Aimee's success story: Securing a graduate role at Lloyds Banking Group

Aimee is a History and Hispanic Studies graduate from University of Nottingham. She secured a Sustainable Consumer Banking graduate role at Lloyds Banking Group in London, through Bright Network. 

First, please tell us a little bit about yourself.

“Growing up, I was always super adventurous, loved sports and excelled in school. I used to think (after binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy) that I wanted to become a doctor or a surgeon, but in the end I followed my true passions for studying History and Hispanic Studies, which allowed me to live in Valencia for a year.

I had the most incredible time there and my love for the Spanish language grew even more. The year before I started my grad job, I went backpacking around South America for five months and had the absolute time of my life.

Going from travelling to working in a corporate job felt slightly terrifying but since starting at Lloyds Banking Group, I’ve never looked back. Despite banking being entirely different from surgery, history and Spanish, I love the variety of working in financial services and the amazing people I get to work with.”

What motivated you to apply for your role?

“After doing an eight-month sustainability and marketing internship, I started applying for graduate jobs by filtering by “marketing”, “sustainability” and “Spanish”, and that’s how I came across the Sustainable Consumer Banking graduate scheme at Lloyds Banking Group.

I found myself drawn to the consumer side of the bank, especially as it’s the largest retail and commercial financial services provider in the UK.”

What was the application process like?

“The application process consisted of an initial application, followed by psychometric tests and a series of video assessments, all leading to the online assessment.

Before I applied for the role, I’d already done various other applications, which allowed me to become familiar with the application structure and feel confident in my responses.

I’d recommend speaking to friends and family who work in similar roles about what makes someone a successful employee and then channelling that mindset throughout your application.”

What are you most proud of about your journey?

“One of the proudest parts of my journey on the Lloyds Banking Group graduate scheme has been my role as one of the Communications Leads for Aspire, the 1,200+ strong graduate and apprentice network.

This 'side of desk' role involves producing and disseminating all branded communications in the form of emails, webinars, monthly magazines and a newly launched podcast titled 'Aspire Unplugged' to engage the Aspire network and the bank as a whole. Being able to balance this alongside my day job has been incredibly fulfilling.

On another note, I've thrown myself into the world of data, an area I'm totally unfamiliar with. From the outset, I’ve been encouraged to learn, upskill and grow in data, creating dashboards in Power BI, coding in SQL and manipulating data in Excel pivot tables. All of this was totally new to me and I’ve loved getting stuck in and learning new skills.”

What have you learnt from going through the process?

“The main thing I learnt was that practice truly does make perfect.

The more comfortable you are before going through each stage, the better you’re going to perform.”

Tell us about the future. What’s next?

“I’m looking forward to throwing myself into the next year of the graduate scheme. Having completed two of the six-month rotations, I can’t wait to see what the next rotations bring.

Each day, I find myself learning so much and knowing that I have this opportunity to take advantage of is something incredibly exciting!”