I was sent a confirmation email that offered me a place on the Leicester award with Santander on the 12th of November and I was told attend the first session of the Leicester award on Wednesday 14th of November. After I was given the date that I had to attend Santander, I started researching about the company thinking that i would be fully prepared for the session. But I soon found out that there was so much more to know about Santander then I could find on google. It was an huge learning curve but an incredible experience.
It was 1pm on Wednesday when I arrived at the Percy Gee building at Leicester University and soon after, the coach arrived to take us to the headquarters of Santander in Carlton park. The group that was taking part in the Leicester award with Santander consisted of around 15-20 people.There was a buzz on the coach as everyone was anticipating the journey ahead. When we arrived and stepped of the coach, the first thing i saw was the headquarters at Carlton Park, I was really surprised by the size of the building as it was HUGE !
This was the entrance to Santander Headquarters in Carlton Park (Picture taken by Sabrina).
Once we entered the building, we were each given a visitors lanyard card and the group was taken to a meeting room which had our allocated seats. The employees at Santander had introduced themselves and then they presented a powerpoint that consisted of the current financial situation, what banking is, and a presentation on Santander itself. I thought the presentation was incredibly useful and it gave us a real insight into Santander and the current banking industry.
After the presentation we were split into 2 groups of 8, and we were given a guided tour around building which, as it was so huge, took about 10-15 minutes. This gave us a look at the basic layout of the bank and where the cafeteria was, resting areas, etc. After we ended up back where we started from, it was from there that we were given a practice group assessment to take part in. Again, we were split into a group of 8 and we were given a case study of a company to look at. The group and I were told that we had 10 minutes to study the case individually and then 20 minutes to discuss about the case and another 10 minutes to reach a conclusion to what the company should focus on improving. I felt pretty nervous as this was my first time participating in a group assessment and in front of the professionals.
During the group assessment, all of us contributed to ideas and gave feedback about different points that were made. After our time limit ran out, we only ended up agreeing to 2 out of the 3 necessary improvements that the company should focus on. Lorcan from Santander gave us a group feedback at the end of the activity and he told what we performed well on, and the parts that we did not perform so well on. For example: we were told that the group could have been more organised when discussing about the goals of the company, we should have related the goals to position that we are thinking of applying to, and there were more recommendations which I have noted and taken away with me. I found the feedback to be extremely useful as it gives me greater insight into what employers will be looking for as well.
As we were nearing the end of the day, questions were asked by a few of the group members and I also asked if we were able to get individual feedback for the group assessment and I was told to email Lorcan or speak to our group leader about it. The day finished at 6pm and the coach took us back to Leicester University. I enjoyed the trip to Santander and I learnt a lot more about how banks operate and what to do in group assessments. I thought that the group assessment was the most useful part of the day and I learnt the most from that activity. I believe that I will be able to apply the knowledge that I learn from the practice assessment to a group assessment in the future. I definitely recommend applying to the Leicester University Santander award and it is a very good opportunity to learn more about the sector and get any questions or queries answered.
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