35 LHV summer interns secured their golden ticket and career springboard

Imagine being one of the 1,537 young people eager to spend their internship summer at LHV. You have submitted your application and tackled demanding online assignments. Finally, the coveted invitation arrives: an Internship Day at the LHV office. Only 200 of the top-tier candidates get this chance to showcase their knowledge, motivation, and drive on-site.

A new approach to recruiting

While LHV previously showcased internship opportunities at career fairs using a classic recruitment process, this year we took a different path.

According to Katrin Koha, the Head of Talent Management at LHV, the bank starts its recruitment early. The goal is to bring in young people who already know their strengths and direction and are ready to take responsibility, find solutions, and lead things themselves, rather than waiting for exact instructions.

To find such motivated and proactive young people, it was decided to create a unique, gamified application process. It began with a hint on LHV’s social media that internship enthusiasts should pay attention. After a few weeks, the opening of applications was announced, followed by questions or tasks.

‘We decided that this time we would not ask candidates for a CV or a cover letter. We only asked what truly interests us and what we base our decisions on. The tasks were different for each internship position,’ Koha describes. ‘They had to answer video questions as well as provide practical examples of how the candidate uses AI.’

200 young people at the Internship Day

Finally, each LHV team got the opportunity to invite the most outstanding candidates to the Internship Day for the final selection. An entire 22-story office building was reserved for the young people.

On-site, they were divided into groups by roles and began solving decisive tasks that gave a good understanding of the upcoming work. Most popular this year were the roles of Product and AI Development, Prevention of Financial Crime, and Future Talent of Banking. Approximately 200 young people in total applied for these internship positions at the Internship Day.

‘I would have liked to apply myself this year because the Internship Day format is so cool. It is admirable how every year we can organise the internship program even better,’ Romi Ly Soo, the Head of the Internship Day, says. She too started as an intern at LHV last year and has now become the Head of the Youth Bank.

This year, an intern was also sought for Romi Ly’s previous position. ‘The intern can be truly hands-on in our daily customer communication: help prepare emails and notifications, set them up in the system, and later see how they performed. In addition, they can contribute ideas on how to improve our communication and processes,’ she says.

Romi Ly adds that this year’s candidates left a very strong impression. ‘The youth certainly have a fresher look at marketing and direct communication – they have a good sense of what resonates and through which channel to reach people. In such a role, interns can bring us a new perspective and fresh information while participating and learning how these processes are actually built and improved. It seemed that we found a person who is truly touched by this work and who wants to develop deeply in this field.’

Willpower and proactivity lead to success

Experience and lessons

Those gathered for the Internship Day had to solve various tasks this year and go on ‘speed dates’ with their future managers. For example, social media content was created for the youth card, messages were devised for different customer segments, AB test results were analysed, and companies were evaluated from an investment perspective.

‘The number of internship positions is limited and everyone knew that. One of the main goals of the Internship Day was providing an experience,’ talent manager Katrin Koha says and believes that every candidate learned something valuable that day. According to her, it is important to understand that moving forward requires more effort than average, and applying several times is becoming common for positions with high competition.

So, even if you were not chosen this time, the Internship Day was still a great experience: you met the LHV team and other candidates, explored our office, asked questions, and challenged yourself with practical tasks. You left with a good mood, a full stomach, and a gift bag.

A busy internship summer and real projects that influence the future of banking await the 35 chosen ones. The working summer also means joint events both with your team and other interns, whether the meeting place is LHV summer days, the traditional intern idea competition, a photo hunt or the internship graduation party.

The first interns start as early as mid-May and the internship summer ends in the second half of August.

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Liis Sulg

I had a great opportunity to participate in the LHV Internship Day. I took several very simple but at the same time important thoughts with me from there.

1. Be yourself. Authenticity always shines through and it is valued more than your skills, which can always be further learned.
2. Show sincere interest and commitment. Ask questions, investigate, and show that you truly want to learn.
3. Dare to apply several times. If it does not work out the first time, it does not mean that the next time could not go better.

For me, it was especially inspiring to hear how many started similarly from an internship and have now reached very cool roles. It reminded me that every experience and attempt leads you a step closer to your goals.


Kennert Viirmaa
Student of Entrepreneurship and Project Management at the University of Tartu

The experience of LHV Pank’s internship program will stay with me for a long time. Competition with motivated candidates was tight, which is why reaching the final round felt like a valuable recognition.

The friendly and professional LHV staff had exactly the kind of team energy with whom one would want to make a career and develop. I left the internship day inspired and richer by a first-time experience. In my opinion, LHV is the best bank in Estonia that cares about the people it chooses.