Change analyst Review

I really enjoyed my time at Clearings Oversight in Brindley place, Birmingham. The internship was well organised and achieved a good balance between work and training. I was surprised by how much interesting work I was able to do in my time at Lloyds Banking Group, from the cheque clearing system I learned about to the third party visits to the suppliers I attended. The departmental tours were great as they gave me a deeper understanding of the type of work commercial bank firms do, both from a retail and commercial perspective.

Above all, I would say meeting the people at the bank was the most enjoyable aspect of the vacation scheme. People from all levels of the firm were very welcoming and unpretentious, which I felt created a friendly and relaxed working environment. Doing the vacation scheme dispelled the misconceptions I had prior to undertaking the vacation scheme about the type of people I would meet and the atmosphere I would be working under.

My senior manager supported me holistically throughout my internship. She provided me with departmental sessions the first few weeks to help give me an insight into the different departments within the bank and the variety of different job roles that exist. This helped support and contextualise my own development within the business, since I had never worked within the banking industry before. My manager also provided me with recent examples of work, from my colleagues which aided in my own development as to how work should be presented, for this particular business.

My first day acted as an introductory session on each department, so I was very interactive and busy learning what different areas of the business did. After that, each day included different tasks, ranging from meetings to teleconferences and even out- of office visits. This meant that I was very busy, which provided me with a real-life opportunity to sample what I would be doing on a normal working day, if I choose to work for this company in the future, after my graduation. The experience was therefore very busy, but very realistic.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my internship. I was able to be able to gain first hand experience of drafting the mobile app fro the new cheque launch for the bank and I was able to contribute towards the team by making presentation explaining new reconciliation processes for business agreements . I never felt out of my depth however; because when colleagues where free they would happily explain tasks to me.

I am now more confident when doing presentations, which will massively help with my degree as this forms part of my degree structure. I am now more comfortable speaking to colleagues across the business area who I have not necessarily encountered before. This has helped increase my reflective skills and my contribution to working as part of a team.

The atmosphere was very enthusiastic and all colleagues, maintained their own responsibility to complete their own work. The team often told jokes and often lighened the mood by bringing everyday situations in conversation. This made me feel calm and comfortable in the workplace, which in turn made the atmosphere in the office relaxing which helped me settle in.

The internship was extremely organised. My senior manager has already planned all my activities, for the first two weeks of my arrival. 22 Above all, my manager and colleagues helped me to start planning my time effectively and prioritise work or multitask different pieces of work, to reflee a real work life setting. My reviews were also organised and i knew that I could address any work or plan more effectively with my manager, if I needed help organise events.

My manager asked me if I had any areas on which I would like to improve on. My chosen areas were improving my confidence and my team working skills. I have had to fundraise a lot throughout my internship, which has meant I have had to socialise with different colleagues and use my business skills to effectively market these products for sale. Completing presentations across a large team of colleagues, has also helped me gain my confidence.

Extremely appealing. The organisation offers amazing opportunities financially and career wise. There is a clear level Of progression, where any interns that take the graduate scheme progress onto Grade D or further. The starting salary is also competitive and offers many reward benefits such as a bonus and agile work conditions.

All interns quickly met up as part of different similar objectives, arranged automatically across the group. We all quickly became friends and regularly met up for meals and to sociliase. It was nice to meet a lot of new people my age, that I could relate to in the workplace.

The cost of sociliasing was relatively reasonable with the area I worked in been a little upmarket. There were plenty of cheaper alternatives to eat and drink in the city centre however( Birmingham) which were less costly than the surrounding options. Overall, I believe the cost of sociliasing was not too expensive and reasonable.

The night life was realy good. The area was close to Birmingham's main club and bar area so it was easy to be able to access many famous pubs and bars, in one centralised area. In conclusion, I enjoyed the nightlife selection and it was enjoyable to sample it so close, to the area I worked in.

There were social events, I could attend. These included masquerade balls and social events held in the capital city of London, which acted as a key location that connected all the undergraduate students. In conclusion, I believe more should be held locally so to become more accessible yo people that are not necessarily living in london at the time.