Credit Risk Analyst Review

From the start of my placement I was introduced to several challenging and interesting concepts and ideas. It has been a very useful year of learning, personal development and will definitely put me in a better position when applying for roles in the future. I have enjoyed working in the team I am in and would recommend it to others.

From the very first day I felt valued by those in both my immediate and wider team. There was an induction week where I got to meet everyone and with there being fellow placement students in the team colleagues have been able to tailor work and training for us all. They respected and trusted my output, challenged my work and gave me confidence to push on.

Throughout my placement I have received the necessary support and guidance to be able to get the most out of my ability. There is a monthly coding club which also helps me develop to get on with my day job. The support isn't overpowering though, I am able to explore and develop my own skills as I go along.

A lot of the time my days were full of interesting and challenging activities. The way my role was set up meant the world load was cyclical. It would feature a heavy schedule for 10 weeks then very little for the next two. However, in the 'off' weeks I was able to do training, work streams and ad hoc pieces of work.

Naturally, at the start of the placement the role were limited and I received lots of help. However, as I gained more knowledge and ability to perform day-to-day tasks I had the same amount of responsibility as a permanent analyst being able to send emails, present to 'head-of teams' and have a say and real input.

I have definitely developed and gained skills for life. As an economics student, working with regression models and econometric indicators daily will be very beneficial for my final year of study. During my placement, I have learned how to code, present to numerous people, take lead on a task and be able to work with confidence. These skills and more will assist me in future jobs.

This was perhaps the biggest shock of my work placement. Coming straight from university I was use to a load working environment. The atmosphere in my team, however, was very dull and quiet with there being many days where I didn't speak to anyone and there are still some people I don't really know despite sitting near them.

I was very impressed with this. During the first week, a 'welcome week' was set up which was very useful. We learned about the values and behaviours of the group and all the lines to go down if needed. At LBG, industrial placement students (IPs) are part of the team, have separate community calls and have training programmes in place.

The social scene amongst fellow placement students was also a shock. Apart from a Xmas party and yearly forum, the social events with the team and IPs was minimal. Myself and a couple of other IPs socialised plenty but as a whole cohort of placement students/ wider team the socialising was almost non-existent.

I worked in Halifax but lived in Leeds during my placement year. I managed to get living for relatively cheap as I was sharing a flat with two others in Leeds but the main expense was paying for monthly travel tickets to commute each day. At work, the cost of food in the canteen was quite expensive (comparative sandwiches being £2 more than at Tesco). On the socialising front, Halifax is a cheap place to drink and eat.