Group Operations Intern Review

I learned a great deal about banking and the corporate world, and met some great friends, but office atmosphere and shoddy organisation let the experience down.

Although my line manager made me feel very valued, the same cannot be said for my other colleagues. This was almost understandable insofar as the work I was doing was most immediately relevant to my line manager, but most of my colleagues in the office did very little to make me feel welcome on a personal level - not helped by the fact that I was the only intern based in that particular office.

My line manager was a highly supportive figure - sitting on the desk next to mine, he would always make himself available if I was unsure about my work or if I wanted to clarify my understanding of certain functions of the business. He appreciated that in an operational role there are a lot of new concepts to wrap one's head around, and was accordingly helpful.

Some days were busier than others, but on the whole I rarely felt stretched by the workload, and often found that I had to create work for myself. Generally, work was given as and when it arose, and I would have preferred more project-based tasks with which I could keep myself busy for an extended period of time.

The balance of my responsibility was well-struck: enough that the work I was doing made genuine contributions, but not too much that I was burdened with any tasks critical to the continued success of the Group!

I certainly brushed up on my Excel skills, which are more handy than I once believed. I've also come away with a more acute commercial awareness, achieved both through the day-to-day tasks I did as well as the more formal series of webinars and training programmes organised for us.

I could sense that, for the full-time employees in my office, the general atmosphere was friendly and positive; unfortunately, this was an atmosphere to which I did not feel party. Certain individuals did show friendliness and courtesy towards me, but too often I felt unwelcome, even resented, by others. I thought this may have simply been because colleagues were far too busy with their own work to give me the time of day, which I could understand. But this feeling of isolation was reinforced when I discovered that I hadn't been invited to an office party, after having worked there for over a month. It didn't bother me personally (I had far better plans anyway!), but I was objectively unimpressed that any office would neglect an intern in that way. I should add that this was only my own unfortunate experience - many other interns I lived with spoke of brilliant office atmospheres where they worked, with friendly colleagues and parties they WERE invited to!

In my experience, exceedingly poorly. As my permanent residence is overseas, I submitted no location preference when applying - and for this flexibility I felt punished. I was originally to be placed in Brighton, but around two weeks before the internship was due to start, Emerging Talent (the graduate recruitment division of LBG) informed me that they could not source accommodation for me, and would therefore need to relocate me. I was fine with this - I hadn't made any firm travel plans yet. However, while I was then accommodated with a large number of other interns in Edinburgh, I was the only one who had to commute to Glasgow (an hour-long train away) each day for work; the vast majority of my flatmates enjoyed a five-minute stroll to their office. Again, fine with me, until I was told in Week 3, only after attempting to claim reimbursement for my travel (around £76 per week), that I was to finance this independently. I understand different companies have different policies for reimbursing commuting costs, but I feel theirs should have been clearly communicated before I accepted my relocation, and quite honestly I felt cheated. Moreover, myself and all the interns I was accommodated with were forced to relocate within Edinburgh twice, as ET had only reserved our original accommodation for 8 weeks (the internship is 10 weeks long). Although it was kind of LBG to provide accommodation free of charge, I do think the hassle of everyone moving belongings across the city - twice - could have easily been avoided. While I'm sure mine is not a wholly representative example, I believe it warrants as much mention as any other.

Helpful webinars about the Group and the banking industry were frequent during the first few weeks, but these petered out towards the end.

All interns are invited to interview for a graduate role for the following recruitment cycle.

I was lucky enough to be accommodated in Edinburgh, where many other interns were based and accommodated, so the social life in my personal experience was fantastic.

Could have been a bit cheaper, but not having to pay accommodation and associated living costs did significantly help.

Very very good - especially during the festival.

All interns were involved in a Charity Challenge, in which we were split into teams with the goal to raise the most money for BBC Children in Need with your team. This allowed for some fun fundraising opportunities outside of work.