Intern Review

I really enjoyed the people that I worked with as well as the work I was assigned - it was work that actually mattered and I felt as if I was adding value. The internship offered me more than just the opportunity to work for the UKs largest bank but also allowed me to develop and learn through events such as a training session at the Bloomberg office to learn how to effectively use the Bloomberg terminals on the floor.

I've felt respected and valued by my colleagues. I've experienced a lot of positive encouragement and have also been invited on team drinks and socials in order to feel that I am properly included and part of the team. Also whenever asking for catch up chats I've always been given the time from my colleagues as well as honest advice and genuine support.

I had bi-weekly check ins with my line manager as well as one hour meetings on Start of Placement, Development Focus, and End of Placement. Focused on personal development as well as spoke through tasks given and how to do work to the best of your ability, understanding deadlines and how to get the best out of other colleagues. As well as this when given an on going project for one team I had weekly catch ups with how the project was going and what I need to do to improve ready to present to a Managing Director at the end of the placement.

Took on the shape of a bell curve. Did not have much to do to start with but towards the middle of the placement when Intern Challenge, Charity Challenge and desk work had started to increase started to get fairly busy and the days started to go past fairly quickly. However, towards the end of the placement once final deadlines were being met the workload started to decrease. Also the fact that this was a summer internship and August is known to be not so busy for the bank also greatly added to this.

I had a fair bit of responsibility during the placement but this was not all necessarily given, it was more taken upon by myself. I headed up the team for both intern and charity challenge and as well was given a lot of responsibility in what I wanted to do during my internship, where I wanted to go and also in the work I was given.

The skills and training developed will help me greatly in future jobs as there were a lot of transferrable skills learnt and that can be implemented into the corporate environment. I also mentioned that I was studying Politics and Economics and was put into the Government team primarily,, managing the bank's relationship with central government thus easily showing the practicality of my degree.

LBG is known to have a great working culture and everyone is really friendly and you're encourage to try hard, do well and be flexible in what you do. In Commercial Banking in particular there is an intense environment, the floor seems to be very focused and quite busy at time.

The overall internship was not well organised. The actual activities planned and the content of the placement was well organised but this was down to mainly the efforts of my line manager and team. Emerging Talent as a whole has been extremely disorganised and changed the referral process mid placement with the changes most definitely driving talent away.

The company didn't exactly invest a lot into me from a monetary sense as the salary is not that competitive compared to others at other banks. However, in saying this my line manager and the actual colleagues on the floor was invested in my personal and professional development and wanted me to get the best out of this experience giving me as many tips where possible.

In the beginning of the placement I saw LBG as a great place to work and could see myself as working here full time and long term. However, the changes to the referral process from internship to grad scheme has greatly pushed talent elsewhere as we are being subjected to extra tests and assessment centres that we had already completed upon getting an internship through the scholarship program and in turn there have been no improvements to the grad scheme to justify this.

There was very much a social scene between both the placement students as well as within the colleagues. The interns go out regularly as well as take their lunch hour together where possible and where Lloyds provides free accommodation for many interns they all tended to live together to over the course of the placement. There were ample team drinks, offsites and socials to help bond with colleagues however it must be noted that this varied between team and was not consistent across the floor.

The cost of living was free as the company had paid for student accommodation in Angel- only a half hour walk away from the office which was greatly beneficial for the interns. However central London will always expensive with the cost of socialising and drinks from nearby bars being phenomenal!

Very good its central London! However it was quite expensive.

Not so much - was able to get involved in a few things outside of desk work being to do with Learning and Development on the floor and Inclusion and Diversity work but not much actually outside of the office.