Finance Review

It was great! The charity challenge and finance challenge allowed interns to take direct personal ownership over projects, which was a great opportunity to develop leadership, teamwork and communicational abilities. It also allowed us to be creative. The general work that I completed was interesting but inconsistent. I wasn't overly stretched, though being my first internship I was grateful for the relaxed culture.

I generally felt valued by the team, and this showed when I was leaving the group as I had cards, gifts and a leaving lunch prepared in my honour. Generally I was treated quite well and given tasks that did stretch and develop me with support and guidance available if required.

I was supported and guided satisfactorily by my colleagues, although it definitely revolved around myself taking a proactive and forward approach, rather than being directly available. This again helped me to develop further. When receiving the support it was always clear and concise to fit in with their own and my own schedules.

There were days where I was very busy, especially with the intern challenges (finance and charity), and had a lot of fun - staying a little bit later. However there were times where there was no available work to be done and I had to instead find opportunities and activities to accomplish off of my own back - networking, training etc.

I was given quite a bit of responsibility during my internship which I was glad for, but also pressurised by. It was nice to have direct ownership over the intern challenges as realistically they didn't have a massive or any impact on the business at all. But when responsible for something that directly impacted the business it felt a lot more real, so to say, which just prepared me further for the real world.

The things that I have learnt and experienced have not only caused my interest in finance to flourish but have also fundamentally changed who I am. The structure of the internship and all that it offers have really engrained some great traits into my personality and allowed me to implement them into different parts of my life. I'm really grateful and fortunate to have had this opportunity, though I can't be sure that this is purely exclusive to this internship or if I would have made the same progress elsewhere - due to it being my first internship.

The atmosphere of my office - which was different to other offices - was very calm and relaxed. It was relatively empty and this if anything was a positive for me as it wasn't so daunting as rows upon rows of desks with strangers sat behind them. Now after experiencing larger, busier offices I'm a fan of both!

Certain aspects of the internship were organised fantastically with some exceptions. One thing to note is that everyone's experience is different as the majority of the internship is directly organised by your line manager, such as what work you'll actually be completing. In my experience the charity and finance challenge were quite badly organised, with lots of improvements to be made.

Lloyds is fantastic in this department. There were tonnes of training and development initiatives in place such as 'Spend a Days', Discover learning and Lynda/LinkedinLearning. All of which can be used by colleagues to improve their knowledge of the group and develop themselves intensely. I took liberty reaping the benefits of all these initiatives and would advise anyone else to do the same.

Lloyds actually provided us with the accommodation so this was absolutely free!

The nightlife was amazing. The clubs and pubs in the area were a real blast and not too pricey either. Everything seemed to pick up more on the weekends but was still passable on weekdays which was great! Further most of the other interns were really into a night out so that was great.

There were tonnes of opportunities in the surrounding area. I got involved at a local school to volunteer. Furthermore there were gyms and other things nearby that me and other interns used and took advantage of. Additionally there were tonnes of great clubs and venues to relax and have fun in the city.