Legal Intern, Lloyds Banking Group Review

I have really enjoyed my internship this year, the work has been really interesting and varied, with no two days being the same! I have been exposed to different areas of the bank and have made lots of interesting connections whilst doing so, which has also been really good for my own personal development.

My line manager and team, although small, were fantastic and really made me feel at home right from my first day. Any good work that I did was always praised and even things that I did which needed improvement, or refining, I was helped to do this by the team, and always felt welcome and valued.

My manager was fantastic at giving me support and guidance, she exposed me to as many great opportunities as she could in the short time that I was here. She guided me through every task that I was given and was always there, whether in person or on the phone to help me with anything that I needed.

I really think that on this internship I achieved the perfect balance of work. I was constantly doing something interesting, but it was never too much so that I was overwhelmed. Only twice did I not have time for my full lunch break, and there was never a time where I was sat at my desk bored with nothing to do.

I was given a lot of responsibility during this placement, even with what seem like minor things! Amongst other things, I was given full responsibility of redesigning the team's online page, which was actually a huge task, and I didn't realise how frequently people logged onto the page, so there was a lot of pressure to get it right.

Whilst the internship didn't directly relate to skills that I will need for my degree, I certainly did gain skills for life - even the most basic skills like getting to grips with outlook and becoming more confident with word, PowerPoint, publisher and excel. I have also developed my networking skills, and I'm now far more confident at approaching and talking to new people.

This is the only thing I would have changed about my whole internship this year. The office that I was in was very small, and a huge downsize to what I was used to from last year, which meant that the atmosphere was less exciting. However, saying this all of the people that were in the office were lovely!

Once I got to Lloyds, the internship was fantastically organised, and my line manager planned my time perfectly. However, I had a huge issue in the run up to the internship with Blue Arrow, who were very unhelpful in organising my start to the business, and could not confirm my start date

The company really invested in me in terms of personal training and development, sending me on full-day courses and conferences, and allowing me to join online courses and training which were so valuable and allowed me to develop both technical and 'soft' skills. A lot of time and effort by my line manager and team was also evidently put into training me.

I want to be a lawyer, so for me my plan is to train in a private practice firm, and it is for this reason only that I would not immediately take a job with Lloyds. However, I genuinely think that it is a fantastic place to work and I would like to return later in my career.

If I'm honest this is partly my fault as, not living in the student accommodation, I didn't make the effort to join the other interns on any nights out that they went on at the weekends. Amongst my colleagues, we went out for lunch together occasionally and I really enjoyed that.

London is obviously hugely expensive, and being in the city I did find it was even more expensive than what I am used to living in the outskirts. However, everything that I did was certainly worthwhile and London offers such a great range of fantastic opportunities that I know I would not have had elsewhere.

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