Technology Summer Analyst Review

I had a great experience at Barclays. I study a technical degree, Computer Science and the role I did here is highly technical. It was really exciting to get to see in practice the concepts I learnt at university, using the same resources and taking the concepts I learnt in theory to a higher level by using them on a daily basis. The team and people in general are simply great.

I integrated very well within my team. They are very supportive and maintained a continuous dialogue with me for any sort of problem. They offered me their advice and proved to be supportive in any situation. They all care about the good of the team and about delivering the best products/services. I learnt a lot in terms of both soft and technical skills.

My manager was sitting very close to me and we were discussing daily about my progress and about what needs to be done. He is usually busy but he always made time to answer my questions and to offer detailed explanations about internal systems when needed. He was also very supportive career and academic wise.

Having a project requiring a lot of responsibility I worked hard to try to deliver my project at the best standards. I stayed longer hours, more than an extra hour per day on average but I really enjoyed doing it. So it was not a constraint, I really enjoyed to push my work to a better standard and improving it continually.

At Barclays I worked on a project with a real importance for the business. It was a priority for the bank and I consider that a very good motivational factor for myself. I was determined to work hard to accomplish something that people really need and will certainly use. I received support whenever I got stuck because it was not a project that could be simply ignored or postponed.

This internship was highly technical and it is in the same area of my studies. Basically, I saw the practical side of what I learn in theory at university and expand the practical projects I did in academia to enterprise scale ones. People here are really passionate about knowledge and research as well so I learnt a lot from them as well just like I learn in school.

The office in general is focused on technical aspects, following the best practices and delivering the best solutions. I really enjoyed that atmosphere. People discussed frequently about books and practices I also learnt in university so that was very good for my personal development. In terms leisure activities, the team integrated me very well. We went for lunch together many times, we had team dinners and some really nice team activities. Some people even introduced me to their hobbies and I already picked up some.

I think the internship is well structured. We had regular intern learning sessions and other events, such as a citizenship challenge (where we helped some charities to solve some of their problems). We also got to meet a lot of senior people in the bank. All these are great if you want to learn about various areas of the bank and explore as much as you can and also if you are focused on a particular area and want to get a deeper understanding.

The company helps a lot the development of their interns. Apart from on site learning sessions and talks, I received access to valuable online resources on various technologies. What I learnt from them represent valuable knowledge not only for the bank but for any business and for me. The team was another principal element of my learning process, they taught me many things that are useful in the tech field.

The other interns are really sociable and we all get along very well together. I made a lot of friends here.

Canary Wharf is part of central London so the prices are quite high.

Canary wharf area is nice in evenings, after work, but not too much nightlife (night in the sense of midnight or later)

Yes, there were activities to get involved outside of work and I got involved in two major ones: a volunteering event (a citizenship challenge) and on a coding session for the other interns who never did programming before. They were both good fun. I worked with professional people and I was really satisfying because I was able to help others.There were other activities across all business areas.