind of training or support.

The company culture is great, there is a big focus on work-life balance and everyone I encountered in the office was very friendly and welcoming. The office is a good place to be, with plenty of space and a variety of workspaces for individual work, group meetings and socialising. Interns are encouraged to take part in any events, attend wider company panels and engage in coffee chats with both fellow interns and their graduate buddies/ other people they might be able to talk to. There seems to be a good link between UK offices and the India teams. There are several intern socials organised throughout the programme, and a volunteering (corporate social responsibility) day, which is representative of the 3 days a year each employee is allowed to take for any volunteering opportunities.

The internship experience itself was quite disappointing, and I didn't learn as much about the job/ what actual graduates would do as I'd hoped. The lack of contact with actual teams within the bank felt very isolating, and made the work we did feel quite directionless and lacking in impact. The people offset this a fair way though - both interns and any staff we spoke to were all lovely.

Yes