Colleague Performance Manager Review

At the start of my internship it was really difficult to enjoy my placement as I was not given any work and the project I had been given was very vague. However as time went on and I communicated with different colleagues in different teams my understanding of the division grew and I did manage to progress a lot with my project and get involved with other tasks and teams during my internship. With more work I did start enjoying my internship a lot more however it did take a lot of effort to keep myself busy as I had to constantly ask for work and was not directed by anyone

Everyone I had the opportunity to work with were all very nice. Luckily I had a graduate in my team when I first started so he was helpful with guiding me and providing me with advice and his experience during the internship/graduate journey. Although I got on with my team I felt I did not have the opportunity to contribute at all as I was not given work and the project I was given was not in line with my teams daily work.

I did not feel I received enough guidance and support from my manager. I felt as though she was not sure on what work to give me and during the period of my internship we communicated barely except for our 10 minute weekly meeting that I arranged. She was very busy at all times and I felt she did not have the time to have me in her team. Despite this I did learn to push myself out my comfort zone and it forced me to use my own judgement as I did not have someone telling me what I should be doing every day. I think in the future it would have been good to have some more work allocated and a Manager that was more engaged during my internship.

At the start I really struggled for work and days were very long. It was up to myself to create meetings with people I had never spoken to or met before to fill up time to discuss my project briefly. After a few weeks of doing this I managed to create a plan to take an action on my project and trial my proposal so during this time I was busy and I really enjoyed my internship a lot more.

Not a lot of responsibility at all. My line manager was busy every second of the day and other colleagues in the team were focussed on their own work and were not interested in passing on tasks for me to help out with. During my last week another team approached me to ask me to help out with taking responsibility for a project within their team which was great but unfortunately was too late as I did not have much time to see my project through with them. I think the responsibility given really depends on your team and line manager you are placed with.

Coming from a non-financial degree background I did learn a lot and I was glad to have the opportunity to work in operations as it was something I was looking to do. I feel I could have been challenged a lot more with the work I was given. Not being given work however was a challenge in itself as I had to put in effort and improve my confidence and communication skills by speaking with others to try and allocate myself work to ensure I was making the most out of my internship.

The atmosphere was lively and full of young people as it was a call centre. There were a lot of charity events that went on during my internship and I spent most of my time dressed down for charity! People spent a lot of time working on their computers and sometimes it would have been nice to have more communication with the colleagues in my team.

The overall organisation of the internship was great! We had a lot of information provided to us before we started our internship and having accommodation paid for was a real bonus! The induction day down in London was run really well and I really enjoyed the charity challenge and the chance to network with so many other interns and grads.

Other than the induction day down in London unfortunately I would have to say not a lot. I think this was down to my line manager as I know other interns had the opportunity to visit different cities and departments either for training days or their end of internship presentation.

I would say Lloyds Banking Group would definitely be a great place to start a job with however I think it would be very dependent on team and location. The pay is great and I think it is a company that has a good structure to enable personal development and individual growth.

The social scene among other students was great. I was placed in accommodation with about 40 other interns so there was always someone new to meet and someone to hang out with in the evenings! I shared my flat with 4 other girls so this was also really nice as we all got on really well.

I would say the cost of living and socialising in Edinburgh was reasonable and it's up to you how expensive/cheap you decide to make your stay. I had to get a train to work everyday so that was very expensive for me but otherwise it was not bad. Accommodation was paid for so this made a big difference.

Nightlife was great as it was the Fringe during my internship as my accommodation was in Edinburgh. There was so much you could do at night and so many different shows you could go see! The city was really busy and full of tourists. Our accommodation was only a 20 minute walk from Princess Street so it did not take long to get to most places.

Yes there were a lot of opportunities. The charity challenge although it was part of work allowed you to meet and mix with other interns as a lot of the events we had was outside of work hours. There was facebook and whatsapp group for interns based in Edinburgh so people were always planning events and posting about doing things at nights together. As it was the Fringe this made it a lot better as there was a lot of things to do in Edinburgh