Retail Chanage Project Manager Review

I enjoyed working for Lloyds Banking Group greatly; I was placed in a team doing interesting work and who gave me worthwhile tasks to do, whilst the Charity Challenge and other activities placed on top of the day job really allowed me to get to know the other interns and thus fostered a sense of community.

I felt very valued by my colleagues. The team really welcomed me and made me feel like any other team member, not the summer intern. I was given tasks to take responsibility for, I was involved with meetings and discussions and I involved with team dynamics - not left in a corner quietly.

My line manager gave me a great deal of support - providing feedback and room for improvement on any work I submitted, being available for questions and queries at all times and sitting down with me after any high level meetings to explain anything I did not understand. This ensured I never felt like I wast in too deep and without any support.

Like any job, I had busy days and I had quieter days depending on what was happening in the projects I was involved and the assistance I was needed to provide. However, overall, my work was balanced well so as to allow me to be busy but still able to work sociable hours and not tire myself out.

I was given a great deal of responsibility during my placement, being responsible for managing several logs; chairing some meetings with the team and wider parts of the business and taking on many important pieces of work whose audiences fell way outside my team and even my business area.

I developed many transferable skills during my internship which will assist me in my degree studies and beyond. I have completed project management training which will greatly assist my organisational skills whilst at university and also allow me to understand how projects are run in the world of work. On top of that I have learned a great deal about how to work in an office, act professionally and use the suite of Microsoft resources.

The atmosphere in my office was excellent - sufficiently casual so as not to be intimidating whilst being professional enough to allow meaningful work to take place. This allowed me to enjoy my time at Lloyds - having fun with my colleagues whilst completing my work.

My internship was well organised: my laptop was here on arrival and was set up within one working day; I had tasks to complete from the beginning and much of what I would be doing was explained to me whilst leaving enough capacity to take on extra tasks during the course of the internship as the need arose.

Training and development was definitely dependent on your team, there was no overall placement training and development activities which everyone took part in. However, this allowed an individualised training and development programme to take place - I learned about project management and the steps being taken by the company to increase efficiency.

I would consider working for Lloyds Banking Group in the future, subject to me being referred on to the Graduate Scheme, as it is a vibrant place to work with some interesting people, however it is not my first choice in employment prospects. It has, however, improved my idea of banking.

The social scene amongst fellow students was great based on the fact most of the interns lived with one another. This meant that I had a great network of friends around the business and around the universities of Britain, allowing meaningful relations rather than simply office relations to emerge.

As a major city Leeds' cost of living and socialising is higher than some parts of the United Kingdom, but not overly. Its status as a student town as well as a major city ensured that there was a wide deal of things to do and an ability to do low and high cost activities dependent on preference.

The nightlife was very good in the area I worked - there are clubs for all music styles; a wide variety of bars and pubs in which to have a lower key night and lots of great places to eat and have a casual drink. Any student who wishes a nighlife on their internship will be more than satisfied.

Lloyds did not try to mandate a huge amount of activities outside of work on us, instead allowing organic events which we wanted to take part in to take place. This meant those of us who wished to socialise, network and get involved in activities outside of work could and could do so in the way we wished.