Associate Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement very much as I had a great team to work with and felt very valued in my team. I had the opportunity to do a lot of shadowing and see different teams to help gain a good understanding of the business as a whole. This is something that is really important to myself.

I felt very valued by my colleagues and was given a fair bit of responsibility. The first few weeks were a little slow as I spent a lot of time learning about the different areas and how they fit together however, after that I was able to get stuck in and help support my team with requests from clients.

I was given a lot of support from my line manager and colleagues in my team. My line manager ensured I had work to be getting on with and highly recommended me to get myself out into the business and shadow other areas for my understanding of Commercial banking - Clients and Markets.

My days varied a lot during my placement. Initially I had a lot of available time whilst I was getting access granted for myself however, as I went through my placement I started having more responsibility and more work to do. This helped me to feel more valued by my team and feel like I made a difference.

I was given a lot of responsibility and had the chance to speak to clients and handle client request independently. I would support them in opening accounts and chasing up legal documents. This interaction would generally be over the phone or email due to the nature of the team. I enjoyed having this responsibility and more responsibility could be given if you would like more.

With regards to my degree studies, I think my knowledge of banking and finance will help with my Applied Mathematics areas like Mathematical Finance. Although this will have a limited impact for my studies, I am confident that this internship will have a great influence in my future career. I am confident Commercial Banking - Clients and Markets is what I would like to do!

The general atmosphere is the office was good. Everyone was very happy to have a chart and not engrossed into their work. This made it much easier to approach colleagues in my team. I felt the atmosphere had a good mix of work and fun. We have regular conversations about several events happening around us and have a good laugh.

In my opinion, I think the organisation of the internship could have been a lot better. I feel like even prior to the internship, there was uncertainty on which placements would go ahead and during the placement was even worse, especially when considering he graduate programme. This cased a lot of uncertainty!

Lloyds have invested quite a lot in myself as they have supported me with a lot of personal training however, it was pretty much the same as last year which is disappointing. In that sense I feel like they have been a little lazy. Saying that, they have paid for me to travel to Birmingham and do some shadowing and a course in Solihull.

Future employment prospects are very appealing and I would definitely like to join on to the graduate programme however with the current uncertainty about how many people will get on and how they will be structured means the likelihood of getting onto the graduate programme is less likely than previous years. I very much see myself at Lloyds but I would like a bit more clarity.

On the social side, I had a good time with many social events after work. This included a treasure hunt and drinks. We have done many events with other interns with nights it however, the accommodation isn't very sociable due to its layout. On the whole the placement did have networking opportunities and challenges to mix with other interns so I consider it to be pretty good.

London is expensive but that is expected. It was nice to have accommodation paid for myself by Lloyds. This really helped to survive with the crazy London prices. It was also a lovely dry summer so I managed to do a lot of walking to work and hence save some money.

Nightlife was great! I regularly went to Sky Garden and the Shard, although this was pretty expensive.

Outside of work I got involved with all the social activities. My team had a social activity once a month. These would accommodate all people and was a great way to get to know the team more. I would definitely recommend these and get involved with the volunteering that is available whilst being a intern.