Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my time at GCT. Everyone was very friendly and they tried to give me interesting things to do. I especially enjoyed the charity challenge where teams of interns compete to see who can raise the most money for Mental Health UK.

I received regular feedback on the work I was doing and the work I did had a real impact on the business. Work I have done will be used by my colleagues for a long time after I leave. One piece of work I did even went to the Board of Directors and the CEO!

I was assigned a 'buddy' and a line manager though for some interns these are the same person. My buddy Alex gave me my work on a day to day basis and was very friendly. My Line Manager and I had regular catch-ups where we would discuss what I was doing and how I could improve.

Some days like before the Half-year results were really busy but other days were much more quiet.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement as some of the work I did went to very senior people (see above). I was also finance lead on my charity challenge team. I was in charge of organising events and making sure the charity received all of the money.

The skills I developed won't assist me in my degree but will certainly help me getting a job after university. I learnt many new tricks in Microsoft excel and learnt many people skills when interacting with my colleagues.

The atmosphere of my office changed depending on how busy we were. Sometimes it was very relaxed- they implemented a 'Dress-down July' policy where everyone was allowed to come in casual clothes (so long as they weren't meeting with any clients). Other times like before the Half-year results or as we were going to investor meetings everyone was very serious and sometimes panicked.

The Internship has been perfected over many years of different interns coming and going. There is mandatory training for all interns and we receive regular 'internship journey' emails and invites to networking events. 2nd year interns (or interns leaving university the following year) can also be made an offer to join the graduate scheme if they have performed well.

As I stated above, all intern receive mandatory training. The company invested a lot of money in our accommodation for 10 weeks. They pay for student halls of residence. The salary is maybe not as good as other internships (for example with investment banks) at £3500 for the 10 weeks.

if you are an intern who will leave university the following year you can roll off the internship onto the graduate scheme where you do 4 rotations in different parts of the bank (possibly in different parts of the country) for 3 years. During that time you train for an accountancy qualification and at the end you can get a management or senior management role.

The accommodation that Lloyds provides has many other interns living there and so it is very easy to meet up with fellow interns. I also regularly had lunch with the other GCT interns. Lloyds organises optional networking events to meet with interns in different parts of the bank and the charity challenge also provides an opportunity to work with your peers.

Living in central London is incredibly expensive. Although Lloyds pays for the accommodation the Kitchens are not regularly cleaned so conditions have become disgusting. Instead I have had to eat out every day which Is definitely not cheap. I must have spent almost £1000 on living costs since getting to London.

I am told there is a wide variety of clubs to go to if you're into that sort of thing but I don't drink so I was never interested.

I was invited to many evening drinks with colleagues.