Data Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my internship. I worked at a Data Analyst in the Conduct & Strategy team, which took me completely out of my comfort zone. Being a PPE undergrad student, a role which was very data-driven and technical was initially extremely daunting. However the team was incredibly supportive and I did not realise how quickly I would be able to become accustomed to the systems and structures. I can now comfortably use Excel, VBA, record macros, programme using SAS with exposure to SQL/C++ - these are all skills I never imagined having and will definitely prove useful going forward.

My team, and my colleagues at Lloyds at general, were all very supportive of my development needs and gave me effective autonomy to learn and produce deliverables. From a social perspective, my team went out a fair bit and always made sure to invite me which was great as it meant that I could socialise with the team in a less formal environment. Within the office, all of the colleagues were friendly and sociable, which made coming into the office fun. From a work perspective, my colleagues were very good at giving me the room to produce work in the way that I felt would work best. I was entrusted with many responsibilities, more so than I thought I would. To name just one example, I was given absolute autonomy to produce code to monitor a trial, analyse results and then present the results to senior stakeholders, a process which drove the model from trial phase to BAU. This was genuine, value-adding work and I am very glad to have been a part of it.

As I mentioned earlier, I came into a very technical team without any technical knowledge. My team were very helpful in the beginning in taking out the time to introduce me to their systems and structures, which I am very grateful for. However I also believe that an intern's attitude can have a massive effect on how far supervisors will support and guide you - if you show you are keen and willing to learn, they will offer you more support and guidance.

Very busy - but I was happy to be busy. I got myself involved with as much work as possible and my team were very supportive in facilitating this. Also, if there was ever a day where I saw I was a bit too free, I would schedule appointments with colleagues across the business to learn about their work. There is always something to do when on the placement so there isn't much opportunity to be bored. Moreover, line managers are very understanding - if you feel you have too much work, express it and they will support you.

I was given a surprising amount of responsibility. There were high expectations in my placement (however guidance was available if required at any point). I was given autonomy and I was entrusted with sensitive, complicated tasks. This all culminated to make the placement far more beneficial for me.

Due to the technical nature of my placement, I feel that I have learnt a lot more skills than others may have. I am grateful for this as I believe the skills I have picked up on (particularly programming) will prove to be immensely useful going forward. Surprisingly, the skills I learnt are also very applicable to my degree. From an Economics perspective, gaining commercial awareness of the big themes in banking will indubitably help me going forward. From a Philosophy perspective, learning how to programme and code will help me develop my logic skills and my ability to analyse logical systems.

Very positive - everyone was happy to be there. There were also many socials. This is probably because Lloyds is quite unique in the sense that they promote well-being, for example, colleagues are never strictly expected to stay beyond 5 or arrive before 9 (so long as they have their work done!). I think this is very positive - this yields a culture of working efficiently whilst at work and then having time for yourself in the evening.

Very well-organised centrally. I feel that there is some room for improvement in making the internship consistent between placements. I had an amazing team and line manager but sometimes they were not entirely informed about things I needed to do outside the realm of my work so would sometimes set too much work. Likewise, other managers have often set too little work for their interns.

My team members invested "time" in me, however I think more could have been done in terms of monetary investment. For example, a big part of my role involved programming using a system called SAS however the build of my laptop did not support SAS. This meant that I had to borrow laptops to use SAS which often meant my work was slightly rushed and I sometimes felt stressed. Also, there was a SAS "boot-camp" which I felt would have been useful for me to attend but I was not signed up for it. Things could have been improved but my team dealt well with challenges and were very accommodating.

I'm actually doing this internship following the first-year of my degree so I have not been offered a grad place just yet! But fingers crossed for next year, if I do another internship with Lloyds (which is looking like something I may be interested in).

Definitely - intern drinks happened often and interns would go out for lunch/dinner together often. Some interns got really close because Lloyds arranged accommodation for us in Central London, which was definitely helpful in building lasting friendships and social networks.

Central London so VERY expensive. Luckily Lloyds set us up with accommodation which was a 30-40 minute walk from my office (closer to other offices) so I saved a heap of money on travel! The accommodation also had kitchens so I made my lunch most days and brought it to work. Evenings/nights out are very expensive however we get paid well as interns so it was not too concerning. Also, team members are very good at ensuring interns never have to pay for their own drinks!

C. London so pretty much everything (if you are willing to spend the £!)

Lloyds is massive on volunteering so did a lot of that over my 10 weeks which was great.