Intern Review

Really thoroughly enjoyed it! The internship itself was varied by activities thanks to my Line manager and also by LBG itself. Being in commercial banking, I was lucky enough to have challenges, shadowing opportunities in different cities, projects and presentations. Overall, it was interesting and insightful to the world of business and banking.

I was lucky enough to be placed in a team where I felt welcome and valued immediately. However, it does help being in a team where everyone are of similar age but I was invited to every social , team meeting and every ice-cream outing! I felt important to the team even though I was only an intern!

My Line manager was always informed of my progress and wellbeing and always checked if I had something to do. My Line manager regularly called or WebEx'd me and if he wasn't available, my supervisor played a huge part in providing support and organising my workload to make sure I was getting the best out of my placement.

Beginning the internship, the work-load was very minimal and it was difficult to be given tasks being so unfamiliar and with no knowledge which is understandable. However as the weeks progressed I was given various projects and challenged which really kept me occupied and also allowed me to network with the other interns. However, the work load did die down for me towards the end of the internship after much of the challenges are completed.

Being in a proactive and important department of the business had it's limitations on the responsibility I was given as I was only there for 10 weeks. There wasn't much responsibility, however I was given work in which were valuable to the team and there was responsibility in that and delivering that to the best standard possible.

Even though I am pursuing a science degree, I still believe every challenge, networking and project I did over the internship had skills embedded in which I can use in any situation beyond the bank. Going to meetings, presentations and shadowing has given me transferable skills which will be valuable whatever path I pursue in the future.

The atmosphere in the office was generally very good. Everyone in the office had big personalities and for me I really thrived. Most of my colleagues were very chatty and always cracking jokes and taking part in charity challenges and quizzes which really created a fun and vibrant atmosphere in which I wanted to be in.

The internship was organised well overall. I liked the challenges that were placed which made the internship much more fun and varied and a chance to network with other interns. I was also given the opportunity to meet clients and shadow different departments of the bank in different cities including London which was useful seeing what parts of the bank I liked and didn't like.

I was given mandatory training at the beginning which was part of code of conduct in which we had to be fully acknowledged of certain dangers and criminal activity. During the internship, we had weekly personal development activities online, however it was hard to access and it was pretty tedious to complete.

Beginning the internship, I was completely adverse to the idea of going into LBG as the idea seemed monotonous and limited. However after the internship and shadowing opportunities and the opportunity to travel, I am much more open to it as a career option than before being exposed to all the areas of the bank I had no idea even exited.

The social scene amongst my colleagues were fantastic. We had get together and many socials in which made the internship much more fun and not always limited to the office environment. The same applies to my fellow interns, having a good number of interns made it easier to make friends and have socials out of the office.

Going to Bristol for university has already made me aware of the cost of living and also the social aspect of the city by living here. I stayed in my second year house during the internship and was given monetary fund towards my accommodation which helped a lot as I was already paying for accommodation over the summer.

Already being experienced with the nightlife and social scenes of Bristol, the nightlife is still very good and therefore I believe Bristol is an excellent choice to complete an internship in as there's always something to do especially amongst students. I think for those who don't live in Bristol or go to University there, the nightlife is incredibly varied therefore there's something for everyone.

There weren't a huge amount of opportunities to get involved outside work other than socials with colleagues or interns but there were a lot of events held in the city beyond working hours including the harbour side festival, the balloon festival and aside from public activities, there were opportunities to complete activities for the charity challenge outside of the workplace.