Sales Intern, Markers Review

I really enjoyed my time at Barclays. During my internship, I sat on two desks, each for four weeks, both within Sales in the Markets division. On both desks, all team members were super nice and encouraged me to ask questions whenever I got stuck on anything or needed a concept clarified. Both desks also got me doing relevant work which made me feel my contribution was valuable.

Because everyone on both the teams I interned on were really nice, I didn’t have any apprehension about approaching them for anything. Due to this, the dialogue between me and the other colleagues was always open and, as such, they were always able to see what work I was doing/how I was getting on. They were also very open to giving me praise when they thought it was due.

My managers would regularly catchup with me to check on my progress. Additionally, even though my line managers tending to be more senior, they were always willing to answer questions and even spend a fair amount of time explaining more complex concepts. Luckily, I didn’t have any significant grievances during the internship, but both my line managers emphasised that if there was anything wrong, I should approach them.

The work load was not easy, but fair. The point of the internship is to be stretched and Barclays definitely did that. However, they also encouraged us to network as much as possible and so didn’t completely drown me with work. This gave me time to organise meetings with colleagues from other teams so that I could learn as much as possible about the bank.

Given the regulatory environment, there is only so much responsibility that you can give an intern in sales. Client interaction is not allowed. However, that being said, the work that I was doing supported the team in their relationship with clients and so I did feel like the work I did was valuable.

Aside from a huge increase in my knowledge of financial products and markets, the main skill I have taken away from the internship is that of prioritising tasks and time management. The main difference between uni and work is that at uni you can work on your own terms, whereas at work you are working cooperatively with others. As such, you need to factor that in when managing your own time, as other people are not always tree.

Despite markets being quite a high pressured environment, both the teams I interned on provided a great atmosphere. People were always open for a chat, and even if they weren’t, they would politely just say that they were busy. This was the case across all the desks that I visited/shadowed.

The internship was very well structured. It began with 1 week of training, then 4 weeks on each of the two desks. Events were also organised outside of the desk, such as social drinks and breakfasts with senior colleagues. HR were also very good at alerting and reminding us of upcoming events and deadlines in plenty of time.

Everyone was willing to answer any questions I had. Additionally, there were so many resources that I could use to bolster my knowledge. I’m coming out of the internship with such a greater understand of financial products within markets, and how to interpret market movements themselves. There were also weekly ‘university’ sessions based around a certain financial product which helped structure our learning.

I am still on the internship so haven’t got a result as to whether I have got an offer or not. However, based on my experience thus far, Barclays seems like it would be a great place to work. This is also motivated by the fact that the grad program itself looks really cool, where not only do they provide training for your desk, but also give you a lot of exposure to senior members of the bank so that you can broaden your horizons and learn more about what the bank does and network with others

Although I personally did not do much with the other interns outside of Barclays organised events because of a busy family summer, the interns did organise socials amongst themselves and there certainly was no clique-ness. Everyone was very open to socialising with others, which definitely makes you forget that you might be competing with them for a job

Canary Wharf is quite expensive, but then again so is most of London

I didn’t really have much time to experience this, so wouldn’t be able to give a full answer.

The inters organised a football tournament, but otherwise people didn’t tend to get much time for these activities