RBC Royal Bank

Regional Banking Branch Operations Associate

May - August 2023 • Toronto, Ontario

What I liked

- Enabled me to develop my time management skills. Some deliverables I had to complete needed to be completed as soon as possible or within a strict time constraint alongside several other deliverables. - Challenged me to step outside of my comfort zone by leading team discussions and pitching my ideas to the rest of the team. I really felt like I was able to develop my leadership skills through the many opportunities to redeem my accountability and interpersonal collaboration. - It gave me an opportunity to hone my Excel skills. At times I was dealing with Excel files with 1000+ rows of data that needed to be sorted through within only a few hours. - The location for my internship was really close to the harbour and right behind the new Love Park located downtown, so there were always scenic places to explore and walk around.

What I wish was different

- I wish the internship was more aligned with my interests. The job required repetitive, administrative work that oftentimes seemed futile in terms of adding value to the company. Nevertheless, it was useful in terms of getting a taste of what the work world is like. - I wish there were more opportunities to network with other students as I was the only intern on my team. More networking opportunities in general would have been beneficial as the particular function I was working within (Personal and Commercial Banking) seemed cut off from other functions (Wealth Management, Capital Markets, etc). This may be because of how my internship was designed or just because of my specific team (most of my team resided outside of Toronto or worked from home).

Advice

- Try your best to step out of your comfort zone by networking with as many people as you can. Connections have the potential to connect you to more opportunities and summer jobs in future years. - Learn the value of deprioritization. Your manager may give you a task to complete by a certain date, but another more urgent deliverable may be given to you on that due date. You must learn how to prioritize what must be done first and place other deliverables on the back burner, so to speak. - Never be afraid to ask for help. I used to be apprehensive about asking my team for clarification about things to avoid coming across as incompetent, but sometimes asking even simple questions can save you 10 times the hassle and stress. Your team is always willing to help you.

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