Senior Research Assistant Review

I am currently a senior research assistant in the international directorate of the Bank. When I started my degree, I was a research assistant. My current role involves providing international economic data to analysts and assisting with the analysts. I also help to prepare presentations and data emails for the analysts.

During my role, I have learnt a lot of Microsoft office skills. This includes enhancing my existing powerpoint presentation skills and most importantly Microsoft Excel skills. I have learnt to conduct analysis in Excel and have also learnt how to format and create charts for presentations used by the division. I have also learnt how to do basic programming using R and have enhanced my data visualisation skills in Tableau.

My programme has been interesting thus far. Doing an Economic degree alongside working at the Bank of England has been beneficial. I have learnt a lot of the fundamentals behind what my organisation does and it has helped me to understand the work and the importance of it a lot more. I have enjoyed learning online and having a day to do my university work. The structure of the take-home exams have also been beneficial as it reduces some of the pressure on us.

I think the structure of the programme is okay. As we're learning online, I appreciate that our degree is much longer than others and our term times also run through to July. This at first was a bit difficult as I felt I didn't have that much of a break from uni, but have become accustomed to it over the second year. I really enjoy having a dedicated study day and using that to purely focus on Uni work.

The support I've received from my employer has been extremely beneficial. I have always felt supported by my line manager and my immediate team. For example, in periods where I know that I have a uni assignment my team has really accommodated it and have ensured that I'm not overloaded with work. Work have also been very flexible with my study days and are always happy to give me extra if I need them.

We do receive quite a lot of support from the training provider. They have given us access to all uni student resources, although I'm unable to comment on the benefit of them as I haven't used them. The Uni has been good in listening to our feedback and changing some of the tests etc as necessary.

Doing an economics degree whilst working at the Bank of England has been very beneficial. Whilst studying Macroeconomics, I've been able to learn a lot more about the processes of the Bank and have understood the importance of them. I've also learnt a lot of economic analysis roles, which in my current role is useful. Having said that, there are certain modules where I feel that I can't use what I've learnt in them in my role.

There are a wide range of networks to get involved in in my workplace. I have joined several networks, including the Women in the Bank network. These networks usually run different events and there's always opportunities to get involved with them. There's also opportunities to have larger roles in the networks, e.g. Leadership roles.

Yes

The Bank has been a great place to start my career. The work has been really interesting and I was surprised to see how diverse the Bank is. Regardless of your background or age, people do make you feel welcome. From my personal experience, I was lucky to have a supportive manager from the get go who helped me a lot in my career, and have managed to be promoted during my 2 and a half years here.

Always be your authentic self. You don't need to have an economics degree to work at the Bank, there's a wide variety of roles and all backgrounds are welcome. If you get a role in the Bank, networking is something I would recommend. The people here have such interesting backgrounds and everyone is always up to offer support.