Projects Analyst Review

I greatly enjoyed my placement and internship, though I did find it a little stressful at times.

Everyone was friendly and open, and always willing to offer constructive criticism and explanations where I needed them.

Support wise, the management/supervisors here have been wonderful and more than happy to help me out in what has been quite a difficult time. The guidance has been sufficient, and I felt it was the intention of the placement to give me a little freedom and responsibility of my own.

There have been a few days where I have had little to do, and a few days where I have had far too much to do! But on the whole, it's balanced out qutie nicely, and I've never struggled to find something to keep me busy.

I was given enough responsibility to feel like an important member of the team, but not so much that I was completely overwhelmed by it! It was a very good balance, I feel.

I think that the skills I have learned will not only serve me well in my future career, but have opened up new career options for me, and presented me with ideas and plans I had never even considered before.

For the most part, the atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, with a light and relaxed attitude to back it up. Fortnightly charity bingo events brought the whole office together (and I'm not just saying that because I won one time!) and everyone was always willing to offer what time they had to help each other. Weekly dress-down days, and a generally relaxed dress code, also helped to give the place a gentle, laid-back feel: but this never got in the way of the work!

There have been a few technical difficulties over the course of the internship, and sometimes the communication has been less than stellar and a little last-minute, but the team here have always been accomodating and open to suggestions for future improvement. Given the scale of the internship (one of the largest conference centres in London had to be booked for the opening talks and introduction!) I'd say this was perfectly understandable.

As a Lloyds Scholar, the company has invested a great deal of time, money, and effort into my personal development and my education, and provide a great deal of fantastic opportunities throughout my time with them. Particularly in the itnernship, they've done their best to allow me flexible time and focus and allow me a chance to look into other areas of work, and their primary focus has seemed to be on making sure it was the best experience for me.

Even though banking was never an area I had considered for a career, I think my short experience here has taught me that I would probably be able to enjoy that. A career here in Lloyds seems like a very good one, with good prospects for colleagues and engaging, challenging work. I am still uncertain that it is the right career choice for me, but I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who was considering it.

I am not by nature a socialble person, and have generally rejected offers of socialising with my fellow interns. That said, I recognise that the opportunities for this are great: many of us were all offered accomodation together in one small complex, so there were always groups of interns milling around in the evenigns and organising fun trips out. It was also nice that there was the opportunity to spend time on one's own, and I never felt forced to go to a social event I know I wouldn't have enjoyed. With colleagues, the situation was similar: a few events were set up and, though I didn't go to many, the handful I did attend were enjoyable and a lot of fun!

The living costs were covered by Lloyds, who put us up in university accomodation in a city near where we were working. Socially I didn't spend very much money at all, but from what I saw it looked reasonably-priced. I'm sorry I can't offer more information than that!

I don't go out at night: the few times I happened to be wandering the streets after dark, it seemed that the clubs and bars were relatively active (although the fact that I ended up dragging a suitcase through Leeds on the night of Leeds Pride probably coloured my view of that) and I'd imagine it was probably above average? Again, this isn't something I have any real experience in.

There were a few here and there, but for the most part they were organised quite far ahead of schedule and I didn't have a chance to sign up in time. That said, the Interns and Scholars Charity Challenge offered us all a chance to try new things in the name of fundraising, and I used this as a chance to rediscover a love of baking and to push myself in a sponsored writeathon. These are things I'd probably not have done without the internship, so that's definitely a plus.