Credit Risk Analyst Review

I have really enjoyed my placement year at Lloyds Banking Group. I am so glad that I got the opportunity to do my placement year at Lloyds. The opportunities and experiences that I have had over the 12 months here have been invaluable to me, which has allowed me to grow so much in a short period of time.

For the majority of my time spent at Lloyds, my team and many of my wider colleagues, in my office or through additional responsibilities made me feel very valued. Most colleagues were always encouraging to make you feel involved and feel like a valued team member. However, I did feel like there were a small number of instances towards the end where I felt a bit left out of my team and that there were some senior colleagues who did not value IPs as much as other. But I don't feel that this dampened my time here.

I think the support and guidance that I was given during my time here was perfect. I had a very supportive team and line manager, who were always willing to help when I needed them and were happy to accommodate my own personal way of working. No questions ask were ever too small or too much bother. I also got myself a mentor for the second half of my placement who was my biggest supporter during my time here. I found all colleagues really friendly and provided support and guidance throughout.

I think that this is down to you. The majority of teams have tasks that are always done by IPs so will have continuous things to do. But I think it's your responsibility if you feel you don't have enough, to discuss this with your line manager. I often did this and it gave me the chance to get involved in many different projects within my team to keep me very busy. There is also a lot of additional opportunities in Lloyds to get involved in.

Again I think this is down to the individual. If you get involved in lots of projects and pieces of work within your team then it is natural to be given an increased amount of responsibility. I have always felt like I was given lots of responsibility over the 12 months by my team and line manager through a number of different tasks. There was also lots of responsibilities that came with the additional work I was involved in.

I think the experiences and skills that I have developed over the year will help me in both my degree studies but also throughout life. There is a big emphasis in Lloyds on development, so it has enabled me to work on any areas that I have wanted to improve over the course of the year.

The atmosphere in general was pretty good within the office. The majority of colleagues were approachable and friendly if you every needed anything. We had a number of fun activities throughout the year to keep the team morale up. However, I think through a number of structural changes the team structure changed which had a knock on effect on the team feel. Making the office a little quiet and not as much of a fun place to be.

I think generally speaking, the work placement was well organised. There were a few issues with some queries from IPs but I think they stemmed from Pontoon (or Adecco?), who technically employ the IPs on behalf of Lloyds. The only thing on Lloyds' behalf I would say was not well organised was the application to the Grad Scheme at the end of placement. Nothing was finalised or communicated to use until the very last minute, it would have been good to know what the process was going to be slightly in advance.

I think Lloyds was really invested in all colleagues personal development. I was encouraged by my line manager early on to put together a development plan to highlight the key areas I wanted to develop and how I would develop them. I was then allowed time during work hours to work on developing whether it be using online materials (e.g. Lynda.com to improve Excel skills), shadowing another team for the day, watching Masterclasses etc.

The future employment prospects within Lloyds are quite appealing. However, I have been slightly put off as to how difficult it has been to apply to a Grad Scheme outside of Risk. I don't personally think that I would come back to Lloyds with an entry level job as the Grad Scheme is more appealing to me and what I want in the future. However, I know many others who are interested in this and have done it previously.

There was a really good social scene amongst the other placement students. There was only a small number of us but we all made efforts to attend and organise a number of socials for us which were really fun. Not everyone always got involved but we all got along really well which made nights out and other activities really fun.

I lived at home for the year but other placement students and colleagues all said that the cost of living in the area was good and fairly priced. We often socialised in the area and I can't recall anyone ever complaining that anywhere we went was expensive. The area has quite a lot of students so there are plenty of cheaper bars and restaurants around.

The nightlife was good, I often went on nights out with other colleagues and placement students and there was lots of different things to do. There was different student nights on different nights of the week (especially Wednesdays). There was also lots of other things to do such as pub quizzes etc.

There were some opportunities to get involved in outside of work, but most of them were more for men than women such as five a side football. I guess that there is always the chance to start your own activity but not sure how many others would get involved in. They also weren't very well advertised.