Assistant Relationship Manager Review

I am an assistant to a relationship director who managed a portfolio of mixed SME businesses with a turnover of at least 2.5M. My day to day roles include; customer emails, fraud and service reviews, proactively meeting customers needs & managing risk through our customer due diligence exercise. I also host and attend customer meetings over zoom and in person.

All the skills that I have developed over the last year has come from the manager I work with and the other assistants on my team. We often share best practises & host zoom & face to face meetings with each other. I have learnt a lot by going on as many customer visits as possible.

In regards to my apprenticeship I have not enjoyed it as much as I though I would. I have found the sessions held over adobe have been unhelpful and not interactive at all. I dont feel like I have learnt much through these calls. All of my learning has come from the manager which I support.

I feel like it is over complicated and unorganised. I have been assigned 4 different tutors in twelve months. It was also dropped on me last minute that I would need to complete a last minute '10 hour green finance module' that they forgot to tell us about last Feb.

I have received as much help from my employee as I have needed and asked for. I couldn't fault Natwest for everything they have done to support me through the program. Time has always been allocated to me to complete any work. I have never felt that they have not prioritised my personal development.

The tutors that I have been assigned have been helpful (some more than others) Due to me having 4 different ones in 12 months through no fault of my own it hasn't helped with continuity. I feel like the hosts of the webinars have not been helpful at all.

I feel like my apprenticeship program is unrelated to my role. As I started the program as an existing employee I felt I had enough experience in customer service to be able to fly through the program unchallenged. I do feel like the green finance module would of been very helpful if we were told about it on time. Due to it being dropped on me last minute I have not had the time to digest it properly.

They have been restricted in what they can do for extra curricular activities due to us working from home for the majority of my course. There has been a lot of invites to online social events and different ways to keep us in touch with other apprentices. They could of done more in regards to networking events

Yes

I feel like Natwest is a really good employer and provides lots of opportunity for people who want to progress. I have been really happy with how much I have learnt during my time as an apprentice but I am just disappointed in how much I have learnt from BPP.

Don't be afraid to apply for jobs working in Branches and call centres as the bank provides lots of opportunity to use these as stepping stones for your future career (such as apprenticeships and talent programs). Also to not let your location / life balance effect your decision to apply for a role as the bank tries to be as flexible as possible when it comes to this.