Student Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the technology spring insight week at Barclays in Radbroke. Before attending this week, I did not know a huge amount about the technology of Barclays but this week was such an eye-opening experience that provided me with so much information about the wide range of job roles that Barclays offers here at Radbroke.

During my time at Barclays, I felt extremely valued by the company. This is because we were provided with so many opportunities and a huge number (150+) members of staff from Radbroke gave up their time to come and talk to us and network. A lot of time was dedicated to us during this week and helping us to explore the technology side of Barclays.

I received a lot of guidance and support during the insight week. At the beginning of the week, we were supplied with a full agenda of the upcoming week which was extremely detailed and gave us all the details that we needed. Throughout the week, [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] were always available to help us with anything that we needed and always supported us as much as they could.

I think that the skills that I developed during this week will help me in my studies at university, and definitely beyond, when I enter the workplace. I was able to develop many skills such as presentation skills, team work, networking and time management. By completing a group project, we developed strong interpersonal skills and had to manage our tasks well to be successful. I think that I could apply all of these skills to my university studies.

The insight was extremely well structured. We were provided with a detailed agenda before the week started with various activities such as talks, seminars, work shadowing and group projects. This structure was followed for the whole week and enabled us to easily see what we were going to be doing the following day.

The general atmosphere was very innovative, inspiring and motivational during the insight week. Everyone that was involved was very hard working and I think that we all had the same motivations to succeed. There was always a very positive, friendly and relaxed atmosphere which made me feel very welcomed and confident.

They invested in us hugely and provided us with a huge amounts of activities and skills workshops. One day we had a leadership and follower-ship workshop which aided our personal training and development and was extremely useful. Barclays invested a lot in all of us which was really nice of them.

The insight helped me to really understand the company culture. I was able to develop a better understanding of the company's culture and their values which are respect, integrity, service, excellence and stewardship. It was really nice to learn about how seriously Barclays considers their values and how invested in them they are.

The insight week was extremely useful in helping me to decide on my future career path. They explained to us the different routes that we could take to enter Barclays and we were also able to talk to lots of staff that are currently here and understand how they entered Barclays.

I was reimbursed for any travel expenses. Barclays also provided us with accommodation, food for lunch and food for dinner. They also paid us £250 at the end of the week. Therefore, I did not have to spend any of my own money which was great and I was very thankful for this.

There were loads of different opportunities for networking. On Wednesday we had a networking breakfast with junior members of staff which was great and a nice, easy way to get to know some members of staff and learn about their educational backgrounds. On Wednesday evening we had another networking event with many other members of staff. On Thursday, we had a networking lunch with senior members of staff.

The networking events were a great way to get to know members of staff. The atmosphere was always so relaxed, and informal which made it very easy to ask lots of questions and get to know members of staff. For the first networking event, we were put into pairs which helped us feel slightly less nervous.

Not really.

I would highly recommend this insight week to a friend because it was a great way to get to know more about Barclays and the future careers that are on offer here. We were provided with a huge range of activities from talks, to seminars, to work shadowing and group presentations.