Risk Analyst Review

I enjoyed working for Lloyds Banking Group in terms of the working environment. They have a huge focus on colleagues, including colleague development and the office environment itself. I was allowed to adjust my hours to fit around my schedule outside of work which enabled me to have a good work life balance which I think is really important.

Everyone was very supportive. There is a big focus on recognition on a daily basis, not just in the long term i.e. yearly. For any work I did I received lots of thanks and praise, particularly after any presentations. Some of my work was also presented to the Senior Leadership team which shows I have been valued.

I was sat within a small team which I found really good for building relationships. Being sat so close to my team enabled me to ask questions as and when I needed to; they were all very supportive with any questions I had and didn't make me feel like a burden which is something I was worried about as I had a lot of questions at the start. I also had weekly catch ups with my manager to discuss weekly plans and whether I had any problems or if any support was needed.

My work was mainly adhoc, so when I had a task to complete I was busy for a few weeks at a time. However, there would be dips where I didn't have loads to do and would have to find things to do, such as reading articles on the interchange or do personal development activities.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility in the fact that, once I was given a piece of work, I was left to my own devices. If I had any problems I had to reach out and voice these as I often worked on my own or with just one other person.

The skills I have developed will help somewhat, my increased: communication/relationship building skills will aid increased quality of group work and my efficiency within a team; analytical skills will improve my eye for detail, particularly with financial reporting; and commercial awareness will enable me to apply real life context to taught theory

Everyone was friendly but most people have individual work so do not talk much to other people throughout the day unless it was on a phone call or via a face to face meeting. The team calls we had were more interesting but there was not too much fun chat in the office.

There was not much structure to the induction week. It was assumed tasks would take longer than they did so once they were finished it you did not really have anything to do until the next induction activity. The first couple of weeks were very slow, I understand you need to learn about the company, however more responsibility should have been given quicker. Across the year, I have witnessed and experienced managers ask their team what work they have on, in my opinion, if you are a manager you should know what your team have on and you should have a way to track your team. Even when people don't have much work on, so ask for more work, it is not always provided very quickly.

In terms of personal development, Lloyds Banking Group as an organisation plus my Line Manager, put more emphasis on my personal development than my work itself. I had to reflect each month on what I had done and learnt but also encouraged to use the development tools available to colleagues such as Skillsoft and Lynda.com

For someone who would want to pursue a career within Lloyds Banking Group/an office environment there are plenty of opportunities such as the graduate scheme where you are able to fast track through the application process if you have been an industrial placement student. Personally, I do not want to work in an office environment once I have finished university so the employment prospects do not appeal to me.

In the Leeds office there were 18 of us so there was a large amount of people in the same position who I could get to know; I also lived with 3 of these. There was another house of placement students so we would spend time together on Friday nights and go out, we also went paintballing.

Being a placement student you can rent a house with a student estate agents so you can still get rent for relatively cheap. The only thing was that there were less student houses left due to not finding out the contact details of the other placement students until quite late in the academic year. Our house cost £100 per week with bills included. Socialising was standard pricing you would expect like at university.

Leeds is a very good student city so there is plenty of places to go on nights out in town whether that be bars and or clubs. You can also get tickets to any of the students union events which is good if you want to mix with other students and not just the local; it's also cheap and always busy

Being a big city, Leeds offers many outside clubs and activities whether that be going to the gym, attending a running club, trampolining, a night walk or volunteering within the local community with initiatives such as code club or Hyde Park source which supports many initiatives such as for the homeless.