MI and Executive Reporting-Group Finance Review

I enjoyed the internship thoroughly, as it enabled me to gain valuable experience in the world of work and gave me an insight into the financial industry, which is one of the areas of interest for my future career. After being given a longer-term project to complete, the work done on this particular project felt more rewarding to myself as I was contributing to my own personal project that would ultimately be useful for the team. Consequently, this was one of the main positive aspects of the internship for me, as I enjoyed the idea of completing a personal project and it meant I gained experience with using the programs regularly used by the team. Also, due to the size of the bank, there are various offices around the UK, so I was allowed to travel to one of the London offices for example and partake in meetings. I enjoyed this as it meant I could see different areas of the bank, only available in that Lloyds location in the UK.

I was trusted to complete tasks on my own which suggests they valued my skills and I was invited to social gatherings such as team dinners and a work pub rally. The work I did on forecasts for the year was used by my colleague when meeting with a senior manager, which means the work was valued highly and the fact I was given a longer-term project to do, meant I felt valued, as I was entrusted to deal with an ongoing problem that had not been completed.

During the personal project I undertook, I was always offered guidance and support by my supervisor, who suggested what I needed to achieve and gave me the oppurtunity to see if i could get to that goal myself. However, if I requested assistance, my supervisor would always provide it as soon as possible. Also, when searching for colleagues I could shadow in different divisions, my manager gave me a list of names that he knew from various areas of the bank, which allowed me to contact them via email to ask about potential shadowing opputunities.

On a daily basis, during the time of my project I was busy, as it was always an ongoing task, so if I completed any other work given to me during the day, I would continue with the project. Also, when having to wait for responses from other members of my division, I had free time, so I asked if anyone needed any help and the majority of the time I was given a piece of work to do. Although, sometimes if I finished a task I would not have too much to do due to other colleagues being busy with important tasks, normally at the end of the month. However, this is likely due to my lack of willingness to actively ask for more work that often.

I was given a good level of responsibility during my internship, as I was allowed to individually get on with work that would actually be used as a forecast presented in a meeting to be held in London. Furthermore, I was allowed to actively work on files concerning high values of costs, indicating that they trust you to be responsible with the data you are to handle. Whilst on the other hand, the responsibility is obviously not too high, as although the files concerned important, large cost values, my supervisor would always check the work done to make sure there are not any gaping mistakes and some files required authorising, therefore the responsibility is shared as a result.

My Microsoft excel skills have developed significantly as a consequence, with new formulas learnt and more efficient ways of dealing with large volumes of data were shown to me. This means that for future coursework, these can be applied to get a better result and is likely to be useful in my future career as it is such a commonly used program. Also, the soft skills that have been developed and the overall experience of a working environment will be extremely useful beyond my degree, as they will be necessary when interacting with future colleagues to develop a good working relationship and means I will have good idea of how to present myself professionally at a workplace.

The general atmosphere was friendly and social, but hard working at the same time. This is emphasised by the fact there was frequent interaction between members concerning work related matters, whilst also talk about activities outside of work, such as what they did on the weekend and questions regarding personal lives

2) The internship was organised well because you were already placed in a team, accommodation was provided for those who lived too far away to commute and there were webinars organised for the first 4 weeks to help build skills. The programme was structured so that there's a ,mid placement review to outline how the internship is going and if there are any concerns that need to be raised, to ensure the 10-week experience is maximised.

There were weekly webinars for the first four weeks, targeted at developing interpersonal and integration skills. There were online training courses to enroll in which further improved these skills and IT skills too. Varous meetings and talks that I attended, provided me with useful knowledge that could be applied both in and out of a working enviroment.

There is the oppurtunity to move to the graduate programme depending on your line manager's referral. Also, there is the chance that if you do not like the area you are in, if employed permenantly, then it is easy to move to another division within the bank, so as long as you enter the company it is easy to shift between divisions.

The majority of interns were placed in accommodation if they were deemed too far away to commute, therefore we were close together and so it was easy to organise social nights out such as meals and clubbing. Although, it is heavily dependent on the type of people you are with, as it relies on whether they enjoy socialising or if they are just too tired from work.

The cost of living is not too high, the weekly expenses are easily covered by the wages and the accommodation is paid for by Lloyds. The office was in walking distance for me, which was about 20 minutes. The cost of socialising is not too expensive either, it is dependent on which pubs you go to for example or which restaurants you visit.

The nightlife was good, as you have a variety of clubs to choose from, many bars and the city is full of life on the friday and saturday nights, so the clubs have a good number of people in. Also, there are lots of places to eat after the night out, so don't worry about geting hungry.

There are numerous opportunities to get involved in activities outside work, such as football tournaments, some interns did abseiling, paddle boarding at the harbour, numerous gyms are placed around the city and many other activities are accessible after work. However, due to work you may miss out on weekday activites taking place before 5.