Sales & Trading Intern Review

An internship in Capital Markets at Barclays is what you might expect, it's a challenging and fast paced experience. Interns experience a steep learning curve and are required to balance out a wide array of hard-knowledge and soft skill tasks. Personally, I found this work environment to be something I enjoyed. It certainly isn't for everyone, but for those who know what they are getting into, they won't be disappointed by the Markets experience at Barclays Capital Markets.

This is a difficult one to answer. On the one hand, interns are often surplus to requirements and receive work which isn't necessarily of considerable value (though this does depend on the desk to which you are assigned). On the other hand, it is starkly obvious that the majority of staff at Barclays 'buy into' the internship programme and are keen to develop and nurture the best talent. Therefore in terms of value to the firm, interns aren't particularly valued and this is something that you can sense, however in terms of potential value, many staff invest a lot of time and effort into ensuring that you are provided the platform to excel.

From conversations from other interns, the amount of support and guidance provided tends to vary considerably between desks. Nonetheless, I was personally quite lucky to be assigned attentive and genuinely interested line managers whom invested a lot of time ensuring both that I was enjoying my placement and that I was making the most of all opportunities. I think the best example is that, for many interns, their line managers often stayed behind late at work to talk through concepts and get to know their interns better.

Capital Markets is a high pressure and unique environment. On my first rotation I was exceedingly busy, working in excess of 70 hours a week. On the second rotation, things were calmer, working more in the region of 50-60 hours. Most interns are provided a healthy stream of work, tasks and projects to complete. Beyond the tasks assigned, workflows are quite dependent on the nature of the interns. Many interns were extremely busy in terms of meeting new people and providing their own innovative contributions in one way or another to their team or manager. Personally I like to be extremely busy and this was something which I enjoyed, however for those looking for more of a balance they will struggle in this role somewhat.

Again this varies by desk. Personally in more markets based roles, reasonability is limited by the nature of our position as an intern. I was afforded the opportunity to speak to clients, present regularly to very senior people and work on projects which would work their way up through the bank to exec-level managers. In terms of responsibility therefore, I was probably better than most other interns.

It is undeniable that economics is present across the Capital Markets. Consequently, real world applications and discussions of, for example, the J Curve, Macro Economic Data, Theory of the Firm, Consumer Theory etc was highly relevant and enjoyable. Working in this environment provides a huge boost to both a students soft skills and theoretical knowledge. It is a lot easier to speak, write and understand economics when you have considered practical considerations of the course on a daily basis, while being surrounded by some of the worlds most able minds. One thing that is worth considering is that the caliber of people who work in this environment is of one of the highest levels. I found myself surrounded by people with PHD's, Masters and Undergrad degrees from some of the highest ranking institutions in the world. To be able to regularly discuss concepts and problems with them is something which can often be undervalued.

Barclays uses its culture to help differentiate itself from other banks. Interns are expected to be aware of the culture during the application process, but it is something which I personally found quite hard to be enthusiastic about prior to joining. From the start, it is obvious that there is a friendly office environment, with the vast majority of staff showing enthusiasm to speak to and teach things to interns. Different desks work in different manners and have different quirks, which results in noticeably different cultures. I sat with desks who ate collegially and communally every lunch and were constantly joking. Other desks, were more focused but would be openly friendly and regularly go for drinks after work (which interns were invited to). The final Friday of the month involved the entire department getting free pizza etc. All in all, it is an exciting and intense, yet exceedingly friendly atmosphere.

This is a hard element to comment upon. The official organization of the placement was derived from HR - which I personally found relatively poor. I would say half the time spent in the initial training was irrelevant and was logically frustrating in terms of the ordering of talks. If I am being overly critical, I operated under the impression that the internship would be a well oiled machine, given its scale and long-running nature. On the desk, organization depended on which team and department you were in. Different interns had hugely different experiences in terms of organization and what they were expected to do. My personal experience was that I was introduced to the desk with a 2hr talk about the asset class. My team subsequently assigned interns weekly presentations on trade ideas and clients, which were presented to a room full of (very) senior people. Feedback was a continual theme and provided the opportunity to grow and learn from mistakes. Again, this experience varied dramatically from desk to desk - with other interns being given huge training manuals and quizzes etc.

As mentioned prior, the first few days of training were disappointing. Many interns felt that they didn't learn much and were almost discouraged from the internship by the training. When on the desk, aside from the initial sessions, learning and training is done on the job. What is obvious is that the vast majority of people are willing to take time out of their day to discuss concepts and to help develop interns. My line managers regularly stayed late at the office to discuss concepts and talk through a whole manner of topics. Again official training depends on the desk, some desks have little in the terms of sat down group 'seminars', others had daily hour long training sessions introducing different areas of the desk. To answer the question concisely, the investment depends on your willingness to learn. If you constantly seek to learn new things and admit your weaknesses and gaps in knowledge, you will find an considerable amount of time and effort is open to be invested into you.

I think the rule of thumb is that half of all interns are hired. Headcount varies and is a closely guarded secret for most desks, however I got the impression that things were not as competitive as many interns originally thought. There is always a segment of the internship who find that the industry is not for them and they tend to stop trying as hard or make people on the internship aware of this. I would argue therefore that 2/3 of interns who really want to be offered a position have the opportunity of getting one. Something which I was regularly told was that it was a case of proving you are good enough for Barclays, not proving that you are better than the other interns - the two being different, but somewhat linked concepts. If 90% of interns showed an exceptional standard, over and above previous years of intakes, I believe that more numerous opportunities would be created. Not only that, but if you perform well and impress on your desk, but perhaps are not quite as good as another intern, desks often refer you to other areas of the business and speak ensure that you are offered a place.

I would say there was a reasonable social scene among interns. Given that there were (I believe) over 100 interns in markets, there was the opportunity for everyone to go meet people they got on with. Generally, most interns were very work focused, however I found that there were always one or two people open for getting drinks or a meal after work. Fridays and Thursdays typically involved drinks and the typically intern social media groups helped to keep everyone up to date with what was going on.

I was expecting things to be expensive, with the internship being located in Canary Wharf. Typically I spent in the region of £5 to £15 a day on food just at work. Given the hours worked, I found that I often resorted to takeaways and ready meals as I was too tired to cook - this helped to push up food costs. Drinks are pretty much standard for what you would expect in London, though there are the odd deals and bargains that interns discover such as happy hour £3 pints etc. Living costs, were extortionate, in the region of £275 a week for rent. This does depend on the area and the manner of accommodation. I would recommend trying your best to find other interns to flat share with, which really does help to lower costs. All that being said, Barclays rewards you handsomely and money, once you have been paid, becomes much less of a concern.

Busy, from 5:00pm to 8:00pm there are a lot of people out getting drinks and food after work which provides a bit of a buzz around the place. Especially midweek, things begin to calm down quickly after 8:30ish and there is little or no facility for late night boozing (not that interns really did that). As the internship progressed, it was common to venture out into the City for heavier nights. For what interns want, that being midweek after work drinks and food, there is ample provision in Canary Wharf. Beyond that, if you are living close then you will end up travelling into the City on weekends for bigger and more exciting

Not really, there were a couple of football teams etc touted, but nothing much came of it. Barclays encourages 'Citizenship' among all employees and there is the odd couple of opportunities to engage in this, however otherwise there is not much. The lack of outside activities was not really a big deal, interns work very hard and personally I would have been too tired to attend any activities anyway.