Intern Review

I have enjoyed the internship in as much as it gave me a real insight into Lloyds' culture and a good idea of what the day to day tasks are carried out by my department and team. Most people across departments were more than happy to talk to me and help me regarding any questions I had, whether about their work or their experiences.

The team made every effort to invite me to team drinks and meals, at which I generally felt included and appreciated. During work hours I always felt like I could ask my team any questions I had to an extent and most of the time if I made an appointment with a team member it was kept to.

Due to the relative inexperience of my line manager having an intern (having never had one before) I felt like there were some aspects of support and guidance that were not readily available until I prompted them. Most of the time if I asked a question I received a helpful answer. Most of the time I was left to my own initiative, which was helpful for my development, though I'm not sure whether that was the original intention.

I was lucky to have a fair amount of work on a daily basis, mostly on various presentations. I would have preferred to have been working on tasks more indicative to the role, however I understand that as this period was less busy that there were fewer client related projects to jump on. I have worked overtime most weeks but have always felt that I can get pushback on a deadline should I need it.

Again, due to this being a quieter period for the team I was not involved in perhaps as many projects that directly affected clients as I would have liked. However, I was given ownership on a couple of tasks and had a fair amount of free reign to make this my own.

Given my degree study is in a completely different field to the work completed on this internship, I feel the skills I have used will not affect my studies. Instead, I felt I employed more skills from my studies on my placement. However, despite the lack of skill development on this placement, should I decide to enter into employment in this field post studies, I have gathered a fair amount of knowledge that will assist me.

The atmosphere was very friendly and generally jovial. It did not feel like a high pressure environment, though I believe this may change during the busier period for my team. Furthermore, I believe that my team was rather more sociable than others and thus I felt even more comfortable within my team.

My manager was not aware that I needed to fill out a balanced score card, nor did they know a mid-placement review was to take place. My induction event took place two weeks after we started the placement. Both the GC department and wider CB area gave us intern projects as communication had not taken place between them and the work we had put into the former went to waste as we were told to undertake the later. Much of the information shared by the emerging talent team was posted on hive, which interns in my area could not access for security reasons. Those of us in London were given return travel on the 1st of September when our accommodation runs out on the day before. For these reasons, I did not feel that the internship was incredibly well organised.

I was able to work on my networking and presentation skills and develop a deeper understanding of the financial world through talking to people across the group. I did feel that most of this was due to my own initiative, rather than any opportunities expressly given to me, but the overall result was the same.

I am leaving the placement very much unsure of whether I would like to work with this organisation or not, having not been either impressed nor entirely disappointed by the experience. I feel that more could have been done to excite interns across the organisation into wanting to take a job here, and the emphasis was very much placed on the interns impressing the organisation rather than also having a balance of the organisation also attempting to impress the interns.

I was invited to many team social events and another across the graduates. I believe, however, that my team was much more social than other teams and that other interns did not receive the same experience. The interns themselves were not particularly social and in part this is due to each stream having their own orientation events rather than a group wide one like last year, in which all interns were given a chance to get to know each other. There were also no centrally organised intern socialising events, which might have helped this situation further.

The cost of living and socialising was very high given that the placement was in London and most of the time when socialising with my team I did not have to pay for too much. I found that the increased London allowance for this placement was very helpful and the fact that accommodation was provided was also very much appreciated.

The nightlife was rather expensive and often difficult to get into but it was varied and there were many places and opportunities to go somewhere. Given that it was London there were times that it did feel unsafe, but as long as we all ensured we stayed together in groups we were fine.

There were opportunities to take part in activities such as charity events outside of work and sports events too. Outside of this there were many opportunities to go to museums and places of interest around the city on weekends and even after work. As a whole, there is something for everyone.