Summer Intern - Commercial Banking Review

Really enjoyed the responsibility I was given and how people recognised and appreciated the work you did.

Everyone was very appreciative of any work I completed and were keen to take me along with them to see clients.

Although my manager had just got a new job within the bank, my management was passed over to another line manager throughout my internship. Although I experienced the change in management I still felt I had a lot of support throughout the internship with my managers and also within the office with other employees who were all extremely supportive.

A lot of my work was based on project work and so I managed a lot of my own time. Unless I was taken out to go and see a client I never felt too inundated with work, and it may have been better to have a few more projects and tasks to focus on in quieter periods.

I was given a lot of responsibility such as preparing data analysis for the quarterly area board and also the Area Director of the region.

Throughout the internship my personal skills such as presentation and communication skills developed. These are transferable skills which I can go on to use at university and afterwards with a graduate job.

Very friendly - everyone was very approachable and were always more than happy to help me if I needed help, or if I just wanted to learn more about their business area. Also product partners (who were not based in the office but dropped in) were also very friendly and supportive although I was not part of the team.

The placement was well organised - I spent my first 5 weeks supported the SAM and ASM with data analysis fo the region and nationally. I then spent the remaining 5 weeks with each relationship team covered all 3 sectord the mid markets team cover - ECG, Mid Cap and MSB.

As a whole internship there were only two online seminars which covered 'the basics of banking'. I personally found these to be slightly too basic and did not meet my personal needs. I beleive a more localised training should have been organised e.g. one for Commerical Banking and a seperate for Retail or Risk etc.

I would consider going onto the Lloyds graduate scheme within the stream (commercial banking) which I had completed my internship in. However I would like to explore other business areas to see if I would enjoy another division, however I was not given much of an opportunity to explore other functions.

As I was placed in an area where there were no other interns the social side of the internship was not very good. The fact that there were no other interns gave me a lot of apprehensions leading up to the internship starting, however it was really out of my control. It would have been good to have more organised for those interns based in the regions as the main focus was London.

As I was placed a bit further up North the cost of living was not too much, however as I didn’t live close to the office I was required to pay my travel expenses which did add up to a lot throughout the whole internship. As a result of the lack of socialising the cost of living and going out was quite irrelevant. I would have rather have paid more and been placed in London.

I was based in a main city within the UK and so the nightlife was quite good, however I only know this due to having been before as a result of it being near my uni town. The nightlife was not particularly utilised on my internship, and if I did socialise with interns I travelled to London.

There were no opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work as a result of me being the only intern in the region. I did go to a few event with the office I worked in which were always good, however there were not many of them as a result of it being a smaller office.