My internship experience with the world’s leading insurance market
I am spending 10 weeks in the Responsible Business department at Lloyd’s as part of The Brokerage’s Summer Placement Programme. Alongside 60 other young people undertaking summer placements in the insurance market after completing their A-levels this year, this was an exciting opportunity to learn about the world of work and gain experience.
Before I started my placement, I always envisioned myself working in an office environment, ideally something related to law, but never really wondering about the little details. Within the first week of my placement, I learnt more about these little details than I ever thought I would. I now understand why individuals drink several cups of coffee before 12pm, as well as learning the meaning of several acronyms I didn’t know existed when I first started.
Naturally before I began, I was very nervous as I barely knew what insurance was or how the Lloyd’s market worked. Since my first day I have been warmly welcomed, with several notebooks and handouts to help me gain a firm grasp about insurance and the Lloyd’s market. I joined the Responsible Business team for my placement, where we look after all the charitable, community and volunteering programmes for Lloyd’s and the market, as well as wider social, environmental and ethical initiatives.
On my second day I got to sit in the Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund trustee meeting, where I met with several senior leaders at Lloyd’s, including Bruce Carnegie-Brown, the Chairman of Lloyd’s. It was exciting being given the opportunity to observe such an important meeting deciding the future strategy of the charity, with lots of new ideas being debated and shared, and the learning about how a formal board meeting is structured was very useful.
One thing that particularly stuck out was all the work which goes on behind the scenes. I always had a brief understanding of how charities worked from my past experiences but was overwhelmed to see amount of work my line manager and her colleagues do to ensure good governance and enable the day to day running of three charities, so it’s exciting to be involved.
One of my first major tasks was to conduct competitor research, which allowed me to gain a deeper understanding as to how corporate charities can work.
So far, I am really enjoying my time at Lloyd’s! Although the idea of an office workspace was daunting at first, the people around me have been nothing but welcoming, and the views from the office (especially the 11th floor and the lifts) are amazing too!
Written by Hadika Ahmed
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