Summer Intern Review

I enjoyed working in the team I was in and the work I was doing. The people (both fellow interns and colleagues) were fantastic. They were extremely supportive of each other and all activity carried out, regardless of whether or not the subject was related to their field of work. Having said that, I would not be thrilled to be at my current work stream for more than a few months because I feel that the industry is mature with most competitors fighting to sell based on pricing alone. As such, the learning curve may not be as steep as other product lines/other roles. Nevertheless, I could be completely wrong as I may not have as much ownership of a certain project as I would have liked simply because my term with the company is too short and hence I will be unable to see a project end-to-end.

I believed my colleagues really welcomed my presence. They engaged with me in all sorts of ways and it was not hard to approach them at all, regardless of their level. Being an intern, I believe that they valued me appropriately as I definitely was the most inexperienced one in the team and thus had the least to contribute. Nevertheless, they usually sought my opinion on matters of discussion which I really appreciated.

My supervisors gave me excellent support and structured guidance. While they did not handhold me throughout my internship, I knew they were there if I ever needed help or additional support on a project I was carrying out. They also ensured I was given a challenging enough task such that I would learn by getting things right as well as ,even more so during the last few weeks, getting things wrong.

I was never extremely busy during any one day and I could have been given more work, particularly at the beginning of my internship.

I was given full responsibility over my projects. I was set three main objectives by my line manager and I was able to do it any way I saw fit. I was also able to carry out focus groups with the other interns within Barclays to better inform my team on the preferred banking methods of millennials. I really valued how my line manager was not prescriptive in how I carried out my work as he implicitly trusted the quality of work I would deliver.

I think the technical knowledge about banking that I have obtained over the course of this internship will really change the way I tackle my finance courses in the future. While not everything I learnt may be relevant, I believe the ability to influence and present your ideas to people who are more senior than you is extremely valuable and will surely help me climb the corporate ladder in my future workplace.

I think my office was very relaxed with people emphasising on flexibility. No one was at each others' throats nor was anyone ever overly stressed (at least outwardly). I think the working environment was conducive to productivity as everyone held on very strongly to the company values of RISES. There was huge respect for everyone in the office and the infamous company politics that threatens to ruin workplaces were barely felt (at least at my level).

I thought that the structure of the internship was quite well-organised and aimed to add maximum value to the interns, HR managed to arrange numerous talks with function leaders within Barclays which aimed to give us a really comprehensive view of what various service lines within Barlclays aimed to achieve. They also arranged mid-internship checkpoints to view our progress and constantly provided updates on the new graduate scheme.

The firm has invested a sizable chunk of time and money in me. I think that the time I took away from people who I talked to within the firm was very value adding for me but potentially (and probably) not so value-adding for them, As such, I regularly find myself at the receiving end whenever value is given. Also, compared to previous internships, I was exposed to far wider breadth as there are so many events taking place within the firm on a weekly basis which allows you to network with colleagues from different parts of the business.

I feel quite neutral on this aspect because I believe the opportunity within the graduate programme, while still large, is far smaller than what the previous graduates who went through it could obtain. This is because the roles have become ever more specific to a particular part of the business which may not be so advantageous if you want to try out many new things within the firm.

Yes there was a fairly good social scene.

I think the prices in London are very expensive, especially accommodation. After accommodation, the remainder I had left was quite small which then hampered my ability to attend every social party. Additionally, being located in such a central part of London meant that prices will be at its highest which is never a good thing when one wants to socialise.

I cannot really comment on this because I only ever went for drinks on Fridays. However, I believe that the pubs around Canary Wharf are constantly full regardless of the day of week, There are a large number of pubs scattered around Canary Wharf which keeps things interesting so one would not get bored of the 'usual scenery'.

All my activities were work-related.