“I’m Theresa and I’ve grown up in the UK, my parents are from Ghana and I go there occasionally to see family, which I love. I would say I’m fairly confident and very friendly, but I’m sure my friends would most definitely describe me as dramatic because I love drama and acting. What I
love about acting is being able to explore different roles. Drama has also given me so much more confidence when I’m presenting and in interviews.
I heard about Babbasa through a friend who thought I’d be great for one of the placements they were offering. I was hoping to get a real idea of what a business was like behind the customer experience, due to my interest in marketing and management. I also wanted to understand how different departments come together to effectively provide the services products we count on. Babbasa definitely provided me with the accessibility to be able to find an internship that taught me skills and knowledge I was looking to acquire. Babbasa were very supportive and always happy to help me during the application process for the internship with Sun Life Financial.
The remote nature of the internship wasn’t too hard to get used to, I still found I was able to connect with all my mentors and colleagues during the internship through Zoom. I think the remote nature also provided me with the opportunity to network with professionals from the USA and Canadian branches of Sun Life Financial as well as those within UK.
The most valuable thing I gained was the insightful advice from successful industry professionals including the CEO’s of both the UK and Canadian company. I learnt how important each department is in the process of providing excellent service. The financial industry is much more than just numbers and maths!
I hope to use this experience to increase my employability as I have learnt valuable lessons from it. It has also made me aware of particular career paths I’m not interested in, as well as others that I enjoyed learning about, through our internal and external education pack. I hope to be able to apply the knowledge I gained from this internship into my Business A Level studies and future studies.
If I were to give advice to other young people in my position, I would definitely encourage them to all get as much experience as they possibly can. Experience allows you to explore various career opportunities and interests that you may potentially love or hate. It also allows you to make mistakes you can learn from, which is crucial for your own personal development. Lastly I’d advise you to follow your passions no matter how big or small they are, because the more you enjoy something, the better your chances of success are!”