Portfolio Assistant Review

In my role I support two Relationship managers in their administration tasks. This allows them to spend more time in front of customers than in the office completing the tasks I do. I also support Senior Relationship Managers from time to time if their support staff is busy.

A major skill that I feel I have developed is my ability to communicate with customers over the phone. I have had plenty of experience in retail so I'm comfortable talking to people face to face. However communicating with customers over the phone is not something I had done before, and is definitely a skill that I will use in the future.

I have really enjoyed the apprenticeship programme here at RBS/Lombard. I feel that the work side of the apprenticeship has been brilliant, as everyone is more than helpful and give you plenty of opportunities to learn new skills. I would say the weakest part of the course is the BPP side. Although the staff are very helpful I feel that they keep giving us admin things to do when we should be preparing for our exam.

I feel very valued by RBS, the frequent 1-to-1s with my line manager helps with this as he is able to give detail on what I've done well and what could be done better, so I know that he is aware of the work that I'm doing and has paid enough attention to even give me ways I can improve. The way the rest of the staff are willing to help me also makes it a better experience because I never feel like I'm annoying them or inconveniencing them with my frequent queries.

As I mentioned earlier I feel that the RBS side of the programme was very well done and the inductions in October were very helpful and gave a great overview of the business as a whole. The BPP side however could be improved by reducing the amount of admin that needs to be completed or perhaps asking us to complete it at the start of the year when we aren't necessarily preparing for an exam.

My training provider is very good she makes frequent meetings and takes all my queries on board and responds to them quickly as well, in our meetings if I have a query that she can't necessarily respond to there and then she will go away and then respond to me hastily via email.

My line manager is very good at supporting me and helping me improve in my role. As I mentioned earlier are monthly 1-to-1s are very helpful as not only does he tell me what I'm doing well but also how I could improve.

As I am still only young I don't necessarily have the bills or other costs that other people might have so for me my salary meets all my costs.

There are frequent social gatherings arranged with people in our building or Lombard as a whole, this provides a good opportunity to get to know everyone else throughout the South West region rather than just the SS + SW region that I work within.

Yes

I would recommend RBS because my experience working here has only been good. The rest of the staff are very friendly and are willing to help with any query I have. The benefits of working at RBS is that it is a large business which means there are plenty of opportunities to work at any part of the bank meaning there is probably a place for everyone.

Find a role that you think you will enjoy. As I mentioned previously the benefit of working for a bank as big as RBS is that there are plenty of different roles and plenty of different opportunities so it is more than likely that the perfect role for everyone is out there somewhere it's just a matter of fishing it out.