IP Analyst Review

really good insight into the world of business, especially after only having studied mathematics I was worried I wouldn't have enough business or economics knowledge to get by but its soon easy to pick up, plenty of people on hand to answer your questions. in fact in my team it was encouraged to ask questions

Lloyds is a very inclusive environment, in fact they have a whole team dedicated to inclusion and diversity which run workshops and events that you can attend via livemeet. Not only that, but my actual team were very supportive and like I said encouraged me to ask any questions I had, or even help me with any work I had.

for the first 6 months of my placement I had a hands on day to day manager who helped me with most of my day to day work, and got me to grips on the project that I would ultimately be working on for the final 6 months. very supportive, encouraged my development and we had frequent 1 to 1 meetings to discuss development

the first few weeks might seem like youre not doing much, and I think that will be true for any organisation especially when this is your first office job, but don't worry it will soon pick up. by a month in I had plenty of work lined up and I was loving every bit of it. come towards the end of the year you will probably be such an asset that your team members will be coming over asking you for help!

initially I wasn't given much responsibility but I thought this was a good thing as I didn't want to be going into heavily responsible high impact work when ive only just started learning the ropes. as I got a few months into the year, my manager would ease me in to more work and let me do more work by myself. by 6 months in I was fully competent in doing my own project by myself, and my new manager new this and so I was fully responsible for this and loved it.

working in an office environment definitely has helped my concentration, and I think I can apply this at university during lectures so im not dazing off! Im definitely going to apply the 9-5 working hour at university so that I can keep the weekends to myself, this is something ive enjoyed loads. SAS and SQL coding experience, along with analytical experience is definitely useful for my future career aspirations. this job has definitely got me excited for what lies ahead of me in my career.

depends completely on where you're based to be honest. i was based in Halifax and so the office is a tiny bit outdated, but the team and the atmosphere was comfy, and very friendly. i wouldn't say it was a fun office, but i don't imagine that is true for any office. there was a tv, and you're allowed to listen to music so its easy to keep yourself entertained while doing work. as long as you are doing your work, that is!

my day to day manager sorted out everything IT wise, and everything was sorted on the day. an intern was also starting in my team and so everything was set up for her aswell. one of the key issues i would say were the communication between hyphen (the company that pay us) and lbg itself, as it seems like to book a holiday you had to update a holiday calendar in 2 places. (let your team know, then let hyphen know) which seems a bit silly to me. you do get a visit from your service manager (from hyphen) once or twice in the year, to check how everything is going. he can answer a few of your questions about certain things to do with pay aswell, which is quite useful.

LBG is extremely supportive in development. I attended a 4-day SQL training course in Bristol, a credit scoring training course, a SAS course. Along with courses, you are also very encouraged to participate in job shadowing, which basically means you go and visit a team that interests you (anywhere in the bank!) and you go and shadow them for a day, see what kind of jobs they do, any day to day activities. My manager was very supportive of this, and I even got a trip to Bristol again to go and visit a Commercial Banking team. Along with this, you should be having 1 to 1 meetings with your manager to discuss development to put on your balanced score card to encourage development. This means encouraging you to do activities outside of your day job! Such as presentations, organising social activities, you name it. It will all add up.

The only reason this is rated so low is due to the hiring freeze that's on right now. doesn't seem likely that the organisation will be hiring anytime soon. needless to say, i will come back if i can but im not restricting myself. there was an opportunity for placement students to apply on the graduate scheme, and if successful you are guaranteed a place for when you graduate. this is excellent for certain individuals, but is kind of a discouraged scheme for certain types of people. I didn't go for it as you had to move location every 6 months. there is currently nothing in place in terms of fixed jobs for placement students, that is probably only specific to teams.

each site has a hub champion, who is responsible for organising social events and such things. being in Halifax, there was a mix between IPs living in halfiax and leeds and so was a bit difficult to plan a social that both could attend (due to travelling), however it did work and we went on many social activities. such as after work bingo, drinks etc. in terms of the team, social was quite limited but we did on a Christmas meal and such, and they were very open to the idea of socials. we did have a Thursday bowling tradition where we go bowling every Thursday lunch, which was fun. its a case of trying to organise something yourself if you want something happening, people are usually open to ideas and events.

was based in Halifax so everything here is very very cheap. there is a nightclub that has drinks for only 75p. plenty of restaurants that serve fairly cheap meals. if you want something a bit more luxurious in this location, leeds and Manchester are only 40 minutes trains in either direction. the price in those cities are probably a bit more, but probably worth it if you want something a bit more high end.

i did like the clubs in Halifax, but i know they weren't that popular with other people based in Halifax. i guess its a personal preference thing.

plenty of social activities going on, if not in your team then definitely outside of your team. also plenty of volunteering opportunities which you can log your hours and earn money for charity! if there isn't something going on, you can easily organise something and you will likely get a good handful of people eager to attend.