Spring Intern Review

The Spring Week 2018 did not only fulfil my expectations of providing me an insight into the culture of Barclays and how Investment Bank functions but also allowed me to develop several important skills like teamwork, presentation, debating, relationship building skills. I enjoyed the entire course of my time there.

All the Barclays employees were very open, humble and genuinely willing to share their experiences and answer your questions about the firm and the financial industry.The HR team was tremendously committed to make sure all interns get what they wanted out of their experience by helping us think of the objectives of doing the spring week and constantly helping us along to meet those objectives.

We were provided proper instructions and guidance before any case study, presentation and group work etc which allowed me to understand objectives of all the tasks and how to think about them really well. We also had finance and valuation lectures which were intensive but were structured in a way to allow students from non-finance background to understand equally. Moreover, HR team motivated us to meet employees from all divisions of the investment bank to help us choose the area I was interested in wisely.

Spring Week has taught me to analyse the impact of macroeconomic affairs and trends on the financial industry and the plethora of different businesses it has as their clients, which will help me understand how change in economic landscape can change the financial set-up of a country in the bigger picture. The soft skills which I gained during the programme including relationship building and communication (from networking sessions and Q&A after an insight talk or discussion), teamwork and leadership (from group debate activity and stockfuse trading game), presentation, analytical (from M&A and DCM case study) will support my professional development for ever.

The entire programme was broken down into sessions of a variety of stimulating and both thorough and concise talks, networking sessions, trading games, 3 case-studies, work shadowing, trading floor tour, group debate preparation, lectures just in the right proportion. Nothing was repetitive or boring and the structure was such that I found myself constantly engaged and interested into something new seamlessly.

The ambience was full-of-spirit as the programmes succeeded in attracting the interest and attention of the students. Almost everyone was passionate and excited to participate in every session throughout which instilled in me more motivation. The HR team's interaction with the interns was such that I felt connected and more focused on making the most out of every opportunity. The people who came down to share their experiences were also dedicated to help us learn and inspired me a lot. It was definitely an exciting place to be.

They provided us a well-rounded training and development ranging from self-awareness through personality tests, persuasive talking skills sessions to building knowledge about the nature of work in the industry and what kind of skills are suitable. The debating sessions at the end helped us practice our speaking, discussion skills in front of assessors.

To a great extent. I learnt through talking to people involved in investment banking about their role, nature of work, skills involved, challenges, difficulties, how they feel within their team, division and bank. Also, panel discussions of analysts and talks from senior bankers and Q&A sessions at the end of each provided the awareness of how the people who work their are finding their role within Barclays.

The insight was quite helpful in making us understand how the employees implement values which Barclays holds and motivated me to do the same. I also got to know that Barclays' culture is very supportive, team-centered and one that uplifts learning, sharing ideas and perspectives, developing as an employee and as a person.

At the end of the programme I had got the flavour of breadth of services which the bank offered and in which one can get involved. By listening to the people who worked in each division about their role and nature of their role, I was easily able to make a well-informed decision of which division and kind of work suits me the most.

Most of the firms that offer Spring Week do not really pay other than reimbursing travel and other expenses but we received a generous amount to cover any expenses from Barclays and daily travelling expenses are also promised to be reimbursed. Those who did not live in London were also provided accommodation.

A plethora of different kinds of networking opportunities like speed networking, lunch with buddies, lunch with people from Markets and Banking, a networking evening to meet people from across the investment bank. Other than that, people which we met were happy to meet afterwards for coffee and to catch-up or answer any follow-up questions.

The social and networking event opportunities provided a great degree of freedom and encouragement to actually know people form the bank, build relationship with them, talk to them about their and your own ideas, experiences and perspectives. The environment was open, friendly and exciting and the people were very approachable even some of whom were from very senior positions.

Even in the bank, there were various activities outside of work in which employees can get involved in ranging from those promoting and uplifting diversity like WinJac, He for She programme etc and the volunteering activities to teach and develop students from a school. Also, fitness and health activities like gym.

Absolutely, I would recommend it to all my friends and juniors at university who are eager to find out about a breadth of areas and careers within banking industry. Barclays Spring Week programmes are well-known for genuinely supporting interns throughout to help them find out which area suits them the most and whether or not banking is for them. Other than that, it is an unparalleled opportunity to get to know people at the bank, and like-minded peers and develop handful of skills.