Intern Review

I found this to vary throughout my internship. At times I found that I did not have enough work, which hugely impacted my enjoyment at work. However, I found that when I had enough work to keep busy, the work was engaging and thus enjoyable. As well as this, I found working with the team to be a particular highlight, with everyone offering help and support and advice whenever I felt I needed it.

I felt that they valued me as a member of the team - reflected by the fact that I was included in all team meetings and social events, such as a team breakfast throughout the internship. Furthermore, the work and responsibility I was given reflected the trust my team had in me to complete essential tasks to a professional standard.

My line manager, Diana, has provided support throughout the internship. Offering weekly catch ups to track my progress and listen to any feedback about where I feel my internship could be improved. I feel that I had to ask for extra support in terms of having enough work for the duration of the internship, but where possible this need was mostly met

My workload varied hugely throughout the internship. For the first week or so, I felt very busy due to having to balance work with mandatory training. However, once the training was complete, my work entered a slow phase for a few weeks. I continually asked for more work, but don't think this need was fully met, and it took a few weeks before I was given an increased workload. I was a bit more busy for the final few weeks.

The work that I was given was also quite varied in terms of responsibility. A lot of the work I completed felt important, as it was work that would have otherwise been completed by the team (i.e. it wasn't made up for the internship). Tasks were quite varied, with some requiring access to different sites whilst others were important but somewhat trivial.

I think that the skills I have gained during this internship will mostly be transferable to my career after graduation. I don't feel that they will necessarily help with my degree studies. I would say my skill set from this internship mostly includes networking and familiarising myself with different software applications.

My office was lovely to work in. Everyone was more than happy to take time out of their days to help/talk whenever they could. It was a very friendly office to be a part of. Although you could tell everyone was busy and getting their work done, there was usually a few times throughout the day where people would be having chats.

The internship was well organised in that on my first day my laptop, badge and other necessary items were already sorted. My team were aware that I was starting, and my manager had reserved a desk for me to work at. I do feel that the work element of the internship could have been better organised - there were several interns in my division but I personally think that several of us could have taken on a larger workload/had spare capacity, however, the issue arose in trying to find work to do.

Throughout the internship we constantly got emails from the Emerging Talent team with links to personal development activities and videos. We also had access to a range of websites/programmes that added to personal development. Fellow colleagues were also more than happy to offer up time to add to our understanding of the bank - hence, adding to personal training.

I would be very happy to receive a grad offer from LBG, I think it is a great company that values and looks after employees. I will, however, apply to other graduate schemes as after this internship I would like to try and find out about other careers out there, if not to make sure that banking is definitely for me.

A lot of interns were placed in accommodation together with meant that on weekends there was a great social element, with people going on nights out most Friday's. There was also the opportunity to go for drinks after work quite a few times over the summer. Most social elements were between interns, not really the wider team.

Living in London, I was apprehensive about the cost of this summer. However, I ended up being pleasantly surprised - the work canteen was very reasonably priced, meaning I spent less on coffees, snacks and lunches than I was expecting. It was quite expensive to socialise, with entry to clubs often being twice the price I am used to. However, as this only tended to be once a week, it was a cost that I was okay with.

Living in London meant the nightlife was always great, with opportunities to go out most nights after work and every weekend. The only negative about the nightlife was the price of going out. As well as this, the accommodation required us to leave the common rooms by 11, however, with entry to most London clubs being later than that, it meant that often we didn't have anywhere to go and would have to have a couple of final drinks in bars, which added to the cost of going out.

I think that there were opportunities, however, it was not something very well advertised to interns