Team Framework Support, CBCF Review

by Lloyds Banking Group

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

3/5
  • The Role
    2.5
  • The Company
    2.9
  • The Culture
    4.0

    The Role

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
  • My internship was a little slow at the start (and initially involved a lot of relatively boring mandatory training, which wasn't really relevant to my role), but a combination of the constant stream of work coming my way as part of the charity challenge, as well as a slowly increasing quantity of work from my department. The inclusion of a small, long-term project from my manager was a very welcome addition, and it was something that I was easily able to engage with and get my teeth stuck in to. After many days of having hardly anything to do, this has greatly improved my internship and has made the second half of my internship quite enjoyable so far.

    4/5

  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
  • I felt mostly respected by my colleagues, but I rarely received tasks from them. I think that this was more down to them being very busy than down to them not valuing me or having confidence in me in any way. I am fairly neutral on this, neither feeling particularly valued nor undervalued.

    3/5

  • 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
  • I was never left feeling completely clueless on a task, but was frequently clueless when shadowing. I was well supported whenever I was given a job to do. My manager has been approachable throughout and my colleagues have always been supportive and ready to explain things to me if I failed to understand what was being asked of me.

    4/5

  • 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
  • For the first 4 weeks, very, very unoccupied. Week 5, a nice level of busy. After that I can't say, because I'm still in week 5, but I expect that I'll not have enough work to do in the final week or two of my internship. This is because I put a lot of work into the Charity Challenge for Interns and Scholars and by the time I get into the last few weeks of my internship, that challenge will already have finished. I will thus have only work from my department to do, and at times, there has been a distinct lack of this.

    3/5

  • 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
  • I was asked to update an important guidance document, but other than that, I was given very little responsibility within my department. I took on a lot of work as part of the charity challenge, but this responsibility was taken, not given, and to a large extent was a result of others not doing their fair share of the work.

    2/5

  • 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
  • I do not expect that anything I have done in my internship will help me in my degree. I did however get an insight into the world of risk and the peculiar world of office politics, which may help me beyond my degree but, to be honest, I doubt it.

    1/5

    The Company

  • 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
  • The atmosphere was mostly relaxed and friendly. Sometimes colleagues were stressed, and often there would be an unpleasant level of office politics and gossip, but I never felt that this was directed at me. My colleagues always made small talk and asked me how I was getting on, how my weekend was, etc. The people I worked with were always friendly and approachable.

    3/5

  • 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
  • There was a lack of planning when it came to setting aside tasks for me to work on within my department. The Charity Challenge was very poorly organised, with teams left without enough guidance on what we were and weren't allowed to do. There was a large amount of conflicting information coming our way, and we were told that when raising awareness of the partnership between Lloyds Banking Group and Mental Health UK, we were not allowed to use the logos of MHUK, LBG or the MHUK LBG Partnership, nor mention either of the organisations by name, when raising awareness online using social media. Catch 22...

    3/5

  • 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
  • The firm sent me on a number of training courses and I was allowed to shadow far and wide. The firm also paid very well and made contributions to my rent and paid for any travel costs I incurred through work. I felt that if I asked to go on any particular training course or to go and shadow someone, my manager would not have any problem with it. A number of times, I was allowed to shadow someone outside of my department because their work interested me.

    4/5

  • 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
  • Flexi Time

    Subsidised Canteen

    National Travel

    5/5

  • 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
  • The prospects for employment are well paid, the roles are respectable and some doubtless interesting. Objectively, there are great employment prospects within Lloyds Banking Group, but it's just not something that I'm interested in. Be aware for this reason that the 2/10 figure is very much skewed by my own circumstances.

    1/5

    The Culture

  • 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
  • Yes, other interns were friendly, and many lived together in student halls provided by the company, so bonded quickly. There were lots of gatherings organised at the beach, in pubs, for dinner, etc. etc. All of the other interns were sociable and there was also the odd evening out with colleagues from my department.

    4/5

  • 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
  • Edinburgh is relatively expensive compared to the rest of Scotland, but feels very cheap compared to London, where I'm from. The average cost of a pint is roughly around £3.50 and going out for a meal could cost anything from as cheap as £5 up to £100s if you go to a really fancy place in the New Town, so there's something for everybody, whether you want it really fancy or nice and casual and cosy. It's also worth noting that there is an enormous amount of choice in Edinburgh for almost everything: restaurants, cafés, museums, bars, pubs, clubs, etc. The fringe in August is also fantastic and is definitely a huge bonus if you end up working here.

    3/5

  • 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
  • There is a wide variety of clubs and bars. The Cowgate has a big selection of places all pretty close to each other, and there's also a wide variety of pubs on the Grassmarket and around the whole city. Again, the variety is huge. You could go to a club for house, grime, R&B, etc. or on the other end of the spectrum, find folk music in a traditional pub or jazz in a jazz club.

    4/5

  • 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
  • There weren't really opportunities to get involved with work-related things outside of work, but there were, as I said above, lots of opportunities to socialise with colleagues and other interns. The Fringe festival that runs throughout August also offered an enormous array of activities to get involved with. There are thousands of shows of every genre and there's plenty of stuff to see every single night of the month. It's a great experience.

    5/5

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Details

Internship (1 Month+)

Commercial Banking

Scotland

August 2017


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