Commercial Banking Finance Flash Reporting and Planning Assistant Review

Learnt some very interesting stuff whilst on the internship, and made plenty of great connections which may be of use to me in the future. At times it was a little slow, or not of interest to me, but for the most part I enjoyed the experience working with LBG.

The team I worked with were amazing and really friendly. They were very helpful and made sure I knew the impacts of the work I was doing, ensuring I felt like I was a valued member of the team and that my role was important, despite only being an intern.

My line manager continuously checked in with me, making sure I was okay, that I was happy with my workload, enquiring about the internship challenges I'd been set. I knew I could ask for support and guidance at any point and it would not be a problem. Other members of the team in management roles were also very friendly and supportive.

For the most part I had a very comfortable workload, with enough for me to be happy but not enough to be particularly busy. Some days I did feel very busy, juggling multiple tasks, and other days it felt like I had no work at all to complete, so it did vary from day to day.

I was responsible for a couple of processes which seemed quite important to the team and I enjoyed having the responsibility and ownership of such a task, as it made me feel valued as a colleague and that the work I was doing really mattered, rather than being given simple small tasks that don't make much difference.

Whilst on the internship my Excel and PowerPoint skills were developed to a much higher level, and both of these have a direct impact on my course as I have to use Excel to process data and PowerPoint when creating presentations, and are likely to be required in any future career. Furthermore, I developed my people skills, which are crucial at university and more generally in life.

The office had a really laid back atmosphere, with a fairly casual dress code allowing for personal comfort. Everybody I encountered was really friendly, creating a very relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. Twice a week we had fruit baskets delivered for everyone to help themselves too, there was free hot drinks and cold water available, as well as a coffee shop, and there was a ping pong table available as well. It was a very pleasant office environment.

Unfortunately the internship was not very well organised at all. LBG use Emerging Talent to organise the internship, and they did a very poor job. We weren't given much information, they started a charity challenge a week after it was meant to have started because they never told us about it, apparently they messed up some interns accommodation and background checks.

After the shambles with Emerging Talent, all the LBG staff were amazing and really did all they could to ensure I got the absolute most out of this internship. There were shadowing opportunities with other teams, spend a day schemes with different departments, and plenty of online courses and training available to sift through if you were interested. LBG had loads of opportunities to train and develop their employees.

Whilst it is not my particular area of interest and was not something I had ever considered, since doing the internship I am considering one of the LBG grad schemes as there are areas that are interesting and can link to my uni degree, and it seems a good company to work for.

Amongst other interns there was quite a good social scene, with group chats and lunches. I made some really good friends that I hope to keep in touch with. Amongst colleagues there were a few opportunities for socialisation, with team lunches and office wide pub crawls happening from time to time.

There are some great opportunities for socialisation in Bristol, with just about every bar doing 2-for-1 or half price drinks after work and there's loads of wetherspoons around for cheap food. The cost of living seems pretty standard to me, maybe a little higher than I'm used to but not worryingly so and with shops like Lidl and Aldi around it's easy to live on a budget.

Bristol is known for it's nightlife, there's absolutely loads of bars and clubs around, with a range of genres so there's something for everyone.

There's loads going on in Bristol all the time, so there was always something to get involved in. Also, part of the charity challenge could be completed out of work, with pub quizzes etc being a great fundraiser.