Group IT - Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship at Lloyds Banking Group, it gave me a great insight to the organisation especially within the Group IT side of the business. I was able to see how Group IT worked with the business and which different areas within the group were responsible of certain roles.

The nature of my internship was agreed in principle with my line manager, as I spent a few weeks with different teams so rather than having 10 weeks to impress colleagues I only had 2 weeks. Colleagues always valued my opinions even though I was with them for a short amount of time.

My line manager was always on hand in case I had any problems. From the first day I was given support and guidance to ensure I prospered in my ten weeks with the organisation. When I was with different projects, I always had a point of contact within the team and they were always helpful.

This varied mainly down to the fact that I was only with teams for a short period of time, which meant that it was difficult to find me pieces of work to complete. However, I took it upon myself to get involved in as many meetings/calls as possible to give myself the exposure of what working within the organisation is like. My line manager was aware of this as well and he also provided me with personal projects to complete which I did when I had free time within a project.

One of my personal projects was to set up a Volunteering Day (LBG are huge on making a difference to the community) which involved me actively finding colleagues to volunteer for the day, liasing with the charity we were volunteering for, organise supplies for the day (lunch, building supplies) and managing colleagues on the day to ensure we worked efficiently as possible. This was a true test of my project management skills.

I have learnt so much during my 10 weeks, and I have to say that I have learnt skills which have not been available in my degree studies. I have a better understanding on how my personal skills can be used when working in industry and mainly I have developed my team skills.

I was in a range of offices, some were very quiet and some were lively and the environment was very comfortable mainly due to the team cohesion.

It was very well organised as I knew what I had to do every day. However, it may have been useful to spend a week longer in certain teams to enable me to get more involved in project work.

I was given one to one training by my line manager, in more competency based skills. I was also given training to improve my presentation skills and I was involved in a career coaching session as well.

Future employment within the organisation is appealing mainly down to the set up the organisation has and how it values your opinions regardless how inexperience you are. After the 10 weeks, you will go through a referral process with your line manager, who states whether you should be referred to the graduate programme. Also the possibilities are endless within the organisation as it is so large, there is bound to be a job for you.

My internship was all over West Yorkshire, so I was given accommodation in Leeds along with other interns. The social scene was great as we were all living at one site and could always socialise easily whenever we wanted. There were networking events put on where they enabled us to network with other colleagues within the organisation.

The cost of living was free as the organisation paid for the accommodation. In terms of the socialising aspect, Leeds was reasonably cheap to socialise.

The nightlife in Leeds is great as the city has something for everyone.

There were many networking events which were not formal, and there was always encouragement to attend these events.