Commercial Banking - Client Solutions Review

I really enjoyed my time at Lloyds. They have a very friendly culture and promote the mental well-being of their employees quite heavily. I also met some great people and really got a good feel of what it feels like to work at a large bank.

I felt really valued by my colleagues. People were super friendly and put in a lot of effort to make you feel at ease with the new working environment. I made some really good friends and due to the size of the intern cohort, you will inevitably make some really good friends.

My line manager is a director, and hence was very busy with her work. As an intern in a Sales team, I was unable to get involved with much of the actual sales work. I was given tasks here and there, although it was very admin heavy.

Not much was going on in my specific team and division during the summer, perhaps due to the Trade War and Brexit. Due to this I was rarely given a load of work. In fact, I did far less than I expected to do before starting the internship.

I was given tasks that were very light, such as putting together powerpoint slides or entering numbers into excel spreadsheets. I did occasionally use my maths skills and do some data analysis, which was greatly valued by my team because they didn't come from mathematical backgrounds. Given that it was a Sales team, I couldn't expect to be given a great amount of responsibility. I wasn't expecting to close deals or anything.

In terms of skills development I feel that other internships offer a lot more due to their programmes being structured a lot better. Lloyds did put together an intern challenge to develop our skills. This task involved doing some banking related tasks and presenting about a client case study. The work involved here was very easy and didn't teach me anything new. My degree is extremely difficult in comparison to this, and I'm sure it's more difficult than anything I would do in most places.

It's an open office, which I really liked. Imagine the loud area of your Uni library. There was a nice breakout area with sofas and several TV's located around the office. One of the best moments of the internship came on the day Boris Johnson became prime minister. It was like something out of a movie. As the results were getting read out, the entire office left their seats and stood around TV's in absolute silence. Everyone was really chatty and you could listen in on some great banter going on all around you.

We weren't given much information at all leading up to the internship. We were told to contact our line managers and buddy's ourselves while at Uni. Coming in, my email didn't work for the first two weeks, which wasn't great. You can't actually do much work without an email. Also there wasn't much in terms of development opportunities, you were expected to just kind of make the most out of your time. I did think I gained quite a lot in terms of the free time but would have actually preferred developing my skills.

Not much was really done. We had one intern challenge set up by emerging talent. This consisted of some light work and a presentation, however it was almost entirely up to us and we didn't receive much guidance for any of it. I know from my friends who have completed placements elsewhere that a lot more was offered for their personal development and training.

This year for the first time Lloyds have decided to not give interns referrals onto the graduate programme. We do however get referrals onto the online tests, which seems to not be much of a referral from the sounds of it. There are plenty of opportunities for careers at the bank however.

Yes. I think the people working at Lloyds are really friendly and interesting. Larger banks have stereotypical individuals working in them, but Lloyds consists of people who have worked their way into their positions through a variety of alternative paths, which I believe gives it's employees a lot more character than what you would find at other banks. You will almost surely find a good crowd that you get along with.

London. Every Friday night my friends would tell me to come to Cargo Shoreditch. I thought this was a great idea. I live in Greater London myself. I'd end up going every Friday and would wake up on the Saturday morning with a banging headache. I'd check my online banking using my phone and £200 left my account every time!

St Paul's is far better than Canary Wharf in terms of Nightlife. There is at least 3 bar's around you no matter where you are. Also all of these places do a happy hour. Shoreditch is literally down the road (you could walk it) and the area is extremely cultured and makes for a nice place to walk around during night time.

Due to the fact that working hours at Lloyd's are very manageable (I have a friend doing S&T at MS and he works 14 hours a day 7 days a week) I was able to have a lot of free time after work. It felt like home time after primary school. I'd get home, go straight to the gym with some of the geezers, and then come home, eat, do whatever I wanted for 3 hours then sleep. In terms of things offered by Lloyds, not that much was actually put together by the firm, so don't expect any socials and what not. you have to do that yourself.