Intern Review

I felt the internship team placed me in the correct part of the group for me, and I have learnt a lot from my time here, as well as gaining important work experience and earning at the same time. There were several events to help us get to know people in the business and other interns, and the "Charity Challenge" was a good way of raising money for a great cause while also boosting my CV with transferable skills.

I found my office to be a pleasant work environment where my colleagues were friendly and actively encouraging towards me as a intern. I felt that the work I had been given was important and relevant, and I also felt that my colleagues chose the work they gave me to try and provide me with new skills and experience.

My Line manager was very much available to talk to me if I needed them, and was also a listening ear who I felt I could come to with problems relating to my internship. We also had good discussions relating to personal development goals, and how I could make progress during my time with Lloyds.

I have had a bit of unevenness in how busy I have been during this internship. In the beginning I was balancing 4 or 5 different assignments at a time, alongside charity challenge work which was becoming quite time consuming. However mid internship I then had a lull where I felt the need to ask for more work.

I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility, both in terms of the assignments given and also in terms of managing my own time to ensure I was getting my work done on time. I felt I was treated as an adult and expected to treat my work as important and to handle confidential materials responsibly.

I felt that I developed several skills, including working in the office environment which I feel is a quite different kind of team work to any I have encountered before. This will I think aid me in my degree studies when it comes to working towards deadlines and as part of a wider group, something that I think will also be very useful post-degree where I will most likely be working in a office environment.

My office was a good place to work, and my colleagues were rarely distracting. The atmosphere was friendly and comfortable with a good level of conversation ongoing and a break out area where colleagues would often chat over lunch. People in my office were role models of a good work-life balance, which was great as I was worried that I might be in a high stress environment, but actually it was nice and calm.

Unfortunately I felt that organisation and communication between the team running the internship and our line managers/us interns was quite lacking. However, the biggest problems I experienced were with the agency we were required to work through which consistently failed to communicate with me effectively and caused me a great deal of stress and confusion. I know I was not alone in this problem, and I strongly feel that those who run the internship should look into this matter and consider using a alternative agency.

There was a "development journey" we were supposed to be completing, but this was provided mainly via videos and online training that I struggled to gain access to due to very poor communication and action to fix the problem by the internship team, much to mine and my line managers irritation. When I did gain access I found it mediocre and certainly not a meaningful investment.

I feel that if I was to apply to the grad scheme I would know enough about the business to be a good candidate in both my CV and at interview. I have heard good things about the grad scheme from many of those who are working in it at the moment.

When I arrived to our shared accommodation I expected more of a "freshers" vibe, however in reality Lloyds had put nothing in place for us to get to know other interns except for a Facebook page. It wasn't until the following Friday that I had a induction event where I got to properly meet some of the other interns.

Accommodation was provided my Lloyds for free which was amazing, and also made the internship great value. As I was working in London socialising was sometimes expensive, but the accommodations location was convenient for both bars, restaurants, parks and sports which was great, and also meant there was a big variety of ways to socialise for any price range, even for free!

The London accommodation and work locations were very central which provided lots of access to nightlife of whatever kind you wanted, whether that be clubs, bars, pubs, late night galleries, restaurants, boat parties or whatever else! There was a good range of prices considering that we were in central London, and of course it was all very busy.

Being in a central London location meant there was access to all kinds of activities, including water-sports on the canal, climbing centres, gyms, volunteering, art classes e.c.t. In terms of colleague based after-work activities I wasn't aware of many, although there was a boat party on the Thames one week.