Summer Intern - Global Payments Review

It was a very enjoyable experience on the whole. However, I didn't always feel like I was being challenged as much as I would have liked. Also, the almost complete lack of attempt to allow the interns to integrate was one fairly major draw back.

The reception I got was very positive. At no point did I feel that I was a hindrance to the work of anyone else, and I feel like I was able to add value once I got to grips with the technical aspects of the role. This was made very easy by the high level of on the job training that I was given.

This was a very good aspect of the scheme. I enjoyed the opportunity to have weekly one-to-one meetings with my line manager to review my performance over the week and plan the week ahead.

It varied extensively. There were days that I stayed late to make sure all of my work was completed on time, however there were many more days when I had very little to do at all. I tried to pick up other tasks but it is not always easy for an intern to get involved due to their lack of specialist knowledge.

Towards the end of the 10 weeks the work picked up a fair bit and I was given quite a lot of independence to work on packs that would be used to present to senior management. I was also thrilled to be involved in some of the discussions with third party clients on the issue of Bank of Scotland's future note issuance.

This is not really very applicable to me as a maths student. However, the skills I picked up over my placement (whch were mainly social, communiction, general office etiquette etc...) will most definitely help me in my future career

Quite relaxed, very friendly. However, the people from different teams had very little interaction with each other. I once overheard someone asking where they could find a particular colleague not knowing that that colleague had been sitting 10m away from them for at least as long as I'd been there. This I found a little unusual, but in general I had no real complaints about the atmosphere.

It was left up to my line manager to organise my entire placement and I do feel that he wasn't given the best possible guidance on how he should structure it from the Emerging Talent team. That said, he did a good job on his own!

I was very pleased with this aspect. I was allowed to travel to Bristol twice and once to Edinburgh to meet with members of the team in order to aid my personal development.

The organisation is very extensive and offers great opportunities to move up the ladder early on in your career.

Many of the interns in London were put up in shared accomodation so I iagine the social scene was better for them. However, I already rent in London so lived on my own. I didn't feel that LBG made any effort to organise eventd for the interns to build relationships other than the induction and closing events. Friends in other companies told me of how they had trips away together etc..

London is known for being fairly expensive to live in.

It was good. However, many of my friends went home for the Summer and as I've already mentioned the social scene among the interns was not the best.

Interns Charity Challenge - allowed me to complete my first long distance race for charity.