Associate Relationship Manager Review

I really like my role within the bank and the majority of work that I've been given is interesting and has filled my time. However, it's the first 9-5 office work that I've ever done and spending my summer in a bank/office has been quite difficult. I think if the scheme was 8 weeks rather than 10 it would feel like less of a weight as I'd have more time to go on holiday or relax.

My colleagues are all really inclusive and nice to me. However, the team is very busy and I think there has been a slight lack of investment of time in teaching me things so that I can be of more help later. Therefore a lot of the value that I could have hasn't been achieved.

My Line Manager has been brilliant. She has given me a good structure and purpose in the form of my Balanced Scorecard. Although I'm not in the same office as her she has managed to maintain enough contact via email/call and has introduced me to other people in the office that can support me day to day.

My role is very different from one day to the next as sometime I will be on client visits and other times I'm in the midst of a long term project. Therefore some days I'm very happily busy and other days I've been looking for more work. On the latter days I have done some filing and other mundane tasks - this is fine but would have been nicer to have more interesting jobs given to me by the colleagues in the office.

I've been given some projects that have been presented to senior teams which is a nice responsibility and also given a lot of support while doing them so it doesn't feel like too much pressure. I have also been allowed to go on client visits which is a responsibility in terms of representing the bank.

Although the skills I have developed don't directly link with my degree I think the experience as a whole will be very valuable. I have gained an understanding of how a big corporation functions, how to work in a formal environment and how to manage my time while working normal hours rather than students' hours. It has also boosted my confidence in terms of communicating with professionals and carrying myself correctly in meetings.

The atmosphere was quite bubbly as a lot of people were taking calls all the time so there was very rarely any silence. People mostly seemed to be friends so there was also a reasonable amount of informal chatting.

Although my line manager was very organised and was prepared for me to come into the team the overall organisation did seem a bit messy. For example, most interns agree that their first week was fairly empty and they felt quite redundant. I think there should be more organisation in terms of preparing for the interns such as providing broad face to face group training in the first week and making sure everyone has laptops waiting for them when they start.

The discover learning training was quite mundane and more face to face training would have been beneficial. Most of my development took place on the job and quite slowly.

I don't think I see a future working with Lloyds although that is more a reflection of the whole banking sector rather than Lloyds as a company.

I interned in my uni city so mainly socialised with uni rather than internship friends.

Bristol is quite expensive.

Bristol is great!

We are planning some charity events and have also been on a team meal.