Assistant product manager Review

I've really enjoyed my time with LBG and have been given real responsibility since day one. There is a good structure to the internship and the Emerging Talent team do a great job to get you settled in and to get to know the other interns. There is a real focus within LBG on the colleague and ensuring it is a good place to work. It's been a pleasure to work with my teams - everybody is really supportive and eager to ensure you get the most out of the ten weeks here.

I definitely feel valued by my colleagues and get the impression that my opinion really is valuable. I am involved in all of the team meetings/calls and have often been asked for my opinion on a matter, despite having only been part of the team for a few weeks! I feel like my work has been valuable to my colleagues too and they have often incorporated presentations I have created into a final deck.

My manager gave me a great balance between supporting and guiding me, and allowing me to find my feet myself and throw me in to some real projects. My manager was always there to answer any questions and have regular catch up's on what I was doing but there was definitely a lot of independence in the work I was doing too.

As the internship progressed I took on more and more Business As Usual (BAU) activities such as sending out a daily email, answering product-related questions through a mailbox query forum and checking competitor information on a weekly basis. This meant that I always had things to do - there were days where I wasn't overly busy but I always had projects I was working on in the background which would occupy me when there weren't any urgent tasks to be done.

I was given a lot of responsibility - my mailbox became the place where colleagues all across the bank would send their savings producs queries to and my job was to find out the answer and let them know! I was also given the responsibility of sending out a daily email to the Savings team including senior members such as the Director of Savings.

The skills I have developed whilst on placement will be very transferrable to my future career and to some extent my degree studies. The most valuable skills I have developed whilst working here have been how to conduct myself in a corportate environment and build relationships with colleagues across all levels. I have also developed presentation and communication skills which will be invaluable to both my degree studies and beyond, as well as further developing my organisational and teamwork skills.

The general atmosphere has been quite laid back - everybody is really friendly and it was a fun place to work too. We 'hot-desk' so it was quite nice to sit near different people every now and again and in general the team was really friendly and made an effort to get to know you. There is also a big push on creating a 'Great Place to Work' so there are regular team lunches, we have a fruit basket delivered every week for the team and regular drinks after work which is a great way to get to know people out of the office.

I cannot fault the HR team for the organisation of the internship - from a Facebook page set up in advance for us to get to know eachother, to sourcing and providing accommodation in Central London for those who don't live here! We had a welcome event which was a great opportunity to get to know other interns and understand more about the company. There were regular webinars in the first few weeks which were a great opportunity to answer simple and fundamental questions about banking which you may not have understood beforehand and there have been several social events organised throughout our time here - a highlight being a Boat Party on the Thames for all the interns and grads!

The company invested a lot of time into ensuring interns had a valuable experience whilst on placement and were given real responsibility. In terms of personal development, it is partly up to you to ensure you are taking on enough tasks and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone in order to develop new skills.

Very appealing - it seems to be a great company to work for with ample opportunity to move around the various departments. There also seems to be a fairly clear pathway of progression and lots of opportunity to do so. Working for LBG also has lots of perks such as lower mortgage rates, healthcare etc.

Yes - a large proportion of the London interns were staying in halls in Central London so the weekends felt like being a fresher again with 'pre-drinks' in the courtyard! There was a really good social scene and there was always somebody around to meet up with. In the office there was also a relatively good social scene - there were welcome drinks when we started (there were 3 interns within the wider team), regular team lunches and events such as Sports Day which was great fun.

It totally depends on the person - I personally made the most of my time in London and did lots of things at the weekends so the cost of socialising was quite high. I could walk into work so cut down my transport costs that way and I started bringing my own lunch in about half way through the placement - I definitely could have saved a lot more money if I'd have done this from the start! Being in London is obviously associated with higher living costs but if you were savvy with your money and cooked meals together/walk to work where possible etc it is possible to live fairly cheaply.

The nightlife in London was very different to other cities I have experienced - there is definitely a place to suit all tastes! I found that the nights started a lot earlier and you tended to go to a club and stay there rather than move from bar to bar or club to club. There were also a lot of places which require a Guestlist so make sure you check that before you go!

Yes - I was on the 'Great Place to Work' committee so I helped to organise the Sports Day for my wider team. There are lots of opportunities to run fundraising events or general social events outside of the office. With the other interns, we organised several charity events outside of work such as a Speed Dating night and a 'Summer Pudsey Party'.