I did a couple of engineering placements as part of my degree and then I did an internship at RBS in Technology and when they offered me the graduate scheme for the year afterwards I jumped on it really, because it had been so different from the experiences I'd had before and the technology we're using is much more up to date and more interesting to me so that's why I decided to go back and do the graduate scheme.
OK, so we all know there's a credit crunch on at the moment and everyone's read about RBS in the papers, but what I would say is that RBS are still recruiting – when many banks aren't. And they are really keen on bringing in the fresh talent because there are challenging times ahead and they do need the right people to make it work and to take the bank to a different stage to what it's been in before. Which actually makes it a really exciting time to join a bank because there's lot's of projects around about how to save money and how to improve efficiencies that you can get involved in. There's a lot more freedom to do different things because what we've done in the past might not have worked so now you suggest something new and different, this is what graduates bring to RBS is a fresh look on things. So, I'd say don't be put off because they really need people like graduates to come in and take the bank to the next level.
When you're a graduate you get a mentor and a buddy, so the buddy is someone that you can confide in about anything, and they won't take it any further and they're just supposed to be kind of a friend to help you through starting your job. A mentor, as it suggests is someone who helps you develop your career and helps you with any problems you're having in your job. It's quite good because the way they've structured it, the graduates are now buddies to the interns, so we can now help them through their new jobs, because we've been there ourselves.
The people I work with at RBS, they're all very knowledgeable, they know what they're doing. There are people who've worked there for years who could tell you about all the different areas of the bank because they've rotated around but there are also people who've come in fresh from other banks, or other technologies and they all come from different cultures, different academic backgrounds as well. It's a very nice place to work.
After my graduation scheme ends I will be going into the Solutions Engineering team and this is really good for me because this team is looking at delivering the infrastructure needs that the business require. That?s really where I want to work so I can learn all about the different areas, how they meet business requirements and basically, how the whole thing fits together.