Relationship Support Manager Review

I would say I really enjoyed the internship. It really challenged me but at the same time I was given a lot of responsibilities which I relished. Being trusted to communicate straight with clients allowed me to develop my skills much quicker. All my colleagues were extremely helpful and treated you as a full time employee and not just an intern.

I felt very valued by my colleagues. They trust me like I was a full time employee and never once spoke down to me. Whenever I needed help they were always willing to give it to me. I felt I was always able to contribute to team meetings and they made sure they stressed that nothing you say/ask is a stupid question so encouraged curiosity.

My line manager was very helpful and was always there to help me out if I needed it. He constantly challenged me and would always point me in the right direction so I discovered the answer myself rather than just giving it to me which enabled me to deepen my understanding.

I never found myself looking for things to do. As soon as I started I was integrated into the team and completed the daily tasks along with the rest of my team. On top of this, I was dealing with client queries on a daily basis which kept my workload varied.

I feel I was given a lot of responsibilty. Within 2 weeks I was talking directly to customers via phone/email and was responsible for seeing client queries through from start to finish. My line manager went on holiday for 2 weeks and left me in charge of his Portfolio of clients which meant I was given a lot of responsibility.

The skills I have developed I will be able to apply to everything I do. You learn to follow a particular work ethic which I will now take with me into my final year of university. My confidence and communication skills has increased massively which will definitely help me when making presentations etc. A lot of the technical skills are very specific so may not be applicable specifically to my degree but I gained a very good understanding of the financial markets which will aid me in my Economics degree.

The atmosphere in the office made for a really good environment to work in. Everyone was pretty relaxed and took the time to come and speak to you. There was a nice level of noise which meant you were relaxed but at the same time able to fully concentrate. There was definitely a very positive atmosphere in the office.

The internship was very well organised. The two days of offsight training at the start all ran smoothly and there were weekly events organised by the recruitment team. The relationship between the recruitment team and my line manager was good which meant that feedback from my line manager to the recruitment team was frequent.

We were provided with 2 days training at the start and then it was mainly on the job training. We had compulsory online training modules to complete and we're encouraged to do further research into our business area. I would say the initial training could be improved by providing some more role specific training.

The future employment prospects are very appealing to me. Where it is such a large organisation there is so much potential to excel in the business. In addition, Barclays encourage people to move around the business and also will facilitate moves abroad to places such as New York if this is something you are interested in doing.

We had weekly breakfast meetings organised by the recruitment team with various guest speakers which allowed us all to get to know each other better. We would go out for drinks some nights and played in charity events such as football tournaments as a group of interns. There is also an end of internship event which is paid for by the bank where there is food/drinks.

I didn't actually live in London during the internship, I commuted from outside London. However, as it is London you expect the cost of socialising (Drinks, food etc) to be quite expensive. I feel if you come to London for a placement you have to expect to be paying a premium.

The nightlife in where I worked was very good, there were plenty of bars and pubs within walking distance of the building I worked in. These places would be full of other like-minded people which made it a good way to network with people from Barclays but other Banks/ organisations too.

There were a few charity events. I participated in a football event with the other interns. I also played some football matches with the colleagues in my team which meant I got to know them better. We were meant to have a citizenship day but this ended up getting cancelled.