Barclays 2016 Spring Week Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the insight at Barclays this spring. It was structured really well and the employees at Barclays were really friendly. I found the culture of the firm to really reflect the values of Barclays which was nice to see.

I felt on the whole valued very well. The recruiters on my programme were much like family to all of us "spring week interns" and I think as a whole "we" got along with all of the employees.

The breadth of information that we received was amazing. We had a talk from the CEO of Barclays "Jess Staley" - this was such an amazing moment and in terms of guidance within Banking - the experience was unparalleled to any other. We were provided with guidance in terms of the divisions and what each career consists of. We had the opportunity to ask questions regarding anything to do with each division so we really could receive the best guidance from the top industry experts of the fields we were interested in.

In terms of the skills I learnt/developed. I believe that everything I learnt within this week will hold for life. I have been able to network, present, articulate and be a much more confident individual who will be able to use everything I have learnt to benefit myself in the future. Barclays has helped developed myself as a person and helped me in terms of being able to develop myself in the future through excellent sessions throughout the week.

I really enjoyed the structure of the insight. We had a breadth of information, panel talks, skill sessions, work shadowing, group work time and even networking. The way the week was structured was spread out well and intense. I had a really enjoyable time and I feel that it was structured amazingly.

Every day was different. Every day felt like a new experience where I learnt something new and beneficial. Overall, I will take this experience away and I will never forget what I have learnt as well as the people I met who were fellow spring week interns as well as the graduate recruitment team. It was a great spring week and the fun never stopped.

I felt as if the firm invested heavily in myself. In my spring week I was provided with training and development that Barclays provides for its employees who are both at the graduate level and management level stage and this really makes you feel invested in.

I was working for the week at Barclays which helped me gage what it would be like to work at this firm. I had to be in work on time as well as work for generally the whole day. This helped me understand what it would be like to work within this firm full time. Later on during the week, I had the opportunity to work shadow and this really gave me an idea as to the line of work I could possibly be doing at Barclays, This helped me deeply understand what a full time role could consist of at Barclays.

We had many talks and presentations regarding the company. This helped me to be able to understand the culture of the company. Through various talks with employees I was able to understand the culture of Barclays and see the reflection of values on the employees. I was able to interact with employees on many occasions which helped me again further understand the company culture which, I deemed to be friendly and welcoming.

I feel as if I was provided with valuable content to help myself decide a suitable career path based on what I would be best suited for. One main thing I learnt at Barclays, is that they are happy to help develop their employees by whatever it takes. This was key in helping me decide that I wanted to partake in Barclays summer internship scheme in 2017 and I will definitely be applying for as I want to learn more about the career paths that Barclays has given me a deep insight into.

I was paid. I was reimbursed for my travel.

We were provided with many opportunities throughout the week to network with employees of the firm. Specifically, we had a networking evening on Wednesday and we were able to network throughout the night and meet many members of the firm which proved to be an invaluable insight into the firm.

I feel as if the networking event was great. It helped us to learn how to speak to people who we had not had the opportunity to before or would not be able to normally. We were able to speak to MD's of different divisions as well as graduates to really gather an insight into different divisions and the experiences that the employees had.

The networking event coupled with the presentations helped me gain an understanding of different opportunities available to Barclays employees to get involved with outside of work.

I would definitely recommend this insight to a friend and have already done so. The experience I gained from this insight was amazing, the people I met were absolutely fabulous, the employees I met were friendly and helpful. I enjoyed every moment of being at Barclays and felt right at home which was a really nice feeling. I gained a great insight into the bank which helped me decide on a career path for myself as well as find out more about Barclays which has helped me to understand more about the bank itself.