assistant manager Review

I have really enjoyed my placement year at Lloyds, it has been a good opportunity to gain valuable experience working a large company in the banking industry. Working at Lloyds has provided an insight into how a large scale company functions and has enabled me to develop a greater understanding of the financial services industry.

I had a good relationship with my colleagues and manager, and felt that I was a valuable member of the team. I immediately felt as though I was part of the team, and had significant involvement in the work being done in my team. There is definitely an expectation that placements students at Lloyds will be involved in work, they are not just there to shadow.

I regularly had catch ups with my line manager to discuss how I felt I was progressing and whether I had any questions or issues. I received good feedback at my quarterly performance reviews, receiving praise on good pieces of work, and suggestions of areas for improvement in the future.

This varied quite a bit, however this was largely due to the role I had. Having worked in a reporting team, the busiest times throughout the year were around each quarterly results announcement. During these times I would generally be very busy and have a lot to do, however in between each quarterly reporting period, there would be occasions where I would not be so busy.

I was given a large amount of responsibility throughout the year. I played important roles in the production of a number of external reports, and was expected to resolve issues by myself on a number of occasions. I also engaged with a number of senior colleagues throughout both the risk and finance divisions.

Unlike other placement students at Lloyds, my particular role has not been an especially technical one, so may not necessarily transfer to my degree as much as others. However, I have gained significant experience of stakeholder management, communication and organisation/working towards deadlines. These are important skills to have in a professional environment, and will no doubt be important in future roles I have.

Lloyds have an agile working policy, which therefore means that a number people work from home throughout the week, which can often prevent a good working environment forming. Additionally, there is a hot desk policy, but as there are more people than desks allocated to my team, often I will be unable to sit with the team and will have to go elsewhere.

The placement has been well organised, however, since starting we have had very little communication with those involved in managing the placement scheme. The process of applying to the graduate scheme took a long while to be finalised, and therefore meant we had little time to make a decision about applying.

Although there is little/nothing specific for placement students, Lloyds are very keen on training and development, and have subscriptions to a number of online services which provide training courses and various videos. However, as placement students are technically contractors at Lloyds, there are few resources to which placement students won't have access.

Lloyds are keen on recruiting potential graduates form their placement and intern schemes, and therefore have a much more streamlined application process when compared with external applicants. From a total of 400 scholars/interns/placements, I believe there are 250 available places, so there is a fairly good chance of securing a place on the graduate scheme following graduation form university.

There was in circumstances, however the majority of placement students were based within the same team in the same building, and as I was not in this team, and was the only one to be based in the building I worked in, I did not necessarily get a chance to develop good relationships with most of the other placement students.

Living at home saved me a lot of money in terms of accommodation costs, however the cost of commuting into London was quite expensive, and obviously London in general is very expensive when it comes to social events. Placement students based in London are paid an extra £3000 on top of what those based elsewhere receive, however this is unlikely to cover accommodation costs for the year.

Being based in London, the nightlife is good and there is lots to do outside of work, although it is very expensive. Having commuted from just outside London, I was often limited in terms of going out as getting home would be a struggle & there was a number of occasions where I ended up stuck in London after missing the last train...

Little opportunities related directly to work, but did go on a number of social events/lunches with the team including mini golf. This is very much dependent on the team you work in and the type of environment within that team, however.