Consumer Banking Summer Intern Review

I had an entirely positive experience working for Barclays. There is a great culture that is inviting and makes you feel valued and encourages each person to get as much as they want out of the experience. The only negative was that they weren't great at updating you on progress during the application process, which led to some stress prior to beginning the internship.

I felt valued by all of my team. They encouraged me to get involved as much as possible. However, a member of my team did suggest that due to being an intern I should focus less on making friends and more on getting work done, which I didn't necessarily agree with. Networking is a key part of an internship when your time there is short.

I was helped throughout. My line manager was very supportive and helped me extensively, especially at the beginning of the internship. As I grew into the role more I was given more freedom but I was still able to go for any assistance needed. The graduate recruitment/intern team are always there if you need any help or don't get along with your line manager enough to go to them with problems. I was perhaps luckier than others at Barclays because my line manager had been through an internship and grad scheme understood what it was like to be in my position, therefore knew better how to set up my internship. Others were much more left to their own devices.

It varied. On average, I would expect around 50% of my day to be organized meetings, calls and work that was predetermined and organized. The rest was filled with ongoing not urgent work, meeting with other areas of the business to build up knowledge and other spontaneous tasks that you'd have to do. Some weeks were busier than others as projects came to completion but overall I felt challenged but not overstretched

I wasn't given a huge amount of responsibility. More that I was assisting and contributing to team projects. When my line manager was on annual leave I was given more responsibility as I had to cover for their absence and attend meetings that they would have been in in order to brief them on developments when back. In addition, a few of the more achievable tasks that they carried out I was given to do during the week.

I think it's difficult to say how it will assist my degree. I feel like the skills based around teamwork, project management, professionalism are some that I developed most but aren't very relevant to economics, my degree, which is much more individual work. Therefore, I think doing the internship has better prepared me for what comes after my studies much more than my actual degree in some respects. I was lucky that the team I was in work with products that everyone will likely use in their lifetime and have a greater in depth knowledge than I could hope to have in the outside world had I not been in this team.

There was a relaxed nature to my team, stress levels weren't high but it wasn't no work all play. The job wasn't hyper-competitive so you felt like you could trust your co-workers to have your back and this was necessary as teamwork was paramount. You would be constantly in contact with various members of the wider team and the relaxed, trusting atmosphere in the office made this easier; certainly for an intern. I felt comfortable speaking to anyone in my team if I needed their help or asking them about their role in the company to help improve my understanding of the business. Members of the team got along well but it was professional and work was priority over having a constant joke around all day.

Prior to starting there were a few problems associated with setting up the internship. It took 6 weeks to hear back between stages 2 and 3 with little contact and I never received my role profile prior to beginning. However, once I started it was very well organized and was ran very well. Perhaps it was just a slip up what happened before I joined, but it was frustrating.

There wasn't much organized personal training and development. The two training days were general skills training that was useful but not that specific to the role you'd be going into. However, once on the job the opportunity to grow and develop was big, exposure to new environments and situations relied on your ability to adapt what you already knew and had shown during the application to a new real world environment. I felt like Barclays invested a lot into me and felt very valued being in the programme.

All interns are told on their last day whether they've got a job offer for the grad scheme or not. I feel like there's little information out there on what's required to get an offer for future employment and it feels like it's heavily down to the expectations of your line manager as there's no contact/interview with those making the offers, just reviews from line managers. I wish they'd made it clearer what their expectations of us where at an earlier stage so that people could better prioritize where they focus their work. Having said that there is a large number of interns that do get offers and it feels like it is achievable to everyone who gets onto the internship.

It's what you make of it. There wasn't many organized events but each intern is in the same position and therefore those who make more of an effort to get to know other interns and socialize will always profit more. If you are more shy or commute a long way the social opportunities are more limited and potentially more could be done by Barclays to better facilitate those people.

I lived close by in Mile End. This is one of the cheaper areas in London to live and getting a bus to work meant that I saved money on transport, However, London is still incredibly expensive to live in and you can't get away from it. You either live far away and spend a lot to commute or live closely and spend more on everyday things. Socializing costs as much as you want to spend.

Canary Wharf is clearly an after work social scene and for that time period it is great. After 8 or 9 it tends to be a lot quieter and you'd need to go closer to central London for nightlife. This is only a 15 minute journey by tube so on nights where getting home is easy then you couldn't ask for much more.

Not a super large amount but I feel like this was mainly due to the amount of time that we were there for (9 weeks) and the fact that summer is annual leave time so many people are off so work events are slightly more limited. However, my role was 9-5 so when organized I found the time to do different activites but you are limited a lot to weekends due to the hours you work (which is understandable and not a knock on Barclays).