CB Data Services Review

I have really enjoyed being on this internship these last weeks. Meeting new people in the working world and the other interns too. Also, moving around cities for different events and presentations has been enjoyable, making me realise that working does not have to be stagnant and stationary. It can take you literally anywhere!

My colleagues valued me very much as part of their team. they were really responsive to me and were always eager to help when I asked. I never felt alone or 'out of place' as they very much welcomed me from the very first day in which I started the internship.

This was especially good, because the placement I had is quite complex in terms of dealing with large amounts of data, so the team were really good at giving me step by step instructions on the complex tasks as well as giving me the opportunities to play with the data and interpret it differently. I was also able to ask for help from multiple members of the team.

Throughout the internship I was given both short-term and long term tasks in which I had to manage my own time and prioritise which ones were to be done this week or the next. Everyday, I would be multitasking, getting at least 4-5 different tasks completed on a daily basis.

Due to the fact that some of the data in which the team are in charge of were highly sensitive or highly confidential, some tasks had to be done when supervised by someone. However, I was given a good amount of responsibility in terms of updating inventories, creating tables of data and decommissioning reports that clients no longer needed.

I have realised that during my internship I have gained some transferable skills such as multitasking, prioritising and independent working while in a team. These are definitely useful skills to have as the workload increases during my degree and also having the ability to work with other people in labs will definitely help in improving my communication skills. I've also learned the value in networking.

The rapport between my colleagues was really great! They are not only involved in the work lives of each other, but seem to genuinely be friends too. There is always some light-hearted conversations going on and they always appear happy to be in work and comfortable in communicating with each other.

My team had prepared a timetable of all tasks I was to carry out, so that I was never lost on what to do or never had nothing to do. Since most things are online, it was easy to follow calendars, when people were present or absent in the office.

After doing my first internship with Lloyds Banking Group, it has absolutely encouraged me to do the second one next year and apply for the graduate scheme as future employment. The idea of 4 six-month placements to find what you are best suited to sounds appealing and worth trying out for.

In the beginning everyone was new and eager to get to know everyone, but as the weeks went on that died down and everyone began to go off on their own. I feel that if there were more internship-related tasks that didn't separate all of us, we'd be more inclined to be more social with each other.