Business Management Analyst Review

The work that I was set, I did not particularly enjoy as they were largely just IT based tasks. One of the tasks was enjoyable, as I was working on data analytics but the rest were largely general tasks that did not really reflect corporate banking. I think it would've been more enjoyable if I had more corporate banking related work.

My Barclay's colleagues were very helpful. Most of the time when I reached out to people for questions they would happily answer. However, one of my tasks, was to set up meetings with a number of managing directors. I reached out to a few however did not receive replies from any. Although I understand that they are busy, I would appreciate at least a reply to my emails.

My line manager is a director, so I understand that she may be quite busy, so I received most of my support from a delegated line manager who is on the grad scheme. He was always supportive if I had questions and we would have weekly meetings to see how I am getting on and the plan of action for the week. However, I would have liked more support from my actual line manager, as I think her high status and experience would have been of great use to me.

Over the course of the internship, I had to create work sometimes in order to feel productive. I tried to go over and beyond with my tasks, as I do not think they were taxing enough to last me 9 weeks. However, if I felt that I was not being worked sufficiently, I set up meetings with people from others areas of the bank in order to get an insight of the other areas.

For one of my tasks in particular, I was given a lot of responsibility, as I was leading a project on making the website fit for purpose. I feel that I had a lot of responsibility when it came to this piece of work as the proposal was based sole on my judgement and what I feel was based - obviously after doing some thorough research. However, overall, as an intern I did not expect to have a great deal of responsibility which was the case as I am new to the business and have little experience.

I have developed my skills in Microsoft excel in particular working alongside colleagues. I feel that this could help with my degree next year as I am going to be doing a lot more finance based work. My internship at Barclay's however has helped me to develop other skills such as communication and knowing when/ when not to ask questions. It has helped me thoroughly to know how to conduct myself in a working environment,

The general atmosphere in the office was pleasant. Everyone was friendly and up for a chat. It was much more relaxed than I expected. I would like to work in this type of environment in the future, but I know that not all work places are like this. Therefore, I have not taken too much from this office, in terms of expecting all future business areas to have the same working culture.

My internship at Barclay's was quite well organised. With a number of meetings set up for me before I started working so that I could get an insight to the business. However, I did encounter a number of problems such as not having a laptop for the first few days, so I was not able to start my tasks.

I wouldn't say that they invested in my personal training with anything specific, but the fact that they gave us this opportunity to work in a real business environment, learning off colleagues by asking questions, was an investment in personal training itself. I would have liked to see workshops for useful skills such as Microsoft Excel to help us during our time on the internship.

Barclay's is certainly a company that I would like to work for in the future. I would like to experience other areas of the bank however before I commit to a job within a particular area at Barclay's. I hope that this is made possible as I am a first year student and would like to be offered another internship opportunity for next summer.

I will give credit to Barclay's for having the first two days of the internship as time to network with the fellow interns. That was a good opportunity to get to know other interns in the business. They also set up a farewell event, which is also a good opportunity to mingle with fellow interns as we leave the business. However as the bank is so large, there was not a great social scene among interns as we did not come into contact with each other on a regular basis.

Canary Wharf is a very expensive area to socialize in, with a number of bars and restaurants, but they are all very expensive. I had to travel from south west London, which was expensive and took a relatively long time because of the high rental costs in Canary Wharf. For that reason, I did not go out after work as many times as I was initially planning.

I was not aware of any clubs around Canary Wharf. Even if there were, I would expect them to be very expensive. Therefore, during my internship, I had one night out but it was in another area of east London in Shoreditch. However there are many bars in Canary Wharf which showed that the nightlife is there.

I did not hear of any opportunities to get involved with activities outside of work other than work. We had the citizenship challenge, which was fulfilling as we able to work with Age UK Lambeth. I was emailed about partaking in a football match but that was on the same day and none of my football equipment was read for use. If it was more organised and I was given notice, then there was a very high chance that I would have got involved with that.