Customer Services Consultant Review

I found my placement extremely enjoyable and insightful. Some of the aspect of my time here that I enjoyed the most have been working alonside other interns to complete out charity challenge. We worked alonside Lloyd's Banking Group with this as we were raising money for their charity partner and I feel this was rewarding. Some parts of the internship were monotonous but I completely understand that this is part of the job and it couldn't be helped, it was brilliant to have supportive and caring colleagues around me who made me feel like I wasn't always slogging or doing work that was meaningless at times where I felt I was doing the same things over and over again. Overall I really enjoyed my placement

The colleagues at Lloyd's Banking Grouo have been both fantastic and accommodating, when I got here I immediately felt valued by the other colleagues as people were so warm and welcoming and came to greet me and tell me that they were there if I needed any help, so I really felt valued by the other colleagues from the outset

My manager and the other managers around me at Lloyd's Banking Group were extremely helpful and supporitve throughout my internship and I always felt that if there was something I was struggling with that I always had someone to turn to and ask for help, especially at the beginning I was offered a lot of help and guidance and always asked if I was understanding everything okay

At the beginning of the internship I was very busy doing a lot of training but between finishing this and beginning my overall project for the placement I felt that I was constantly having to go around managers asking if there were any tasks for me to do, this really picked up towards the end of the internship and I was busy with my project on a daily basis as well as working on our charity challenge

I was given a good amount of responsibility throughout my placement, I worked on my project alongside other managers helping them to work towards making Lloyd's Banking Group a brilliant bank for customers and I was able to work independently on doing this

I feel that one of the biggest things I can take away with me from my time this summer during the internship is confidence and communication skills, I study a writing/communication based degree and I have never felt confident in speaking in larger groups but now I feel much more competent with this through the skills I have developed during my internship

My office is full of people chatting on the phone and talking with one another and it always felt very warm and welcoming, my office had the type of atmosphere where everyone felt like they were easy to talk to and it never felt tense or stressful, some other departments were a lot quieter and I am thankful that there was always a buzz going on around my office

I feel that the overall work placement was set up fairly well however it could probably have been more seamless in that I feel that I wasn't alwyas in the loop with what was going on, we were not able to receive regular updates on the placement application but I do believe that we were notified at a good time with where we were going to be placed which was a huge relief and once I began working here everything seemed a lot more organised and thought through

From the very outset of the internship I feel that I had been invested in, especially by my line manager who put a lot of time and effort into making sure I knew what I was doing and had solid development goals and objectives to make my time here more meaningful, the company invested in us by holding multiple coffee mornings with the bosses to make sure that we knew all about possible future career prospects and had the opportunity to learn more about the company

I feel that the future employment prospects at Lloyd's Banking Group are very appealing and exciting although most of these which I find appealing would be higher up roles that deal more with analysis of other staff/team peformance, I feel this is interesting to me and I enjoyed getting an insight into it

Socialising with the other interns was mostly for our charity challenge - this brought us together however we were not all as close as I hoped we might have been in the beginning as I was not working alongside them in the same department, The social scene with other colleagues, especially those in my department, was really good for the short time I was here, I attended a charity night hosted by one of the colleagues and it was lovely to see them outside of work for a night out

The cost of living and socialising is mostly cheap in the area I worked in, the rent was somewhat expensive however socialising and groceries etc were quite reasonably priced if you know where to go to get some good bargains

It was a very good nightlife, there was something for everyone, nightclubs, pubs, bars, karaoke bars and more alternative scenes, it's a great place to go for variety and there are also a lot of brilliant retaurants and lots of concerts and other events on throughout the year

The charity challenge gave me opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work which I really enjoyed, Lloyd's Banking Group also got involved with pride which I would have loved to have joined in with but I was not available, I also found that the charity nights and charity events during the day were also a brilliant addition to my internship as I was able to experience LBG as more than just a job