Summer Intern Review

On the one hand, the internship was enjoyable as it gave me insight into the banking industry, something I had never previously considered. I learnt a lot about the inner workings of the bank and could consider numerous challenges that banks will be facing in the future. However, due to an unexpectedly low workload and various stress with the agencies Lloyds employ to manage their contractors, I spent most of my days with no tasks to complete or having to argue with agencies. This lead to unnecessary stress / ill mental health and overall gave me a negative experience.

When I did have contact with other members of my team, I was always made to feel valued. Key members of the team ensured I felt part of things, asking for my opinion (even if I didn't understand enough to have one) and checking in on me to see if I was okay. However, as I was quite isolated from my team - including my line manager at times - it lead me to have quite a lonely experience, and that colleagues sometimes forgot I was completing my internship.

I was given support with tasks I asked to carry out - like supporting other team members or undertaking shadow opportunities. However I felt there was little guidance for me as my line manager was busy. Sometimes tasks I was assigned required oversight / discussion, and scheduling time with them to complete this was difficult. This meant tasks were often delayed for weeks even when prompted. Whilst I can appreciate some independence and responsibility, when critical elements of tasks rely on line manager approval / guidance it can become tiresome.

Throughout my internship I had to proactively ask for tasks to do. Whilst in the beginning there was a lot of preparatory reading and training I had to complete and I understood my line manager's reluctancy to give me projects, towards the end of my internship I still hadn't completed an entire project. Most of the tasks I was given were simple, e.g. sending e-mails, calling someone, editing a powerpoint slide. It felt that my line manager expected these tasks to take me days, when in reality they were completed in minutes and I was then unable to ask for more work as my line manager was busy. I often found myself putting off tasks by reading around on the Group Interchange in order to not be bored in the afternoon.

I was given responsibility to carry out my own tasks to a high quality and to deadlines given to me. Colleagues expected me to be able to work independently and their trust was appreciated. However, as stated before the tasks given to me were of low priority and led me to feel like I was doing tasks for the sake of doing them, as opposed to having responsibility over something in particular.

The training I received will help me to consider the role banks have on the economy, as well as the development of new technologies and the risks they may pose. I also learnt to work proactively and seek work, as well as how to communicate with colleagues over the phone. This unfortunately has little relevance to my degree, so whilst interesting and not a complete waste of time, is not something I can see having a huge impact on my future.

The area of my office was quite dull. There was little interaction between colleagues, and it definitely felt like somewhere people came to do work, then rush out in order to go home. There was little social life, and often the silence lead to me coming home and calling my friends in order to have at least one conversation during the day.

I began to have doubts about the internship more than a month before the placement began. Lloyds employ two different agencies - one for security checks and one for temporary workers. Both agencies have been stressful to communicate with from the start, both in the tone of their e-mails and their own organisation. The security company sent multiple e-mails a day requesting information from me, telling me that if I did not provide it within 24 hours I would not be able to start my internship at all. What made matters worse was that I was actually awaiting clarification for them, so their threats only served to make me anxious. The temp worker agency also seemed to have little empathy and came across as condescending at times. Their policies are at times unclear, and they often forget to reply to e-mails - even if they are the ones requesting something from the beginning. I was once told to return a form or forfeit my internship place, only I had never been sent the form in the first place. The internship in general lacked an overall structure, there were no clear plans for me or clear work that I should complete over the 10 weeks, which led to an aimless feeling throughout the Summer. Security passes and my laptop weren't issued when I started, meaning I had to read hard copies of long documents as I was unable to do much else. Their was miscommunication about the graduate scheme you could roll off into at the end of the internship, and Emerging Talent seem to have only decided in week 8 / 10 how graduate scheme interviews will run. In general the atmosphere I got was that as Lloyds had run internship programmes for many interns for consecutive years, they feel no need to put in proactive change to improve things for the future.

There was little training given other than necessary things e.g. anti-insider trading, anti-fraud. There was one banker course we had to undertake that helped with my knowledge of the banking industry, but as this took place midway through the internship I had derived most of it from the context of my work. Lloyds do have a large budget for transport to arrange shadowing and internal meetings which was useful as I was able to engage with other business divisions, but it did not feel like they had a lot of time / a want to engage with me or develop my talents despite the curriculum Emerging Talent had thrown together (which felt disjointed).

Whilst I respect Lloyds and their brand reputation, the disorganised feeling from my internship paired with the stress from communicating with their contracted agencies has left me with a negative impression. Added on to this, their haphazard arrangement of this year's graduate scheme has not instilled me with a lot of confidence that future employment with them will be less stressful. As I still have 3 years to complete my degree I am not ruling it out completely, but its likely I will find an alternative company that is more appealing.

This is very dependent on luck of the draw. For my placement there were only a few of us, and I ended up feeling very isolated as I did not vibe well with the others. As I was away from home I spent most of my time by myself, which over the 10 weeks did not bode well for my mental health. Most interns keep to themselves, socialising at lunch break, but doing their own activities in the evenings.

The cost was typical for a city, cheaper than say London, but not overwhelmingly cheap. There were lots of bars that did offers for cocktails, as well as some live music nights, none of which appealed to me. However for convenience there were a lot of shops located nearby .

Seemed to be thriving as there were a lot of places nearby offering drinks and music, however I did not try any of them out as that type of thing does not appeal to me. Worth noting that there are quite a few drunks even at midday on the weekends.

No activities were provided by Lloyds for socialising / networking bar one 'Lunch N' Learn' that was more of a presentation than an actual networking event. All in all it felt more like work was separate from all social life, and so I treated it as such. The office was quite isolated and did not feel particularly friendly.