Group Transformation Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed my summer internship within Group Transformation at Lloyds Banking Group. I was given a wide range of opportunities, whether that be presenting my research to the feature team, collating statistical information, preparing powerpoint decks or creating user stories. Lloyds Banking Group provided me with a wide variety of online learning resources as well as in-person training days to truly familiarise myself with agile methodologies, which I found fascinating.

I genuinely felt like a valued member of the team! Even from my first day I had the opportunity to speak to each individual within my team about their role and experience of Lloyds Banking Group, as well as having 1:1 sessions with senior members of staff at lab-level and across the value stream. As my internship progressed, the recognition I received from my team and the presentation of my work at director-level definitely made me feel as though there is a flat-hierarchy.

My manager was fantastic - from the very start of my internship he scheduled weekly 1:1 sessions in which I was able to share what I hope to achieve from the internship, e.g. skills and knowledge, and he made sure to tailor my work to satisfy this. On a day-to-day basis he made sure that I was happy with the work I was completing and he was very open to answering any questions I may have.

I'd say that I was relatively busy for the majority of my internship, though as I became more skilled in my daily analytics tasks I did find that I had quite a lot of time to spare. However, I used this opportunity to keep busy by reading up on scrum, attending customer research labs and tours organised by the mobile team. As a result, I was never bored during my internship it was just a case of being a pro-active to find interesting opportunities.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement. I quickly took ownership for collating my feature team's management information which proved to be a key metric for assessing their newly released tool's performance. My analysis was used as the basis for assessing whether the team was on track for achieving their year-end targets, as shared with the heads of the lab.

Prior to working at Lloyds Banking Group, my knowledge of Excel was limited to simply inserting figures and summing columns. However, daily use of Excel meant that I had the opportunity to self-learn how to use VLOOKUP formulas and pivot tables which will definitely be very beneficial within statistical modules at University and for data analysis tasks within my future career.

The atmosphere was relaxed - the casual dress code made me feel at ease. Everyone in the office was very approachable and always happy to answer questions and I got the opportunity to attend meetings for a variety of teams on my floor. The working hours were a very reasonable 9-5, though there was quite a lot of flexibility as my colleagues typically started between 8-10.

Emerging talent at Lloyds Banking Group is very detached from the rest of the organisation which meant that my team were given very short notice regarding my arrival. I was confined to a visitor pass and using a colleague's spare laptop for 2 weeks which wasn't the best start. It's very much your team's responsibility to sort out your arrival and so experiences vary significantly.

Initially I felt that the company didn't really invest in me as there was no formal training and so it was my responsibility to utilise my existing skill set and to be proactive in finding resources to support my learning. However, I feel that Lloyds Banking Group invest heavily in on-line personal training and development resources, as I was able to use all internal resources as well as external e-training courses (free to subscribe via Lloyds email).

Based on the high-level of responsibility, varied work-load, supportive colleagues and flexible working hours I would definitely be keen to return to Lloyds Banking Group. However, due to significant re-structures the area in which I interned is no longer offering graduate schemes and so a drawn-out application process has made the process a lot more complex than expected.

As I was living at home for the duration of the internship I do feel as if i missed out on the intern social scene - most London interns are provided with student halls within central London. However, the 'Help Britain Prosper' charity challenge alongside 9 fellow interns across different divisions of the business did give me the opportunity to socialise more. In addition, the intern boat party organised by Emerging Talent was a great way to get to meet many interns and was definitely a fun event.

I was living at home which proved costly as my travel costs were not re-imbursed. I socialised with my colleagues near the office, based in central London and so costs were high (as standard for London). However, I felt that the intern salary was sufficient to cover both travel and social costs.

There were a large variety of bars within 5 minutes walk from the office and so the options were endless. Nightclubs were also simply a short tube journey away (around 10 minutes) and so the opportunities were endless. If you can excuse the London-prices then you're sure to be able to find a wealth of different venues and activities.

The main opportunity was the 'Help Britain Prosper' charity challenge as there were no restrictions regarding the means by which we could fundraise and so meditation sessions, bag packing and 5-aside-football tournaments outside of working hours were common. However, most other activities and talks did take place during working hours, aside from occasional intern networking events.