Front Office Spring Intern Review

Based on my work experience up until now this week has been the most exciting and educational week of my short Finance career. The people we meet are all so keen to talk to us and encourage us to ask questions in order to make sure we learn exactly what being at Barclays is like.

The entire week is centred around the students. All presentations are made for the students and created in such a way to tailor for all levels of knowledge. The good thing about the spring week is that you don't need a degree from a Finance related background as it is made sure that everyone keeps up.

The guidance was very important, we had days highlighting different parts of the business, and were given access to lots of different people who would be able to provide us further insight into the areas we are interested in. I also liked how all employees are honest about their roles and will tell you the bad as well as the good.

The skills I developed will not help me in my degree much, if at all. However the amount I have learned about Finance will help me a lot in the application for programmes in the future. Beyond my degree the information will be much more helpful, not only what I learned, but also who I met.

The insight was very well structured. The days ended almost exactly when they were quoted to do so and ended in the same manner. One issue would be that the interns often stayed longer than reception staff, so we would have to go and get our coats and bags before we left the building, but this wasn't much of an issue.

The atmosphere was really great. Everyone was very keen to be here and asked good questions. One thing that I noticed was that I learned a great amount from the other interns specifically, as well as from the employees of Barclays, which is a testament to how interested everyone was.

On the first day we had someone from an external company come in to train us to work better in teams. This session was extremely useful for everyone that got involved and I specifically learned a lot about how to best operate a team. The leader of the session was also extremely charismatic.

The Spring Insight Programme was very structured and from my understanding the daily ongoings of employees in the company has less structure to it. On the other hand I believe that through regular interactions with employees from all over the company we were given ample opportunity to find out how each job works.

The company culture was made clear from the start. It was evident that Barclays values its culture very much, with its 5 core values printed on walls and windows throughout the building. The employees also represented the culture of the company, and I believe that it was this employee involvement that left me with a great understanding of how the company goes about doing things.

The Spring Week gave me so much new insight into the industry and enabled me to make a much more informed decision about the business area that I want to go into. It was not as if anybody pushed you toward a certain position, merely that everyone makes sure you have considered all the facts by the time you need to decide.

Yes I was reimbursed for my time in London. Not only did we have our travel expenses reimbursed (Which for some would have been very generous as they travelled from abroad) but we were also given enough to spend throughout the week on food and drinks in the evenings of work.

There were a vast array of opportunities provided that enabled me and others to meet people in the firm. This was done not only through networking drinks in the evenings of some days but also through business area specific lunches on various days where we could ask current employees questions.

The events were a lot of fun, everyone from Barclays at the events was very keen to talk to the students which made the entire process more fun. On the first day we were exposed to senior members of the company and so were able to talk to some important figures in the industry.

We were informed of various diversity committees that employees could join by a panel of current employees. However beyond this there was not a huge range of discussion about what the employees do outside of work. I don't see this as a huge issue as we were there to learn about what it is like to work at the company, however it could be a nice addition for the future.

Yes very much so. If you have the opportunity to do this insight programme then you should. The entire experience is centred around giving the interns as much exposure to what life in the bank is like regardless of the degree discipline you come from. I think because of this it is something everybody should consider.