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Created on 17.08.2021 | Updated on 29.09.2022

Graduate internships or trainee placements: for a successful start to your professional life

Are you in the middle of your studies or about to graduate and looking for the perfect start to your career? With its graduate internships and trainee programmes, PostFinance offers two inspiring initial opportunities. These could be worthwhile options for you for the following reasons.

Your initial experiences of the working world can be groundbreaking: they often form the foundation for the rest of your career. With these entry-level programmes, students or graduates can gain their first exciting practical and professional experience. At PostFinance, you have the following two options:

  • Graduate internship: the graduate internship gives you initial work experience while you continue your studies. For six months, you will work in the area of your choice (e.g. innovation, market research etc., depending on availability) and gain an in-depth insight into our bank. The internship is suitable if you have studied for at least four semesters and want to take a break in order to gain some practical experience.
  • Trainee programme: the trainee programme is the ideal way to launch your career after your studies. You will work with us for one year and have the opportunity to choose two areas of special interest (e.g. risk management, marketing etc., depending on availability) and immerse yourself in each of them for six months. 20 percent of your time will be available for the projects that you would like to work on. It helps if you already have some work experience.

Ilija Braun talks about his time on the PostFinance trainee programme

Ilija Braun

 “I finished my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in economics and then did a doctorate in innovation and entrepreneurship. After such a long time in research and academia, I felt drawn to the practical world: my goal was to gain in-depth knowledge of a company. The trainee programme at PostFinance provides this opportunity by giving you insight into various areas.

Applying for the advertised trainee position at VNTR, the innovation team at PostFinance, was also the logical next step for me in order to find out whether the topic I covered in my doctorate was actually as exciting as I imagined. And yes, it really is! At VNTR, I followed a proof of concept for the implementation of a new technology from start to finish and maintained communication with startups in the area of open innovation. These responsibilities demonstrate perfectly that as a trainee, you are considered and deployed as a full member of the team. In the second half of the year, I switched to “Yuh”, the joint venture by PostFinance and Swissquote that launched the finance app of the same name. I was particularly pleased that I would not only be working with startups, but actually in a startup. In the 20 percent of time available for other projects, I worked for Regulatory Monitoring for the first six months, and I continued to work for VNTR in the second half of the programme.

I can recommend the trainee programme at PostFinance to anyone who is open to learning new things, would like to gain an in-depth insight into different areas, and is perhaps still trying to decide which direction they would like to take professionally. I actually came across the PostFinance trainee programme as a result of an internship at SBB. My successor at SBB recommended it to me based on her own experiences.”

Ilija Braun was a trainee at PostFinance from 2021 to 2022 and now works at the Yuh joint venture as a Business and Customer Insights Manager. This is what he has to say about his time as a trainee at PostFinance.

The best reasons for a graduate internship or trainee programme

According to our (former) interns and trainees, these are the best reasons for a graduate internship or trainee programme:

  • reason 1: a graduate internship allows you to take your first steps in the working world and make sure you’re on the right track – partly based on direct feedback from your practical experience.
  • Reason 2: the trainee programme gives you an opportunity that you wouldn’t have with a direct entry position: you have a lot of freedom in designing your own programme. This way, you can look at different areas and find out where you would like to work permanently.
  • Reason 3: during the trainee programme in particular, you will develop a sustainable network through interactions with trainees and interns from other areas and the many contacts that you will make during this period. Networking is also actively promoted through events.
  • Reason 4: although we are a bank, you do not need financial expertise for many fields of activity, but can acquire this during your time with us.
  • Reason 5: you will be appreciated. PostFinance attaches great value to its entry programmes. This is reflected, for example, by the fact that you are given a great deal of responsibility during your trainee programme.

Are you interested?

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