Assistant Manager Review

Very varied day to day, lots of travel to different site locations. Opportunity to have one to ones with many different people within my area of the Bank, which provided great insight into the wider business. Some days were a bit slow with less work to do but the opportunity is what you make of it and I filled time by scheduling shadowing days within different business units

I was given the opportunity to travel alone to Glasgow from London to conduct a focus group with other colleagues. This made me feel very valued as I was trusted and made responsible to do this on my own, despite it only being my 4th week with the company. However on occasion I was asked to do some work, but then at the last minute a colleague did it instead, which at times was a bit frustrating, especially during times when my work load was low.

I was given a laptop and a phone so I was always able to contact members of my team if needed. I had regular one to ones with my line manager, development based but also work based. In addition, the open plan structure of the office makes it easy to ask questions as you go along from different members of the team.

After already having completed a year long placement in another company with lots of responsibilities and a high work load, I did find the work at Lloyds a bit slow and boring some of the time. I think this was due to the nature of my team and the fact that it was very small so there was not as much to get involved in.

Apart from conducting some focus groups alone, I was not given much of my own responsibility and accountability. Often work I did would be emailed out by another colleague, or I would do a piece of work just to have them change it and send it out themselves. I found this very frustrating as it was counter productive, wasting my time as well as my line managers.

My degree is science based, so therefore this role in banking is not that applicable to my university studies. However I have chosen to do some Business and Finance modules in my final year, therefore this experience will give me more confidence when approaching these I am sure. This placement has improved my interpersonal skills and enhanced other transferable skills which I am sure will be useful in the future.

Everyone was very friendly accommodating and helpful. My office was quite quiet due to the nature of my small team, however one positive of this was the fact that I was able to work from home quite often which was a nice perk, especially with such a long commute into London.

Because Lloyds take so many scholars and interns, i do feel like overall it is quite well organised if you start and finish alongside the main cohort of people. However due to the fact that I started late and have a very small team, I do not think i have experienced this as well as I could have done. That said, there are always contacts in the Lloyds Scholar team who you can reach out to and they were very helpful and accommodating with problems and any issues you might have.

I had to complete some online training courses linked to my job role within the first week of my internship. These were quite insightful and interesting. However, compared to my other placement I did not feel as invested in, but this could just be due to the fact that we are only here for 10 weeks so it is hard to fit everything in. There was also a series of development webinars for the interns to take part in, however at times these were a bit basic, especially for those who have compelted other placements and internships at other companies.

If you want to get your foot in the door in banking then I would say future employment prospects within this organisation are quite good. They take on a lot of grads so you are not alone in the company and so they have a lot of experience in this area. However the only downside is you may be placed in a variety of locations and roles, which give you a great insight into different areas of the company, but may be difficult for some.

London has a great nightlife and lots of good connections to other places. There are many bars, clubs, restaurants that you can enjoy during your time here and many other activities to get involved in. Many of the Lloyds scholars live together and so there is a large social scene in that respect. However, as I was in a small team and lived at home I did not get to know any of the other placement students.

As I was based in London the cost of living was expensive as you might expect! I spent around £10 a day just on food, and due to the fact that I had quite a long commute, a weekly travel card cost me around £60. Luckily, because I lived at home I did not have to spend any money on rent. However, other Lloyds Scholars are provided with free accommodation for 10 weeks while they are on placement, so they try to ensure that everyone's expenses are approximately the same for the duration of the placement.

London has a great nightlife and lots of good connections to other places. There are many bars, clubs, restaurants that you can enjoy during your time here and many other activities to get involved in. Many of the Lloyds scholars live together and so there is a large social scene in that respect.

Yes, one large aspect of the internship is getting involved in the Responsible Business challenge. Teams of around 10 Scholars and Interns are placed together in a competition to see who can raise the most money for the Charity of the Year across the 10 weeks. However, due to the fact that I started my internship later than the normal cohort, it has been more challenging for me to get involved in this. Other than this, I have not come across many other activities to do outside of work.