Retail Businness Banking Risk Contractor Review

I have very much enjoyed my internship. I have been given fulfilling and interesting tasks to do and the support to be confident in doing them well. I have particularly enjoyed the Lloyds Charity Challenge. This has given me the opportunity to drive and take ownership of a project for a good cause and work as an independent team to produce real results. I have enjoyed seeing my confidence grow through engaging in increasingly challenging tasks.

My colleagues do very specialised and demanding jobs that require knowing and applying a large amount of very specialised knowledge. They can only impart a small amount of this on me in my short time here and therefore I am probably more of a burden than a help in most tasks. Despite this my colleagues go out of their way to teach me new things and get me engaged on as many tasks as possible despite their busy schedule. They always make time to give advice.

My supervisors have an extremely busy schedule and spend much of their day on calls. I have to book time in their calendar with them to get anything more than small talk. When I really need help with something urgent however I get it and I have learnt to be organised in my interactions with them. I have learnt to make efficient use of my time with management which is a useful skill. I do think they are slightly too busy to give me the support they would like to.

To begin with I was not busy enough. As I have furthered my knowledge on team tasks so I can help with more things my schedule has filled up. I have also learnt to become more proactive in finding tasks and furthering the projects I have been given which is valuable. Now I am busy enough as I have enough knowledge to help with enough tasks. To begin with the team struggled to find enough for me to do given my limited knowledge.

To begin with I was given only a small amount of responsibility but as I earned the trust of my colleagues they gave me more and more responsibility. Now I make real decisions on whether real businesses can open accounts based on real interactions with front line colleagues and customer information without support from the team. I have very much enjoyed being given real responsibly and being able to genuinely help the team.

Certainly the improved work ethic I have developed will aid me in the next year. Working 9-5 Mon-Fri was a shock at first after student life but I have adjusted quickly and it is a crucial skill for life. My confidence has also improved so my role in the society for my degree subject which involves public speaking in front of large audiences will be much easier. Writing formal Emails is also a useful skill in many circumstances.

I had been expecting that we'd all be in cubicles, we'd be given a piece work to get on with and we'd get on with it. The truth couldn't be further from this. It is an open plan office where everyone helps everyone whenever they need. The team is very conversational and everyone gets on well. There is not a strict dress code. There is quite a lot of banter with colleagues and team meetings are good fun. Everyone works hard and does a serious job but never takes challenges in their role out on other colleagues. The office has never been tense when things go wrong just lively with discussion about how to fix it.

The central planning of the internship is seamless. They take into account your personal circumstances and interests as well as your degree knowledge when choosing in what city your internship will be and what your role will be. They are very accommodating and I got just what I wanted. The planning in my team prior to my arrival was not so thorough. They weren't too sure what I would be doing and hadn't put aside quite enough time for me in my first week so I was unfortunately a bit bored in my first week. It wasn't a disaster though, they had just underestimated how much time it would take to get me set up and working.

At Lloyds there is a massive emphasis on personal development. They have an excellent range of learning material on their internal systems. Some of this is boring mandatory. Once that is over you are encouraged to look for courses which will help your role and are given advice on which courses are best. All interns also complete a professional bankers course which covers the basics of the banking industry such as ethics, risk management and responsible lending principles. You are given plenty of time to do plenty of training and development. The most valuable things I've learnt however were probably the inter-personal skills I've learnt on the job.

Very appealing as they seem like a great company to work for. They embrace flexible working and work-life balance whilst giving good salaries and great perks. They think career development is very important.

Yes we all stay in the same building so every Friday and Saturday night there is dinner, drinks, pubs and then a club organised. We're student after all. The accommodation is ain a great, central place.

Not too bad.

Excellent

You have to take part in a charity challenge to raise money for a good charity. This involves organising fundraisers outside work which can be quite fun. The team also does dinners and team-building events occasionally.