My technology internship with Citi

I decided to pursue a career in IT within the financial sector because it allowed me to combine my interests in both IT and finance. However, I wasn’t sure which company or which area of IT I wanted to work in and thought applying for an internship would be the best way to find out more. I did a lot of research using the internet and careers fairs to find out which companies offered internships and then I targeted a few companies that I thought would suit me.

Working alongside specialists in infrastructure monitoring

I chose to do my internship within the technology infrastructure division at Citi. During my ten-week internship, I joined a team who were specialists in infrastructure monitoring. As well as increasing my knowledge of various applications such as monitoring tools, I also had the chance to develop my soft skills such as team working and communication by collaborating with teams in North America, Singapore, Poland and Germany.

My employer had also organised various educational events for the interns and these events helped me to gain more understanding of finance.

Show your internship employer what you have to offer

The technologies that I worked with were very different to what I had used at university and as a result the learning curve was quite steep, but I thoroughly enjoyed my internship because I was involved in real projects with other IT experts.

I think an internship gives you an opportunity to show what you can offer and it’s very important to adapt and learn quickly while accepting responsibilities. I went on to take up a position as a technology analyst with Citi after graduating.

Shane Bandara gained a computer science degree from University College London. He successfully completed his technology internship with Citi and returned to take up a graduate job as a technology analyst.