intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship as it was not a stream I had originally applied for and so it was interesting to learn new things about Mobile within digital and how it develops due to advancements in technology. The working environment and how everyone interacted made my internship enjoyable in the sense that colleagues were always willing to give up time to explain their role and how the Lloyds mobile app has developed.

My colleagues were generous, kind, approachable and made my experience easy-going and enjoyable. They were happy to have time for me to ask them questions about their role and responsibilities. For example one colleague explained to me the technicality of how the Digital structure operates within Group IT. So although my experience at Lloyds did not really relate to my university degree, I learnt new things from the colleagues which allowed me to develop my communication skills too.

My line manager and myself had weekly catch ups however, this was more related towards guidance and support for tasks I was completing for her and the team. I did not receive much support within the first few weeks in terms of admin and key dates however as weeks progressed, my line manager had informed me how I should complete my BSC and how the referral process will work.

I was relatively busy on a daily basis, however, the first few weeks of my internships were not as productive as I wasn't given much tasks to complete. Nevertheless, I proactively found ways to make myself busy such as completing the mandatory training and also exploring SharePoint to learn more about the project I was placed in.

My line manager gave me responsibility in terms of being in charge of producing key documents and chasing up relevant members of the teams to make sure actions could be closed. In addition to this, I had responsibility in terms of making sure I could deal with any enquiries when stakeholders were absent.

As my internship was in a field which did not necessarily align to my university degree, the knowledge I gained might not be as useful compared to if I was actually studying IT. Nevertheless, there are certain skills I hope I can take with me to university such as time-management, working towards deadlines as well as being organised in terms of noting things I have to complete and prioritising the most important tasks.

The general atmosphere was relaxed, loud and enjoyable. My office was generally loud in the sense that loads of team discussions take place both work related and general conversations. This made the working environment enjoyable as there was a balance between both work-related and social discussions. Additionally, there were many days in which people would share treats to the whole floor which showed how kind and generous the staff were.

To some extent, the internship was set up considerably well. However, I felt as if it was relatively unorganised. I often found myself finding things out from other interns rather than the Emerging Talent team who set up the internship. The first few weeks were definitely challenging as certain things were not made clear such as holiday pay, how to refer applications- this should have been informed to all interns at the beginning so we could have clear direction of how to go about the referral (instead of finding out about how to do this a week before our interview)

Generally, there was not much training or development as I often was given admin tasks to complete rather than actually learning something new such as excel skills or how to use the software my colleagues used such as Visio. I don't think many interns like myself were given much training prior to our internship which could have been useful in the sense that I could understand better about my stream before starting my internship.

LBG is an established bank and after celebrating their 250 years in service proves how well-established the bank is. The future employment prospects extremely appealing as the group continues to expand and develop their services- something I have witnessed within Digital and something I hope to be a part of.

The interns in my office were really nice and we tended to arrange social events for us to socialise and meet each other. In addition to this, there were social events arranged by interns for both interns and scholars which was nice as we could meet new people from different streams and offices. In terms of a social scene with colleagues, our office has a end of months drinks event which was enjoyable too.

As I live in London my cost of living was not high. Socialising was quite costly however most intern events occurred at 'happy hour' times so it was relatively cheap.

London has a number of bars and clubs which are popular amongst the student scene. We would try to organise a range of intern socials with a choice of several bars and clubs to choose from.

There were opportunities to complete fundraising activities outside of work.