7:45 a.m. I typically leave my house to catch the 30-minute bus ride downtown. I listen to music or a book on tape when I travel to and from the office. I’m currently listening to an enthralling detective mystery that makes me look forward to my commute each day. I arrive at the office at around 8:15am and head up to my desk to settle in. The floor is lively, filled with light chatter and sometimes the plinks of a ping pong game coming from the backyard area. Here, there are no assigned desks, although after a few weeks you get to know who prefers to sit in certain spaces.

Once I've settled in, I check my emails and calendar to see which events and meetings I have for the day. Typically, around 8:30 a.m. there will be some kind of intern event to attend, like a weekly program meeting, senior leader talk or professional development session to accommodate the time difference between U.S. and European offices. Following this, I start work on my project and remind myself of my to-do list I wrote down at the end of the previous day.

12:30 p.m. I have my daily meeting with my team where we share our progress and any challenges we are facing. During this meeting I am able to receive feedback on my work, ask any questions and learn what other members of my team are working on. This gives me a wider understanding of how my project fits into larger initiatives.

At the end of the meeting, I leave with ideas for what to work on next. This could be further testing of my prompts and code or 1-on-1 meetings with team members so I can ask them more in-depth questions. Then I grab lunch with a few of my intern friends in the cafeteria. None of us work in the same department, but the intern induction events at the beginning of the program allowed us to meet each other and form connections. At lunch we're able to catch up on each other's projects and learn what other departments are doing.

2 p.m. If I find myself stuck on how to progress in my project, during the afternoon I make use of the Learn at BNY portal to find courses related to my project. Since I came into this internship with very little knowledge of banking or finance, I use this time to gain a better understanding of how my work contributes to operations at the bank. In the afternoon, there are sometimes more events to attend as part of the intern program, like the AI demo day or networking sessions. These events are fun and also expose us to the resources available to us as interns.

“Intern induction events at the beginning of the program allowed us to meet each other and form connections.”

4:30 p.m. I begin to wrap up my work and write down any to-dos or ideas for the next day. As my internship approaches completion, I've been taking more time to reflect on the experience, either for performance reviews or to prepare to present my project to leadership, so the end of the afternoon is typically spent writing. Once I've made sure there is nothing else needed from me that day, I catch the bus and start my commute home.