Contractor - Risk Innovation Review

I really enjoyed my internship at LBG. I was a little apprehensive before starting since it was my first work experience in a bank, and even my first actual experience in an English-speaking environment. Although the first few days were only about making order ITs to get all the IT material needed, I quickly received some interesting work to do.

My managers were very friendly, patient, gave me interesting and challenging work to do according to my skills, and got me frequently involved to some of their projects. All colleagues within my team did not hesitate to answer my questions, help me on my tasks as needed, and listen to my queries.

For all the tasks I had to do, my managers had an eye on me, not really to monitor what I was doing, but more to ensure the requirements were clear to me and that I did not need anything to complete my work properly. Many of them took time to teach me some technical material (eg. coding)

I had a few busy days were I had to progress on multiple tasks at the same time, which I find challenging. However, for most of the days, I had to focus on one actual project at a time, giving me the opportunity to spend time on the internal learning portal, where I developed skills on coding softwares for example.

As an intern in Robotics with no special IT or coding background, I still had the feeling to be given responsibilities in different projects. My biggest project was to help creating an app from scratch. Although I had no strong knowledge in coding, my manager took the time to teach me some basics and then I have been able to help him drafting some codes to implement the app.

I have developed some skills on Python, Excel, PowerPoint and Word. Although coding is not part of my studies, I am sure the skills I developed during my internship will help me a lot beyond my studies, in a world where algorithms have an increasing role in our daily lives.

The atmosphere was awesome. All the colleagues in my team were nice, fun, helping each other and receptive.

The first few days were mainly about making order ITs, which was I bit frustrating, but then I quickly got involved in projects and had the opportunity to develop skills.

A lot of learning material is provided to interns at LBG. Every week, I receive an email for 'Emerging Talents' (the part of the company managing internships and placements) with some suggested learning material containing videos, presentations and even assessments. On learning websites such as Lynda, you can choose in which fields you want to improve your skills: coding, personal branding, picture edition, etc.

I did some shadowing around different units in the bank, and all of them seem very interesting. As an intern, I had the feeling that the bank really trust young student/grads and is willing to give us opportunities to grow as employees and even as human beings.

There was definitely a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students and colleagues.

London is a very expensive city. However, LBG provides a free accommodation for the entire internship, making the costs of living more affordable.

London is well known for its nightclubs, especially those in Shoreditch. And guess what? My accommodation was near Shoreditch...

The job was really 9 to 5, so I had plenty of time to get involved in activities outside of work in evenings and at week-ends.