Intern Review

My internship was littered with up and down moments. The weeks varied between being thoroughly engaging to downright boring. And not boring because the work was boring but boring because I was being interacted with by my line manager. she was a constant source of struggle who was showed me little respect and made me feel unvalued. The rest of the team however made me feel welcomed and encouraged me in points that they could tell I was frustrated.

Similarly to my answer above, I think certain members of my team really valued me and valued my thoughts and opinions as well as my ability to do work. It was a shame though that my line manager decided to give up on me after 4 weeks, possibly even before that. I felt incorporated by my team and they treated me with a mutual respect to which they showed eachother.

So the head of the team welcomed me and made me feel valued and important from the moment I began. However as I was made aware that I would be under control of another senior manager it became obvious that she had no interest in giving me decent support. It was down to the other senior managers who saw this interaction who began to take a more supportive role of my development.

On a daily basis I was kept busy towards the end of my time but during the mid few weeks was left on my own without any real guidance as to what I should be doing. My line manager felt as though she had given me a project and that was what I would do the whole time but didn’t take into account the fact that I would want to learn and produce outputs that helped the team not just myself

Responsibility was hard to come by in this role. I felt as though my ideas and opinions were shot down by my supervisor and instead things were to be done her way or not at all. However on roles away from her I was given larger responsibilities which made me feel included and a sense of independence and growth. in terms of being included on projects that the team was working on I was given now responsibility for a part however small it was.

I felt like as a person I have developed better people skills. But in terms of actually progressing skills that are important to the sector of finance I was included in, my skills grew in no way. My jobs never fully touched on what the team does here and so I was given roles that stayed away from this which limited my ability to develop skills related to the roles.

There was a good sense of teamwork. I feel as though there was a tense atmosphere on more than one occasion with certain senior members disagreeing and causing rifts within the team as compromise was not something easily found with people. But with colleagues at a more junior level there was a great atmosphere that comprised both fun and work

I think my work placement had very little structure. I feel as though I was given jobs when they came about and that there wasn’t a plan put in place where I could feel as though I had steps to complete which would symbolise my achievements and progression throughout the internship. a structure would have enabled me to measure myself against where I thought I should be but this did not exist so I was meandering along not knowning.

I think there was a good effort for GCT interns to be developed and learn more about finance, but I do not feel like this was directly open to members in other teams who would have to go out of their way to obtain access to these sessions. The induction days were good forms of gaining beginning develpoments but these were half hearted at times

I think the prospects are high and that is what appeals me to the job. The ability to become more qualified as the time goes on and the salary are both enticing. The reputation of the bank is very high and that is a great stepping stone to better things whilst I am young and not too concerned with a work life balance.

Yes, there were plenty of occasions where plans were constructed to hang out, go for a drink. But I think there should be a better emphasis on getting teams to be social with eachother because some teams weren’t as sociable and Lloyds should really encourage them to interact. At weekends I did not stay In London so I do not know what the weekend social scene has been like so can make no further comment.

I think drinks are ridiculously expensive. But food wasn’t all too bad. It was cheaper than I expected it to be and imagined having to get very little for my money at lunch. My team were kind enough to get drinks when we went for socialising after work which was very kind of them so there was an understanding from them that it was expensive for an intern.

Where we worked, I did not experience much of nightlife. The square mile isn’t known for its clubs and wild nights. Also as stated before I did not stay at the accommodation in London over the weekends so I did not experience the nightlife where I lived either. The bar scene was great with really spectacular and special places.

I think the charity opportunities offered to us gave us a nice side project away from work even if it was organised by Lloyds. Apart from that there was very little and in 10 weeks it’s hard to get heavily involved. On that subject, I think interns should be entitled to some of the benefits of working for Lloyds. I think the ability to work from home would be nice as it is not necessary to be in the office every day and there were points that I was the only person in the office on a Friday. Also to have access to colleague offers with cinema discounts etc. might actually help the socialising aspect of the interns by providing us with cheaper opportunities to go out and to feel more included in the bank.