Risk Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of my placement. It was really interesting, with varied tasks anf I learnt so much about Risk and the financial industry.

The more that I learnt and was able to contribute, the more I was valued by my colleagues. I felt like a permanent member of the team, and was given a lot of responsibility.

My line manager was absolutely fantastic. He was really supportive and cared a great deal about my development. He was open and honest with me so I knew how I was performing and what areas I needed to work on developing. I was given a hige amount of support and guidance, and was offered many trainintg opportunities throughout the year to improve my employability.

For my first few weeks of placement I was not given many tasks to complete, but spent a lot of my time reading induction documents and learning about Risk. There is a steep learning curve when you begin your placement, but you are given help and support in understanding the business. After my induction period I had a lot of work which kept me really busy, but not too much that it was overwhelming.

A few months in to my placement I had to fill the vacancy of a colleague who left the team. As a result, I was given a lot of responsibility and had to perform at a higher level than would normally be expected of an Industrial Placement. However I enjoyed this challenge and was able to demonstrate to my manager that I was capable of completing more complex tasks.

My placement was not really related to my university course - Mathematics. However, I have developed a huge amount of skills that are demanded by graduate employers, and will be able to work more efficiently in my final year of studies.

The atmosphere was really good - everyone worked well as a team. Everyone in the office was really friendly and willing to help. All of my team members were older than me and at times the office was a bit quiet.

The placement was well organised, and my team were well prepared for my start date. I would have preferred more contact with my placement employer, Pontoon, as we were told they would be visiting us a few times througout the year and they didn't visit at all to discuss our progress. However, I was lucky that my manager was really good and that I had a really positive placement experience with no issues.

As LBG is such a huge organisation, there is a wealth of training materials and courses that you can access. Alongside this, I completed an Aspiring Management Programme, which has given me the skills needed to complete a managerial role in the future. I also completed a three day course on creating reports, which will benefit me in future roles.

Future employment prospects are very appealing within the Group. I was offered a place on the LBG Risk Graduate Scheme, so am delighted my placement year has paid off. LBG employs around 88,000 people, so there are always exciting vacancies.

There were only 4 other placement students in Scotland, so we did socialise together a bit. However, there are around 60 LBG graduates in Scotland which are around a similar age to me, so we regularly socialised with them at evenings and weekends.

The cost of living was much higher than I was used to back home. However, placement students from London found it a much cheaper place to live.

Nightlife is good, there are a lot of brilliant pubs which open late. The nightclubs are not as good as I am used to, but there is plenty of stuff to do around the city.

My team were older and a lot of them were married with kids, so we did not really socialise outside of work. There are some sports clubs - e.g. football and hillwalking - which you can join.