Balancing work, training and social events

So, I just finished the third week of my internship. In fact, I would say it is the second week in terms of real job as the first week was almost full-time training. Now, I have clear the objective of my summer project. I have to analyze the strategy of an existing business card and create a new one to replace it, so it is very interesting and challenging at the same time. I have to recognize that I was concern if I would finish my project in the time that I have, so I started to plan how I would approach the project and set weekly goals. As my assigned manager is a vice president, she is really busy and difficult to talk with. This is why looked for a person within my group, whom I can ask and talk more easily. He is a senior manager and is helping me a lot as he has a great experience in credit cards.

In parallel, as part of the Internship program, Citi organizes a speaker series program where, once or twice week, different senior representatives from the bank talk to all Citi Summer interns. So far, we have heard the CEO, CFO and Chief of Technology Office. Additionally, we, the Consumer Summer Associates, have weekly lunch sessions with different senior managers from the Consumer Banking group, so they can talk about their areas and let us know beyond the areas we are working on. So far, I can say that I have learned a lot from all this sessions, and equally importantly I have heard amazing stories about professional experiences within Citi.

Last, but not least, we also have social events included in the program. For example, we have had happy hours with ex-summer associates (and now full-time employees), or networking events with Consumer Banking senior managers; and this incoming week we have a picnic with the Finance Summer Associates. Besides this, we have named a Social Chair in our group, so we also have our own happy hours and weekly lunches, so we have a lot of social activity.

I feel really lucky to been in this program, as not only I am working in a great project but also, I feel Citi is really concern about us to learn more about banking and Citi. And obviously, I am having a lot of fun with my peers in the program. As I mentioned in the previous post, our group is a really diverse group, you can see it in the picture I above. We took this picture in our visit to Citi’s Union Square branch, Citi’s flagship branch in NY, as this is how they want to be in the future. It is great; I suggest that if you are in NY, you go there!

Hope you enjoyed the post.

Shila Arias