Strategic Decision Support Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my internship with Lloyds this summer. I feel I have not only learned much about Lloyds Banking Group and the world of finance but also about working in a company and as a professional.

My team made a huge effort to make me feel as welcome and valued as possible. Not only did they set aside time for team bonding activities for me they also put aside individual time to get to know me and my aspirations for the internship.

My line manager made a huge effort to give me the ideal balance of having enough independence to learn and challenge myself whilst being there to support me. He also made a lot of effort to involve me in as much as possible to get the most out of the internship.

At the beginning of the internship whilst I was still learning about the bank and the team I had times where there was not much I could do due to my lack of knowledge however after this I was very engaged in activities and had a full timetable.

I feel like the best aspect of the internship for me was the level of trust and responsibility I was given by my team. Although my work was checked and I was supported I was allowed to work on important and serious work which allowed me to gain a huge insight into the bank as well as have an amazing learning opportunity.

I feel I can confidently say that the skills I have picked up will stay with me for life. Whether that be the independent learning skills I have gained or the skills involved in working in a professional environment and having to manage time and meet performance targets.

There was a great atmosphere as there was an ideal balance between fun & uplifting as well as hard working and professional. Effort was made to arrange fun activities like after work drinks as well as morning huddles to start the day off in a positive way.

The internship was very well organised, there was lots of effort made to make sure I had sufficient work to always have something to do as well as a range of work to target a varied skill set.

The company invested vast amounts of time not only teaching me about the function of the team I was put in but also making an effort to put me in touch with other departments so I had a varied knowledge of the whole company. All colleagues I interacted with put aside a lot of time to answer my questions and talk me through their roles within the company.

The organisation has a great graduate scheme.

Not living in London made it harder to meet up with other interns however within my team there were lots of social events organised.

Even though London is seen as being super expensive I found that all the local food markets sold reasonably priced lunches with Tesco's and other stores close by too. Drinks after work were expensive however places do student deals and happy hours which can help avoid these costs.

I did not have a large opportunity to go out a lot due to commuting to outside of London however there are lots of clubs and bars around.

The days were quite full on and busy which meant although there was time after work it required a lot of motivation to get involved. I managed to fit in quite a lot of sports during my internship however.