Assistant Manager, Governance & Control, Risk Chief Operating Office Review

Coming from a non-finance background (currently studying for a music degree), I was quite dubious as to how I would find this placement. However due to a combination on the work given and the team I was placed with, I have had a really incredible summer and have learnt so much.

From the very first day, I was made to feel like just another member of the team. I was immediately given support and tasks to do and was treated like any other colleague. I had constant positive feedback about how I was doing and additionally was told that they didn't want me to leave and didn't know what they were going to do when I left.

Had weekly, hour long, 1:1 sessions with my manager who gave me support and feedback on how I was doing. Additionally, as I sat right next to my manager is meant that if I had any questions or needed any help, I could easily get the advice.

It really depended on when it was, as sometimes I had finished my assigned tasks and didn't have much to do whereas other times I could be quite overwhelmed by the amount of work I had. However, on the whole it was a pretty good balance

I was extremely surprised about the amount of responsibility I was given from the very start of my placement. The first piece of work I did was included in a team presentation that went to the the Exectutive of Risk who in term fed this back to the CEO. Everything I was given to do were things that another member of my team would have had to do if I wasn't there.

I wouldn't say the skills I've learnt have any impact on my degree studies at all. However, I know this has given me invaluable skills for my future and will be far better placed to be able to apply to jobs or graduate opportunities.

Generally very cheery and genuinelly nice people. A lot of cake and biscuits were around on a daily basis! Wasn't necessarily as "fun" as some other interns teams I knew about (who were taken out for drinks weekly etc), however it was still a good atmosphere to have daily.

Overall it was very good. However, the first week was hard as the laptop they had ordered for me to do work in did not arrive until the Friday (when I started on the Tuesday), meaning I could do no work until then.

Not only was there a very competitive pay over the summer, they also tried their hardest to ensure I had the best time possible and were always asking whether they could provide me with any more opportunities over the summer. This meant that I was able to get many different days shadowing placements over the summer (including within a branch, on the trading floor and with a retail/brand team) and was set up with meetings with very senior people within the business in order for me to get the best understanding I could about the Group.

I'm doing another placement with them next summer and can get reffered onto the graduate programme from that. At the moment I think it's highly likely that I'd accept that offer if I was given it.

Brilliant. All the people on placements were really great people and we organised a lot of social events together.

Living in London is always going to be expensive, so living and socialising were something that exceeded the sort of university budget that you might normally have. However, because we were on a very good salary, I actually had enough money to be able to have a great time as much as I wanted.

Again, though expensive, working in London gives a massive range of nightlife and there was so much that I wanted to go to but simply didn't have enough time to!

Lloyds Banking Group are very keen on charity, so in my first week I went with some colleagues to volunteer at a school sports day. With these same people I then went to see a cricket match at Lords and had plenty of drinks after that!