Strategic Development Graduate programmes

Alex: Hi, my name is Alex Stamford.

Clover: Hello my name is Clover.

Ross: Hey guys, I’m Ross.

Emma: My name is Emma, and I’m part of the Commercial Banking scheme in London. I live in Mainestone in Kent.

Alex: I’m originally from Bedford, and I’m based up in Edinburgh.

Clover: I’m from China.

Ross: I’m from London, but I recently moved up to Edinburgh to start the Change and Business Solutions Graduate programme.

Emma: The hidden talent I have is that I can belly dance, not very well, but I can, and when I was in year 7, I won the school disco against someone who was really good at dancing, and I just got up and rolled my belly and suddenly I won the disco, and so I still feel bad about that to this day.

Ross: I’m a qualified ski instructor, and I love to carry on around my license card with me just to make sure that everyone knows I’m a ski instructor and if you need one, call on me.

Clover: A hobby that my colleagues wouldn’t expect me to have, is probably I’m a big fan of k-pop music, so during weekends, I often go to studios with my friends to practice some dances and we will also take some short videos together.

Alex: I enjoy playing guitar, I do a bit mountaineering in my spare time, and I also enjoy a bit of DJing as well.

Katie: Hi my name’s Katie.

Hootan: I’m Hootan Parsapour.

Georgina: My name is Georgina.

Gayatri: My name is Gayatri, and I’m from India.

Hootan: Born and raised in Birmingham, and that’s where I’m currently working as well.

Georgina: I am originally from London, but I am currently living in Jersey.

Katie: I’m originally from Reading in England, but I currently live in Edinburgh.

Katie: I’d say one of the more unusual days – and it wasn’t a work day – but at Edinburgh pride, there was a huge sort of group from NatWest, and we had a massive balloon and t-shirts, and it was really, really fun, and it was just really great to see so many people from within the bank on the weekend having a nice time and supporting Edinburgh pride.

Georgina: I think the most unusual day – well it was two days actually – was our team off-site days. That’s where our whole team from the UK, from Ireland, and from Jersey, come together in Jersey, and we have two days together, and we spent time exchanging ideas, working out ways to where we can work together better, try to think of new projects that we can work on which is great, but we also had an egg and spoon race, we had to make cars out of wood and see which one goes further. We did tree maintenance, so it was interesting. We did a treasure hunt as well, which was interesting as well, so an unusual day.

Gayatri: In May this year, the Graduates were invited to a services executive event at the Gogarburn office. This was a chance to meet Simon McNamara, the Group Chief Administrative Officer and his Senior Leadership team. It was a very rare opportunity to network with senior leaders, hear from them, and learn about their stories. The highlight of the day was when they asked us to look beneath our seats to check for randomly hidden prizes, and I was one of the winners. The prize was a rare mentorship opportunity with one of the senior leaders, which I thoroughly enjoyed and learned a lot from.

Hootan: The most unusual day was going into the office on a Friday, and being one of the only people in out of the entire building. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Don’t worry offices are busier now, so you won’t be as lonely, and one thing I did learn is that Thursdays are now the new Fridays.