Student Analyst Review

I enjoyed learning a lot of new skills during my placement. I was given plenty of tasks and the work was varied. I am a lot more confident than I was at the start of the year and I feel more prepared for going back to university. At times the job was stressful, however, especially with technical issues and urgent requests.

I got on really well with all my colleagues. There was always a good atmosphere in the office and everyone in my immediate team was approachable. We also sometimes socialised after work - I took part in go-karting and after every quarterly big team meeting we would do some sort of social activity such as rock climbing/games/pub.

The managers in my team were very supported and often offered to help if they could see that I was struggling. My supervisor would clearly explain important tasks that I had and gave me plenty of opportunities to undertake new tasks. Sometimes, though, I felt as though there was an expectation to understand something or find something easy, and that made things more difficult when that was not the case as sometimes I felt as though I could not immediately talk to my supervisor about problems I was having with my work.

The amount of work I had was very varied, usually depending on what time of the month it was. There were some times when I had very little to do so I would devote that time to extra training/further reading, but at other times I would receive one urgent request after another and that made the work more stressful.

I was given the responsibility of taking the lead with various projects in my team so there was a lot at stake if I got something wrong. I was also given tasks outside of my day-to-day role, such as organising the team Christmas party, organising the Day to Make a Difference for the full team, and co-ordinating the move of five different teams to another site.

The coding skills I picked up during placement will no doubt be helpful in my final year as coding is an important part of my course. I am also more confident in the use of Excel, which is an essential skill for the type of work I will be applying for. As part of my studies in final year there is a module called 'Financial Mathematics'. Since the placement year was for a bank and therefore finance-centred, I feel confident that I will succeed in this module as I will be better prepared for it.

There was generally a relaxed atmosphere, all my colleagues were friendly and approachable. I felt comfortable coming into work every day. Most colleagues would often work from home on a Friday so I would sometimes come into work and there would be nobody else from my team in the office, meaning the atmosphere was at times dull.

In my first week I was given an overview of the bank and my role in it, and I attended training sessions on the essential aspects of my role, such as using WebEx, Excel and how to setup calls/meetings, etc. There was also a clear plan on what processes I would be running in my role so it was very clearly planned out.

In the first few weeks of my placement I was given the chance to attend a SAS training course which lasted for three days, this course proved helpful throughout the year. I also attended various other courses such as the VBA training, presentation training and how to communicate with confidence. There were also mandatory online training courses that I had to take, and I was given free access to Lynda.com, which is a site where you can learn a lot of new skills.

There is an opportunity to apply for the graduate scheme. However, places are limited and I am still waiting to find out if I have been accepted onto it. Aside from that, there is always the opportunity to return to the company in a different role, and given my year's worth of experience with the bank I would say I would have a good chance of gaining future employment with the bank, however that is something I would have to do in my final year and there is always the uncertainty of the location I would be placed in. I would prefer to work somewhere closer to where my family is and by working at LBG preferred location is not guaranteed.

From my point of view, the placement students who were based in Halifax did virtually nothing socially outside of work. I took part in a charity bowling night and almost all of the placement students went for a Christmas meal, but apart from that there were no social events or nights out.

The cost of living was reasonable, about as much as anywhere else. There is a Tesco in Halifax as well as plenty of places to eat which are all reasonably priced. In the few times that I went out with colleagues to socialise, prices of drinks were not too high.

Nightlife in Halifax was terrible, so much so that I did not dare go for a night out in the town due to risk to my personal safety. For a decent nightlife you would have to take the train into Leeds (trains run until around 11-12pm so you'd have to get a taxi back if you wanted to stay out after that).

A few of the placement students setup a football league where I think they played on a Wednesday lunchtime. There was also a ping pong table in the building but as far as I know none of the placement students ever used it. We did take part in the charity challenge (which was a mandatory part of our placement) which I enjoyed and thought it was rewarding.