(Intern) Trade Manager, Colleague Sustainability, Trade Services Review

I was surrounded by friendly people and was given plenty of interesting work to do.

My colleagues were not only happy to help me but also valued me enough to ask for my help and opinions with their own tasks

My manager and colleagues were always there to help whenever I needed them.

Some days I had a lot to be getting on with and was very happy with my work load, but there were times where there was little for me to do. My project work often required collaboration with colleagues across my business area and when they didn't have the time to dedicate to working with me I was sometimes at a loose end.

I was given my own projects, on of which I was entirely responsible for. These were long-term projects which would last longer than the duration of my internship and really mattered, but they trusted me to get them off the ground.

I developed a lot of skills that will be very helpful to me in the future, particularly through running my own project and getting colleagues to work alongside me with it. It definitely helped my communication and people skills as well as giving me good ecperience in an office environment.

The atmosphere generally professional and focussed on work, but it wasn't over-pressured and lifeless. Colleagues would chat about non work things and have a laugh every now and then and were generally very friendly with me and each other.

From day one my official line manager was no longer working on the team that I was assigned to because he has just had to move to a new position within the business area, so although I saw him, I had very little to do with him. I was given a new manager who was unofficially my line manager and from there it was generally well organised.

I attended several training sessions related to Trade Services within Lloyds Banking Group as part of my internship and I did plenty of job shadowing in the first couple of weeks so I could understand the business area. At the start of the Internship there was an induction event held in London for all the interns across the country. There was also a series of webinars hosted for all interns across the country working for LBG and some others for all interns within Group Operations. These were sometimes quite good and taught you the basics of banking, but others were less engaging and didn't feel as useful.

So long as your internship is during the summer before your final year of university, you will be eligible for a referral by your line manager to the company's graduate scheme which is extremely valuable and a great career starting opportunity. You find out in the last week of your placement if you have been offered a place on the grad scheme (I am waiting to here back right now), but as long as you worked hard and made a good impression then your odds are better than you might expect.

There were 4 interns (including myself) within my building in Brindley Place, Birmingham. We didn't really see each other outside of work hours and rarely saw each other at work as we all worked in different business areas and on different floors. For those that do the placement and do not live at home, Lloyds usually put you in student accommodation in whatever city you work in alongside other interns, so there would be a better opportunity to socialise then.

I worked in Birmingham which isn't the most expensive place in the UK to go out or to live. However I lived in my home town near Birmingham so this wasn't relevant to me and placements are available all over the country.

Birmingham has plenty of clubs to choose from for plenty of different tatstes. Gatecrasher is the biggest and Propaganda is my favourite from being a student here. You really can't complain

There was a Charity Challenge for all Interns whether they are on the cholarship scheme as I am or not. This involved being placed into teams determined by location, so I was in a team with Interns working across the Birmingham area. The idea is to raise as much money for Children in Need (LBG's 'charity of the year') in your team to try and beat all the others. How engaging this is comes down to you and your team really. Beyond that there wasn't really anything else.