Communications Delivery Assistant Manager Review

It really gave me excellent experience. I developed practical skills ranging from video editing, photo editing, filming, DIT work, photography, networking and many more. I was also given really good advice and insight into future careers, everyone was eager to speak to me and help develop me in every way possible. I was given responsibilities but also had a lot of fun.

Nobody was patronising and everyone was friendly and welcoming, the banter was pretty cool too.

My manager gave me some really useful contacts by taking me along to meetings with potential suppliers as well as preferred ones. I gained a lot of knowledge and developed in terms of my career outside of lloyds but my manager wasn't always around and seemed to be more preoccupied with other projects. However, the team I worked with were all keen to give me guidance and support in any aspect of the placement, this more than made up for my line manager's slight lack of interest as they almost all came from agency backgrounds so were full of useful knowledge and experiences.

I was as busy as I wanted to be because I was given a lot of freedom. I could take on new projects, help out with current projects or plan new projects. I personally like to keep myself busy so I often had several projects on the go, but I still had 'downtime' where I could just spend a few hours doing some admin, replying to emails, adding to my CV etc.

Similarly to the busyness levels it's up to you how much you take on, at the beginning I was mainly helping out and assisting with little bits and pieces but as I developed further I took on my own projects and my team didn't check on me unless I asked them to. It really builds your confidence as you can take on what you feel you are ready to, but you also get offered jobs that you feel could stretch you, so I did some of the more complex jobs too as I was fully supported by the team.

I am studying English Literature with a view to going into a media career, working in a video team is obviously really useful for this goal as I picked up practical skills like using an SLR camera for photography and film, editing videos using Final Cut Pro and editing photos with Photoshop. The time I spent with the content team helped me to develop my writing skills and I now have an article published on the Lloyd's intranet as a result. I gained excellent experience that will assist in both my university studies and have added a lot to my CV.

The atmosphere was AWESOME! I got on with everyone and they all made me feel welcome. Being northern in an office full of southerners obviously meant there was a lot of banter but nothing offensive and it was all a lot of fun, at my expense and at everyone else's. However when I was busy and really needed to get on with something everyone kept quiet and the same went for them, although with video editing you usually have headphones on anyway so you can tune out whilst not interrupting conversation and tune back in when you're done.

It wasn't best organised, I didn't find out where I would be going in the country, for how long, how much I would be paid or what business area I was working in until less than a month before the internship started. Once I started though there was a full plan of what I would be doing and where I would be going, but this was flexible so I could remove things I felt didn't suit me and add things I thought were useful.

They spent a lot of time, money and effort on my personal training and development. I was paid the same amount as the people I worked with who were permanent employees and I was given free accommodation because I couldn't afford to live in London. Lloyds were a very generous firm, I feel that I would be given anything I needed.

Well I will be doing another internship next year and then going on to the graduate scheme which is 2 years working for Lloyds if I can, I think that probably speaks for itself. The networking chances you get here are just amazing, I met the director of internal communications as well as many other senior colleagues. My manager also took me to production companies outside of the bank, which meant that I now have contacts at Speakeasy, The Edge Picture Company and Casual Films which means I now have interesting and varied prospects not just within Lloyd's.

There were over 100 interns based in London and we were almost all living in the same student accommodation that Lloyd's provided, it was like the first couple of months of uni all over again! There were 6 people in my flat who I didn't know at all before the placement and now I am very good friends with, I also went out for drinks and took part in activities with lots of other interns from other flats.

The cost of living was significantly reduced as I didn't have to pay for accommodation, so it was really just the cost of food and general amenities, which isn't much for one person even in London, there were Tesco's, Sainsbury's and a variety of small stores very close to where I lived. Around the office where I worked there was also a large variety of places to get lunch, ranging from Subway and Tesco's to Itsu, Vital and Pret a Manger. Being the centre of London there were many opportunities for socialising, I was based near the Barbican centre which holds exhibitions and conventions as well as having shopping etc. The museum of london is also right next to the barbican centre.

I worked in the centre of London, what do you think?

Again, centre of London, there are always things to do.