Development Consultant Review

I really really loved it - I'm actually going to miss leaving after these 10 weeks. The time has completely flown by because I have been so busy with different projects, and I wish I could stay longer to see how they end up. My internship has given me the insight into the banking world that I wanted, and immersed me in the professional work lifestyle that I'm going to miss once I go back to university - and I'm definitely going to miss the people that I worked with.

I was truly amazed at how much my colleagues and the wider Bank invested in me as future talent. Individuals quite high up in the bank were more than happy to give me some of their time to discuss their roles and repsonsibilities; I was given projects to own and embue with my own ideas; colleagues always made themselves available to answer any questions or help out, and sought my feedback for their projects. It didn't seem to matter that I was an Intern and was only there for 10 weeks - I feel like I was truly embraced as part of the team.

My manager was absolutely wonderful - he was always available to answer any questions I had, to listen to my ideas for projects but also challenge my thinking. He championed me in the business area, proatively finding opportunities for me to take ownership of projects and build up my skillset. He pushed me to achieve above and beyond what I personally thought I was capable of doing just by believing in me and passing on important projects for me to take responsibility for.

The team I joined was always quite busy - projects that needed training would come in at the last minute and training material would have to be devleped in a short timescale. I had my own projects I owned, but I was always helping my colleagues through Peer Reviews and so forth, so I was constantly busy. It definitely helped me build up my skills in balancing several different projects at once, and also in learning how to prioritise work based on urgency and imporance. I don't think I ever found myself at my desk twiddling my thumbs and not doing much - I feel like every day I had my head down, doing something productive that positively impacted the team and the business as a whole.

I was given several projects to take on complete ownership for - from large projects that will continue to support the business after my placement concludes, to small admin projects that aided my team day-to-day. I wasn't just given responsibility for them - I was also encouraged to inject the projects with my own ideas, and try out ways to improve current processes and so forth.

Although the team I was part of was in a very specific area, I developed a lot of valuable skills that I'll be able to utilise outside of this role. Effective stakeholder management in particular was something I observed and was able to develop, as well as time management skills and the ability to balance a demanding and large workload through prioritising based on urgency and importance. Through the Charity Challenge I also learned about embracing limitations and initial failures to build up a foundation for future success. I just hope I'll have the opportunity to keep the skills I developed sharp while at university!

The people I worked with were absolutely amazing - I was embraced as a member of the team and joked regularly with the guys sitting in my area. Everyone worked hard and concentrated on getting their jobs done to the best of their abilities, but took regular breaks from their work to quickly socialise which made a pretty good balance between hard work and simply enjoying the company of your peers. I learnt a lot about career paths and was given plenty of general life advice during these breaks. The office itself was a lovely building, with plenty of light and modern facilities. It was often quite empty in my section as many colleagues travelled down to London for a couple days every week, which perhaps was the only downfall, but there was always someone around to speak to.

The internship was set up quite effectively. I was given plenty of opportunities to reach out to my Line Manager and an assigned Grauate "Buddy" prior to commencing my placement and Emerging Talent communicated all the information I needed. Once I arrived, my manager and my team itself had plenty of opportunities stacked up for me - although I'm not sure whether or not this was consistent across the business, everyone I've spoken to has very similar positive experiences.

I feel like Lloyds really invested in me as future talent - I was given plenty of opportunities to shadow business areas I was interested in, and I took part in Service Excellence courses alongside colleagues in my team. I was given access to a huge range of personal development material and encouraged to take a couple hours out of my work week every week to focus on developing areas I wanted to focus on. My Line Manager and other members of my team were always happy to discuss my future aspirations with me and directed me towards really useful resources. I really felt like Lloyds really treated me as a future colleague with a lot of potential and gave me a huge range of opportunities to develop myself while I was with them.

I am actually hoping to get a referal to the Graduate programme with Lloyds - a 2 year programme that I would start once I have finished my uni degree and graduated. I'd love to join Lloyds in the future because I have really loved my experience here and love the colleague culture fostered by the group; I've found it very supportive, friendly, and quite progressive. It's the kind of company I would be proud to say that I am part of.

Unfortunately where I was placed was a little isolated - there were only around 15 interns placed around Birmingham. I was lucky in the sense that I was placed in accomodation with four other interns who I socialised regularly with, but outside of this the socialising was limited due to distance and schedules and so forth. I was however always invited to lunch with the colleagues on my team and will be going for leaving drinks with them all in my last week.

Birmingham was much cheaper than what I was used to (living in Central London), so I really enjoyed being able to get a great lunch for around half the price I would expect to pay back at home. Socialising also was much cheaper (drinks are about half the price I usually pay in London!). The only sticking point for me was the price of the tickets to travel back home to London.

Nightlife in Birmingham was alright - I think seeing as it's my first time in this city I perhaps still don't know the best places to go. I usually hear that it's a lot more fun during term time and the university students are around - it did feel a little empty during the height of summer, but definitely nothing to complain about.

Perhaps this was just because of the team I was part of (as my colleagues were spread across the country at different sites), but unfortunately I didn't get to socialise much with my colleagues outside of work, and there didn't seem to be much going on during my time here. I do know that there are several events organised for September - unfortuntalely after I leave - but during the height of summer, because of the amount of colleagues on holiday, there wasn't much on.