Meet Holly, part of the CAO Summer Intern Programme

I joined BNY Mellon as a CAO Summer Intern based within the Enterprise Sourcing Office at the Manchester Office. I chose this organisation to spend my summer after having such a great interview experience, I felt assured that this organisation would be a place I fit in well and that has proved to be true. The Summer Internship Program appealed to me because of the range of opportunities I would be exposed to, the program is extremely well structured and allows interns to maximise their time here.

I set myself two main goals with my manager at the beginning of my internship which was to advance my PowerPoint and Excel skills, these both tied in perfectly with the two main projects I was assigned. I have been working on updating all the training guides for a relatively new system my team launched, this is an important system that will be used across various areas of the bank. The old training guides that had been created originally were outdated due to the new enhancements made since the launch. This was a great opportunity for me to introduce myself to the new system, the training guides now have a fresh perspective and will be easier for a first-time user to understand. I used PowerPoint to create these guides which has already advanced my skills much further. My excel skills have also been improved by my second project which was to extract and export information from old files which are now stored in an excel tracker.

Alongside these projects within my team, I have been able to get involved in many other projects helping different lines of businesses. These are amazing opportunities to expand my network across the organisation and learn new skills. I have been heavily supported by my manager, team, and senior members since being at BNYM, the encouragement I have received to make the most of this experience has been unbelievable. There are no silly questions here which makes me feel comfortable in asking as many questions as I want to ensure I understand any given topic to the best of my ability. There is a great vibe across the organisation, especially within the Manchester office and this made the transition of moving to a new city for the Summer run smoothly.

Due to the size of the organisation and the global presence I have had the opportunity to meet many incredible individuals from different backgrounds. I haven’t come across an employee who has not been willing to spend some time with me to help navigate my time here. The highlight of my time here was the 1-1 call I had the CEO, this was a special moment that I know will stick with me throughout the rest of my career, the advice I was given from such an important figure was priceless. They are extremely invested in the success of early careers as the future leaders at BNYM, and I believe this is a great place to begin your career and progress within the organisation. From the many conversations I’ve had around the bank there is plenty of opportunity to make different career moves within the bank and this keeps myself reassured as someone who is not entirely sure where they want to go career wise yet.

The number of employees I have come across that have stayed with the bank +20 years is not surprising, I can see why people do not want to leave here. I would encourage anyone at university who has an interest in financial services to apply to the Summer Analyst Programme here at BNYM. I couldn’t fault my time here and 10 weeks doesn’t seem long enough. I know I will be leaving here with a totally different mindset about where I thought my future was going, I have made strong friendships among my cohort of interns and built a strong network of mentors that I know will help me navigate my next move. I will be sad when my internship comes to an end but if all goes well, I will hopefully return in a years’ time on the graduate scheme.