Financial Analyst Review

The internship was a lot more slow paced than I'd expected. The work load was not a lot as my colleagues were busy, and many people away during the summer, so there was not much work for me to do. The work I did get to do was pretty basic and I wish I had something more challenging to do, however I learnt that this was the normal standard of work for my team. Other aspects of the internship, such as the development programme, charity challenge, meeting new people etc were more enjoyable.

My colleagues did not make much effort to train me to do things or to give me work/projects. This was a shame as the were very busy, but I did not have much to do. They were friendly, but that was about as far as it went. Only one colleague seemed to be interested in my personal and career development, and went out of their way to make me feel valued.

I was not given much guidance and support unless I specifically asked for it, in which case the support I needed was readily available and my manager did not hesitate to provide it. I wish people had more time to spend training me and teaching me how to do more advanced tasks.

Not busy. Had many days where the work I was assigned to do could have taken an hour or two, but I had nothing to do for the rest of the day. Really was in need for more work, or to work with someone different, but did not have the chance to do so.

Some pieces of work involved quite a large amount of responsibility, and I was allowed to handle confidential data regularly. I was also allowed to lead a team meeting on one occasion which was fairly important, so I would say that just the right amount of responsibility was given to an intern.

I did not develop any technical skills apart from Excel, which I will continue to use, however there was other software I would have liked to have learnt to use, but my team did not use any of it. As for soft skills I did become more confident, feel more at ease speaking in from of people and to senior executives, and learnt about the business. Overall it was a good insight into the corporate world and what it might be like, including the culture - but be warned - this is a lot more slow paced than investment banking and may not represent the culture in a true corporate city firm.

The atmosphere in my office was mostly dull, there were not many events going on and usually just the same business as usual work going on. In general the demographic of my office was a lot older than I am, whereas other offices/teams were composed of younger people or a mixture of both young and old, so the atmosphere may have been a lot different.

The internship was very well organised, with a structured personal development plan the whole way through, and new development tasks were introduced bi-weekly. There was also a fundraising challenge which we had to take part in, which was a great opportunity to fundraise and also meet other interns. The work I had to do in the office on a day to day basis was not well organised at all, I was given ad-hoc tasks when someone felt they wanted something done, but a lot of the time did not have enough meaningful work to do.

Most colleagues were very welcoming and were happy to let us shadow them/find out more about what their roles involve. There were plenty of personal development materials available online which covered a very wide range of topics, which we could access at any time. I would have liked someone to have invested more time with me doing on the job training and building my technical skills, however.

If you perform well it is normal to be considered for a referral onto the graduate programme. For me I found that I was not interested in pursuing a graduate role in the division I was in, and I did not find it interesting enough. However I would consider applying for a different graduate programme within LBG, as the company values and culture are nice.

Yes, there were plenty of like minded interns and scholars which I met which were willing to meet up outside of work to socialise. As in life in general there was a wide spectrum of people from those who mostly kept to themselves to some more arrogant characters. Overall good social scene if you put yourself out there.

For those who did not have local accommodation, free accommodation was provided for by Lloyds which was an amazing opportunity to see and work in a new city without having to worry too much about finances. I was based in London so opted to live at home, and as is well known London is a very expensive city so going out and buying food is going to be very pricey.

It's London so there is all the nightlife you could want. Plenty of clubs, bars, and pubs around. Especially pubs if you are into that, there are so many to choose from and always very busy after work. There is also a good range of activities to do for people who do not want to go clubbing/drinking - it's London after all, so very diverse and plenty to do.

Nothing - in my team it did not appear as though getting involved in activites after work was common. There are however opportunities to get involved in volunteering and help members of the public learn to use technology, which is rewarding. There were some sports clubs, and running clubs, but these were not widely mentioned and did not appear that anyone in my team was part of.