HR Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship at Barclays. I was placed in an area of HR which did suit some of my already existing skills, but also thrust me into an environment where I would have to develop new ones quickly. This has allowed me to feel confident in my performance, while also being tested and learning lots of new things in a short space of time. I have been given a wide variety of responsibilities, which has allowed for a great experience over the Summer.

I feel very valued by my colleagues. The culture at Barclays is very inclusive of junior members of staff, particularly those on the summer internship programme, or the graduate scheme. I have met with staff members from various corporate grades, from the group head of my function to current graduates. This culture is also evidenced by my day-to-day work within my team; I was trusted to complete work on my own, but colleagues were more than happy to help me whenever I deemed it necessary.

I have been given plenty of support and guidance from management. Throughout the internship my manager has maintained an open line of communication with me, letting me know that I could come to her with any queries or problems. I feel at times I could have benefited from more guidance on what was expected of me, particularly in the early stages of the internship; admittedly, however, I could have also changed this by being more proactive in checking that I was meeting the company's standards in all areas.

Throughout the majority of the internship I have had a near perfect balance of work on a daily basis. I have been given lots of varied work to do that has kept me both entertained and challenged, but not too much to the extent that I'd feel overwhelmed or pressured to stay late into the night in the office. However, I would note that I did not have as much to do in the opening week or so as I would have liked, or in the last week; while this is natural in a new/finishing role, more could be done to improve this.

I have been given plenty of responsibility on this placement. I have been given my own project, which I have been allowed to manage fairly independently, with occasional oversight from another colleague in the team. I was then allowed to present this to the manager of the team entirely independently on two separate occasions. In other work I was also given plenty of responsibility, although with more oversight to ensure that my inexperience did not lead to a costly mistake. Overall, I am happy with the level of responsibility I had while on the placement.

I think that I have developed a number of skills that will be crucial in my success in my career. I have been able to further hone already existing skills in analysis of vast amounts of data, as well as in both verbal and written communication. I have also improved my time management and general organisational ability. Furthermore, I have developed Excel skills that were virtually non-existent before beginning the internship, which will provide the foundation of skills that will be critical to my success in my future career.

The general atmosphere in the office was good. While fairly quiet, as the teams around me are generally quite busy, colleagues are by and large warm and friendly, and very helpful when faced with any queries. I think the office area that I was placed in strikes a good balance between working hard/achieving objectives, while also creating a working atmosphere that allowed for fun and conversation.

The role that I was given was organised very well. I was given a variety of responsibilities across three teams, allowing for an incredibly varied and interesting experience whilst on the placement. While this spread did lead to some organisational difficulties, such as one of these teams failing to give me enough work, I believe that this is a much better way of organising a placement than the standard, where you only experience one team. However, I felt the appraisal process could have been organised better, and there could have been more networking events with graduates and other colleagues still in the early stages of their career.

The company has invested a fair amount in me. There is a general assumption that all interns will by and large progress to the graduate scheme; therefore, there is an investment of both training resources and colleague time in both developing our skills and igniting our interest in our area of work. We have been given some training, although the graduate scheme perhaps has more opportunities for structured training and development.

Future employment prospects within Barclays are appealing. It has been made clear to interns, both by the recruitment team and current grads, that the graduate scheme is very appealing and is a great place to begin your career. I would be very happy to begin a permanent position with Barclays- I am confident that if that were to occur, I would be happy in my role as well as being satisfied with opportunities to progress.

There was a fairly good social scene amongst fellow placement students. It is important to note that beyond the first couple of days it was virtually entirely self-organised; I do not know if that is the standard for placements, but perhaps one improvement could be to have more structured social events. Amongst wider colleagues the social scene has been virtually non existent- but this may be because my team is largely filled with older people, who have familial responsibilities which prevent them from engaging in many social activities.

The cost of living/socialising in Canary Wharf is very high. In terms of living, it caused me to elect to commute from my family home (creating a tube journey of 80 minutes each way) rather than live closer to the workplace. The cost of socialising is similarly expensive; however, it is to be expected in Canary Wharf, and is generally in line with prices in central London.

The nightlife in Canary Wharf is a big part of the culture of many of the companies based here. While it is fairly expensive, many of the venues are worth the money as they are generally of high quality. My main complaint about the nightlife in this area is the lack of capacity- it is virtually impossible to find a table in any pub/bar on a Thursday or Friday after 5pm- and this time limit may be even earlier, as I have never been there before 5.

In truth, there were not many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. While this was not the case in other teams, there were none scheduled with any of my teams during the entire placement. Any activities that did occur were entirely organised and administrated by other interns. While slightly disappointing, I did not expect too many extra curricular activities upon arrival- so it has very little bearing on my overall rating of the placement.