The summer 2017 CSR Eagles cohort, with Lubna (back row, centre)
“The opportunities that Eagles, ELBA and RBS allowed me have been incredible! The projects that I am privileged enough to work on here are equipping me with a great deal of knowledge and skills as I continue to evolve in my career.”
As told by Lubna, currently on a 6-month placement extension at RBS in the Sustainable Banking department:
I graduated in 2016 having completed a degree in Business Management. Throughout my studies, I never really knew which career path or sector I’d like to work in. I’ll be honest, I ideally wanted to apply to corporate roles, but I held back as I naively thought the people who work in those buildings either a) don’t look like me or b) would make me feel rather intimidated (how wrong was I!)
I had two friends, both of whom had taken part in the Eagles scheme so I scheduled a dinner date to get a first-hand run down of their experiences. After speaking to them and listening to their experiences, I had a better understanding of the scheme, how it works and what CSR is. Thereafter I continued with further research and my interest and passion in CSR grew. I decided I wanted to apply to the Eagles programme and, luckily for me at the time, applications were open for the summer 2017 CSR programme. The application process was very easy – you’re just required to submit a CV and a covering letter.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I received an email from the ELBA team inviting me to a group assessment. I immediately felt defeated – when up against others face to face, we always seem to doubt our abilities. However, I was so confident that the scheme would be a great opportunity for me to learn and grow, I made it my mission to make sure I shone through and succeeded.
The assessment day came and I felt that it went extremely well. A couple of days later I was invited back to a CSR training session with all of the other successful candidates. This session was an opportunity for Sally, the programme manager, to give us an overview of CSR and we were also told about the companies offering placements and the job descriptions up for grabs for the summer programme. In addition, we were all booked into a one-to-one CV workshop with a professional who was extremely helpful in providing us with tips and tricks to make our CVs stand out. Sally then sent out our CV’s to our top 3 companies of choice. The wait was on.
I was invited for an interview with RBS for a role in their Sustainable Banking department in the City. The interviewers were extremely welcoming and overall I felt that it went excellently (I don’t think I mentioned that you’re also provided one-to-one interview practice during the assessment process!) I was hired! And I am now currently still working with them on a 6-month extension.
The opportunities that Eagles, ELBA and RBS allowed me have been incredible! The projects that I am privileged enough to work on here are equipping me with a great deal of knowledge and skills as I continue to evolve in my career.
You can achieve what you want, so, fly like an eagle!
