Analyst Review

Overall I would say I enjoyed the whole experience. There were certainly some areas which I preferred to others. The work on my department was fairly repetitive but I got the chance to work on a couple of interesting projects where I was doing work that was completely new to the team as a one-off project. The people and social side made it for me, both were great. My department is fairly young so people were often keen to do things out of work, such as sports or just going for drinks.

The community feel to the team made it a really enjoyable place to work. I often commented that in the way I was treated you would not know that I didn't work there full-time. I was completely treated as a Lloyds employee and this really helped my initial integration into the team as well as for my development through my whole placement.

My manager and mentor gave me fantastic support throughout my whole time on placement. I was confident that I could go to them with any issues I may have had. They also helped me a lot with my development throughout, mainly with regards to my development objectives and my progress verses those. They helped design specific exercises for me to work on skills where I thought I was a little weak. I would maybe have liked to have had a little more support from my senior manager as she was quite distant at times.

Workload varied depending on the project we were working on and how far through the project we were, but on the whole I had about the right amount of work to do. A couple of times I felt like I was looking around for things to do, but this was towards the end of a project and I had finished the part I needed to do. On the whole the deadlines for work were realistic and accurate, allowing me to work on projects without massive time pressure but ensuring I always had something to do.

The level of responsibility I was given increased throughout my placement as I learned more about the area in which I was working. I felt that help was always there if I needed it but I was certainly encouraged to take the initiative on my work and try things for myself, which was a valuable experience. Obviously there was a bit of a limit as to how much responsibility I could take on as there were a number of more senior people in the team who did the more demanding work, but I was very happy with the amount of responsibility I was given.

Most of the skills I have developed are very valuable and will be very helpful later in life. This is particularly the case for softer skills, such as communication and presentation skills. I was encouraged to practice these at every opportunity which was good as it gave me experience of presenting to senior stakeholders which also taught me to cope well under pressure. Admittedly some skills may be less useful, particularly in my degree (coding) but even they may become useful again in a later job so it's still something I'm glad I've learnt.

The general atmosphere was very positive and happy most of the time. Obviously there were some people who were quieter than others but on the whole everyone was able to get on with their work but have fun at the same time. There were a number of events in and out of the office which made it a better atmosphere, for example a department wide bake-off and a number of quizzes.

Throughout the whole process I felt that the company really knew what they were doing and everything was handled expertly. When we first arrived there were a number of introductory activities and training work set up, and this continued right the way through, with all the placement students being managed well and getting good opportunities to develop along the way. We have been given the opportunity to speak to more senior people 1 to 1 at various points as well, and the organisation of the whole process has been excellent.

I think Lloyds Banking Group would be a great company to work for in the future. They seem to handle everything in a very professional and well organised manner. The immediate opportunities are not quite so appealing, because as a placement student you have the option to apply to come back to the same department as a graduate, which I decided I didn't want to do as the work isn't really what I want to do. Alternatively you could apply for the graduate scheme, however this would involve 4 6month placements which could be anywhere in the country, which again I didn't want to do. Therefore, whilst the company as a whole is attractive prospect for employment, the immediate options are not for me.

There were 11 placement students out of a department of 50 so the social scene between us was really good. We always went for lunch together and regularly socialised after work. The rest of the department was very sociable too, with there being a lot of graduates in their early to mid twenties. We play football weekly between ourselves and go out for drinks most Fridays. We also completed the Yorkshire 3 peaks together in June. On the whole the social scene so a lot better than I expected, with there also being a designated social committee who have organised a number of big events over the year.

I am a student in Leeds as well so it was great to do a placement here too. I still had friends who were students here so I was able to go out with them on some student nights which was good, but we went to a lot more bars and nicer places with work too. There was a great mixture of the two, with it being easy to find pretty much whatever you wanted in the way of nightlife.