Commercial Banking Intern- SME Review

I can genuinely say I thoroughly enjoyed my internship at Lloyds Banking Group; this is because of several factors. The collaborative culture allowed me to get involved with vast areas within Commercial Banking and colleagues are more than happy to help you. My role/ location perfectly suited my current interests.

My direct team integrated me fairly quickly and I felt valued especially producing several pieces of work to a high standard. I often approached Lloyds Banking Group colleagues to proactively seek opportunities and received a great reception always. Quickly building up trust by completing work to a high standard and engaging I believe is a way to feel valued by colleagues as you will then receive more responsibilities.

My Line Manager gave me the scope to get involved with anything I so desired but initially mapped out my first couple of weeks at the bank. From there my Line Manager/ surrounding supervisors would check if I am getting what I need from this internship in terms of experiences. If I needed help they would be more than willing to introduce me to the appropriate people.

How busy you are depends on your pro-activeness. If you’re willing to approach people and ask to get involved you will shortly finding yourself having to decline invitations to client appoints for example because you already have one in the diary! I found myself fairly busy as I proactively filled up my calendar.

A lot of my work was to be used to present to Senior Managers and form the foundations for developing strategies. This is rewarding as Senior Managers found your work useful and were thankful for your efforts. Being confident with the task you have been set and asking questions where appropriate lead to more responsibilities.

I believe the internship develop my confidence, regardless of how confident I thought I was before, as presenting in front of a team of Senior Managers is something I haven’t necessarily don’t before. Part of my degree studies the banking industry- I believe my knowledge and my level of understanding has increased significantly.

My office is quite large and open plan and is the central location for NW SME so contained a variety of teams. All teams interacted with each other and specifically to me, colleagues would make me feel welcome by being friendly and making conversation where appropriate. The atmosphere is quite calm, but hard working.

The initial induction is a completely seamless event and a great way to start the internship. My access to IT and systems and travel booking processes was pretty straight forward and majorly in place before my arrival. There was a slight hiccup with submitting expenses however this was resolved fairly quickly.

I believe that Lloyds Banking Group has made a huge investment in you from the outset as they give you this opportunity as an intern. As I have previously said, all your colleagues were willing to sacrifice their time to spend some time with you; this is a huge investment considering how busy they can be.

Returning to Lloyds Banking Group as a Graduate is extremely appealing thus explaining my hard work throughout the internship. I personally am motivated by opportunity- at Lloyds Banking Group its observable and made clear to me that opportunity is there if you are willing to go out and get it.

Fellow interns in Manchester quickly became involved with graduates and a few social events were arranged during my internship. There was also the endless amounts of charity events to get involved with which ultimately contribute to the social scene. I was fortunate to experience a dinner with the Senior Managers in my team.

I was an intern in Manchester City Centre and my family home is not too far away so the cost of living for me personally was normal. Manchester has a spectrum of social activities to get involved with and likewise in terms of nightlife. If you are catching up over coffee with a colleague outside of the office, it's more than likely that it’s on them!

In Manchester there is something for everyone. Personally I have my own preferences so don’t visit the range of nightlife available however it’s certainly there! If you like to grab coffee at a cool coffee shop then you don’t have to far. As a group of interns we enjoyed catching up for a beer after work on a Friday- there are endless amounts of places to go too.

Considering the events organised that aimed to raise money for BBC Children In Need there is literally endless amounts of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work- you can quite easily arrange one yourself. If you are in London, due to the amount of interns in that location, there is something going on always it appears.