HR Business Parter Review

Great experience within the investment bank as a HR Business Partner Intern. It was quite hard getting the hang of things, but once I settled and understood how the systems and processes work I started to enjoy every day. It’s incredible how fast time goes by and you really learn so much every day whichever area you are put into.

My team has been supportive from the moment I joined. I sat down with each member of my team and they talked about their career to date and what they do in their role. People are happy to give time to interns and help them to understand how the organisation works.

I was assigned a buddy quite a few months before starting the internship (who went through the same programme, and then the graduate scheme), this allowed me to ask any questions before starting. We were also assigned a senior mentor in the business before starting, as well as meeting the line manager beforehand. All three are available for guidance and support at any time, and I am grateful for the advice that I have received from them.

This varied. Some days were super busy and I would work longer hours. Other days I had less work to do and would focus more on reading (understanding the policies and processes within the bank). In general I was kept fairly busy, and the days would generally go by quite quickly as a result.

This is very much down to the individual proving themselves and then being proactive to take on responsibility. So you can usually take on a fair amount. 9 weeks is enough time to get to know the business in the first few weeks and from half way I started to take a lot more initiative on projects and tasks without supervision.

I have gained a better understanding of financial services and how such a large corporate organisation is able to operate efficiently. The soft skills that I developed will assist me in my future roles massively, knowing how to act professionally and speak to senior people within the business. I would have preferred to have a few more training sessions together as interns or within other teams during the 9 weeks, but overall it has been good.

I worked in the Investment bank where the atmosphere is a bit more serious than the UK side of the business (I have been told so anyway!). There is a good work ethic in the office, friendly atmosphere and people move around to ask for others support often as many teams work together, especially within the HR business partner role that I was in.

Pre-Internship we had a buddy, mentor and line manager in place well before starting, this was a huge plus and helped me to feel more prepared coming in. The first 2 days involved training all together as interns, as well as another day later on focusing on technical training and understanding the financial services industry and Barclays. As mentioned, there could have been some more sessions for us, but everything that has been organised has been great and useful.

The fact that we were paid quite well for the internship shows Barclays commitment to building us up as individuals who can be attracted to the organisation and develop further. We had to complete online mandatory training, which is important for us to understand the regulatory environment that we are working in, to ensure that we don't make any major wrong moves. The sessions that we have had with senior leaders including the CEO have been great, which shows Barclays commitment to getting the interns involved with those at the top of the company too.

There are many opportunities to move around internally, which is great to give people variety within their tenure at Barclays. The conversion rate from internship to graduate scheme is also very good. The promotion process means you can work your way up within the organisation as well, of course this is all depending on your performance though.

Yes, definitely. As HR interns we met up a lot after work or on weekends for various social activities. This included bowling, drinks, Barclays events, and much more. As we were all in very close proximity to each other, this was very easy to organise. Overall, the social scene was great, however you do have to make some effort to get involved.

Luckily I found a very cheap place to rent just 15 minutes walk from Canary Wharf using spareroom, this was great for me and saved me a lot of money and time. Socialising can be quite expensive in Canary Wharf, but as we were all paid fairly well this did not stop us from having good social events.

Canary Wharf has a real buzz during the weekdays as many people will go out after work foe drinks and networking, dinners, etc. However, in the weekend Canary Wharf is very quiet and there is not too much going on. I would therefore always go home in the weekend to South London where my family lives.

Barclays organised quite a few networking events on various different topics outside of the working hours. Outside of work I also played tennis and badminton locally near Poplar with other interns or pay and play socials. There are plenty of gyms around for those who are interested, but gyms are just not my thing!