Barclays Sping Intern Review

Barclays is and has always been my favourite firm and hence I had lot of expectations. Luckily, none of these lead to me being left disappointed. I had a great experience, learned a lot and made lots of new friends. I became hands-on insights into what it is like to be a financial analyst and this is exactly what I wanted!

I felt really valued overall. I was astonished about how much time people spent with us, considering their opportunity costs of doing that. My internship was inventively organised. Hence, I had a lot do to and learned a lot. Despite some exceptions, everybody was nice to me and eager to help.

Support was there and I never felt helpless. I could always ask one of the advisors if something was unclear to me. However, this was rarely the case. Most of the time everything was fairly straightforward. Fortunately, we had the chance to also to students who were on the graduate scheme and employees in general to help us out as well.

I have developed important skills in the course of this Spring Week at Barclays. Most of the information was very career related which why I do not feel that I could apply some of the knowledge in my course. However, it was still great to see what it is like to work for the company and I think this was the main focus of this Spring week anyway.

There is nothing to complain about the structure of the Spring week at Barclays. All the events, networking and company presentations followed a rigid schedule and it is safe to say that our days were packed. This left us little breaks which I would have appreciated as it could be intense at some time

The atmosphere was nothing special but also not bad. Everyone was very friendly though and always willing to help out, which in my opinion created a pleasant atmosphere. The other interns were not very talkative but it was fine as everyone was with a mission there: to make a perfect impression and leave a good name there.

The company invested a lot. Not only money but also time to sit down with us, have a talk and answer all our questions. Every presentation was informative and the tasks well thought. I liked that employees of the company actually took their to network with us and share their lessons with us.

This insight at Barclays helped a lot and will probably help everyone. Since it had many presentations about career paths at their company and what each role would involve, it helped me to gain a better understanding of what to expect. Especially talking with employees of the company gave a more personal insight.

It was great because I know now what to expect from working at Barclays. It is definitely a great company to work but I don’t understand the ‘hype’ at working at a prestigious company. It has many benefits and the industry seems interesting but I definitely want to out other industries first before deciding on a path.

This internship is a great opportunity for everybody and I would recommend it. I would recommend internships generally because it provides an insight into the industry and the company which no book or article could every do. But at the end of the day, it is what you make out of it.