Spring Week - Technology London Review

I enjoyed the insight far more than I thought I would coming into the spring week. All the talks, discussions, shadowing and the project we were given time to complete created an engaging atmosphere and lots of opportunity to learn about Barclays, possible roles within the company and how technology influences the business

It was clear from the offset, the effort put into making the experience both challenging and enjoyable was significant. There was lots of time to ask questions to directors and graduates, getting to walk round the 1 Churchill Place HQ, three course lunches, amazing views from the top of Canary Wharf.

While we were given a reasonable amount of independence, we were shown given advice on many aspects, such as CVs, interviews, the culture within Barclays and where the industry is going. Communication about what was happening next, where we had to be and meet was clear from within the app and in person.

Discussions with people working as data scientists helped me to decide on whether to narrow my degree course more towards the field.

The progression from day today was clear and the structure allowed for a good distribution of breaks, more discussion-based and talk-based. The first few days helped us to get to know the cohort of springers and both general skills and Barclays values up to the last day with interviews in by now familiar 1 Churchill Place.

Everyone is eager to get involved, to ask and answer questions, show us the parts of Barclays that they find interesting, developing or exciting.

The Spring Week offered various personal development opportunities, from principles of working in teams, CVs and interviews, to some of the Managing Directors in the Insight sessions providing their experiences and offering advice on development, sometime through questions and often just to provide us all with the best head start.

The questions to graduates and Managing Directors/Vice Presidents provided a significant amount of insight, particularly settling into the company, working with many projects and across various time zones. The shadows went a step further, where I was able to see the environment in which some employees works and how they conduct their projects.

Barclays values and culture were on display throughout, both implicitly and explicitly, to the point where RISES can be seen in many parts of the Canary Wharf buildings. The speakers for the various insight sessions answered questions on culture and they revolved around RISES and often how this is a contrast to other banks.

The week was very important in helping me make some decisions about my future career path. Particulalry, it is easy to mistake what a role and a field is based on articles and discussions versus seeing it in the wild and the shadowing provided a very useful opportunity to understand more about (in my case) data science and possible options for me to take.

There were many implicit opportunities to network, from speakers at the various insight sessions remaining after to answer questions and to offer advices, as well as explicit networking opportunities, where we could talk to VPs within the company, as well as current graduates within technology to understand their roles and develop professional relationships.

The networking was incredibly useful and well throught out. Almost everyone was willing to connect on LinkedIn, employees gave great insight into specific roles and progressions through the company, or could direct us to people that would be able to offer the help. All networking was done in a very inviting atmosphere.

A few graduates spoke of the various groups or societies that they could join with other colleagues within Barclays, sometimes with the help of the company. The possibilites seemed widespread and where there was a gap, an employee or a group could try to fill it themselves, so there seemed to be lots of opportunity.