Emerging Technologist Summer Intern Review

Compared to previous internships I've done, I enjoyed my 9 weeks at Barclays significantly more. The overall organization of the program and the application process made it feel like a professional set up with a real strategy behind it to employ the best graduates for the future. It felt like real work, not just work for the sake of the internship.

Extremely, this was probably the best part of the internship, coming from a background in mechanical engineering this was perhaps one of the only worries I had, that I couldn't keep up with experienced team members or my contributions may be too basic. However, I quickly realized that my contributions had value, not always because they had the best grip of the issue at hand, but because of the alternative thinking/viewpoint I provided in a team of experienced technologists.

My line manager was really supportive, giving me guidance and positive/creative feedback throughout and taking time out to come over to check on me and also give me some background to thing relevant to my projects. With it being holiday season, when she went on leave, there were multiple team members who stepped in to add support. Every intern also has a graduate buddy and a mentor who I met with most weeks to just chat and get some more info about Barclays and possible careers.

Probably the one negative of the internship, coming from the 3rd year exam period of my degree I was used to being quite busy at university so expected similar during the internship. Work had been properly prepared for me and I had 2 projects to work on and some smaller tasks along the way, however, since my projects were not high priority when I required work from people offshore it would take up to 3+ in one instance to get the work. During this time I struggled to make any progress and found myself without a great deal to do and being unable to take much more work on because then I would be overfaced when the project picked back up.

Plenty, from the outset I worked on 2 projects with real outcomes and WILL 100% be rolled out in the future, these projects were only minor changes to existing systems/products but knowing they are going to reach customers felt like a good deal of responsibility. During my internship I did 2 small presentations to some senior stakeholders which gave me a sense of responsibility that my work was reaching staff beyond my own team.

Yes, although not necessarily related to my degree in terms of subject matter, the problem solving and project management skills I developed will definitely aim me in future.

In general, people are VERY keen to help, if people are busy, which they mostly are it might take a few emails but this is expected. This helped me settle in very quickly and felt comfortable approaching stakeholders for assistance. The atmosphere is a mix of techy and office space, some cool breakout areas (there is one modeled on a house living room) make it feel like a cool Google style office but some of the older buildings remind you of the sites history.

As mentioned, the internship was extremely well organized with a full program of events for the 9 weeks ranging from networking events, presentation sessions, meetings with directors and MDs to after work BBQs. The whole idea of the internship feeding into the graduate scheme with suitable performance gives you a great incentive knowing your working towards a goal.

There was plenty of mandatory online training, speaker events from senior staff and feedback sessions with senior staff for all interns.

very good, there is a clear agenda during the internship that based on your performance and consent you will be considered for the graduate scheme for the following year. This is reassuring that your efforts aren't left down to chance to be recognized and having 2 reviews at midway and the end of the internship is a good chance to document the internship.

Most interns socialized at weekends, but I lived at home on the other side of Manchester so didn't really meet up on the weekends. We went to the pub after work to watch England in the world cup and went for fairwell drinks in the final week of the internship.

Knutsford in general is pretty expensive and there isn't many flats for short term rent. I lived at home for the internship so this is just word of the other interns, I think if I was to return as a graduate I would hesitate to the a flat in Knutsford and would look towards a large town or the city centre of Manchester.

Few pubs in knutsford.

Most interns socialized outside of work but as I said I didn't live close by so didn't often stay around knutsford to socialized.