Business Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement at Lloyds. I was placed on the Channels Strategy and Development team in Global Transaction Banking division (although part way through the internship my team was moved to SME & Mid Corporates). As part of my role I spent much of my time working in the Channels strategy investment lab. The atmosphere here is very different to a traditional banking environment. This is my second internship with Lloyds and I feel everyone is much more relaxed than last time and there is no pressure to dress formally. These factors together made the internship especially fun.

One of the main differences about working in the lab is the way in which we work here. Here we use agile methodologies (Scrum & Kanban). Because of this we have a very flat team structure so I have been able to take on a lot of responsibility and played a key role in making decisions (particularly with regards to the financial model). As a result my colleagues have greatly valued the work I have done and have had to high an extra person to replace me when I leave.

I have a Line Manager who regularly checks in with the work I am doing and personal development progress (1/2 times a week). In addition to this there are many graduate scheme colleagues dotted around the business who are happy to share there experiences with you and provide you with help with any work you may be struggling with. Finally as part of Scrum my team has a scrum master and part of his role is to hold coaching sessions with each member of the team.

It varies from day to day. On some days I struggled to source consistent data which made it difficult to progress with my financial modelling and left me very little to do. Other times I would have lots of data and resources to work with and lots of tasks set which mean I was snowed under with work. Some days I worked from 7 in the morning til 7 in the evening while on other days I worked the standard 9 til 5.

As mentioned previously I was in charge of the financial modelling for my team which created some of the key outputs of our work in the lab. As a result I was given a large amount of responsibility relative to my rank and salary. On some occasions senior stakeholders in the project we are working on will come to visit us and I am trusted with talking them through the work of the lab.

I study Mathematics at university. The topics we cover are very abstract and so far detached from the real world I find it unlikely that my work at Lloyds will help with my university studies. However beyond university, I feel I have picked up a lot of useful skills for the world of work be it technical skills with excel or people skills through coaching with my Line Manager and Scrum Master.

There are 260 interns at Lloyds this year and as a result there is no single internship journey. Each intern has to set themselves 4 key goals to complete through the internship and we are rated by how well we have completed those goals. However I have found the most interesting work is the work I have proactively sought out.

Lloyds have many graduate programmes including Finance, Commerical Banking and Data Science. In the past Interns/Scholars at Lloyds could be referred onto one of these graduate programmes by their line manager after a good performance on the internship. However now interns have to go though a new set of interviews, tests and assessment centres effectively removing any advantage from having done the internship. I think this is crazy. As a result my employment prospects within Lloyds are greatly diminished.

Most of my colleagues were very loud at night and I found it very difficult to sleep.

Living in London meant the cost of food and travel was naturally higher than the rest of the country. However Lloyds pays for the accommodation of its interns & scholars. They put us up at private student halls in Islington which are only a 30 minute walk from the bank. Since these rooms would usually cost between £250 and £300 a week this is a very good deal.

Most of my colleagues were very loud at night and I found it very difficult to sleep.

During my internship my team went on a 2 day trip to Cardiff. During the first day we worked from the Lloyds Cardiff office and reflected on H1 progress and planned for H2. Overnight we stayed at a 5 star hotel and the following day we visited a local hospital where we helped build an orchard for the patients.