Trading & Structuring Summer Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time on my Barclays summer internship in the Trading & Structuring division. During my time I got to meet many different people and learnt a lot about the bank as a whole, with plenty of thought-provoking work and time to shadow traders on a wide range of desks.

Whilst on the internship I was trusted with project work and had many interesting conversations with both current employees and fellow interns. It was clear that Barclays invest a lot of time and effort in their interns and really value their opinions and contributions both during the internship and looking forward to the future.

Over the 9 weeks there a couple of formal appraisal meetings where our progress was noted against a set of set objectives and feedback was given for improvements in the future. The level of guidance given varied between managers but they were able to support the projects and offer suggested improvements and future directions.

Most days were fairly busy, with a morning meeting and morning commentary to be written in the first couple of hours in the day followed by project work, and plenty of time shadowing traders. The Macro part of trading and Prime Services also arranged a number of teaching sessions and these were helpful and provided a general financial background to the day-to-day work and offered insight into the specific areas and desks on the floor. However, if I compared with friends in S&T within MS the hours are better anyway.

Over the 2 months I was responsible for things like company and market analyses, creating tools for the traders to use in the future and trading game. Whilst it is difficult to be given too much responsibility in trading as one requires months of trading and regulatory approval to actually trade, the responsibility given to interns was reasonable.

I learnt many new skills during my time at the bank that will be useful and relevant in both my future career and every day life. I became more confident in approaching people and learnt about what it is like to work in a lively office environment where some days are very busy.

It really depends on your team. The first team I rotated on was really friendly and helpful in answering questions and giving you a lot of feedback. The second team wasn't really helpful and didn't give that much feedback. Perhaps that was because I am not French (-speaking), while the majority of my team was.

The overall internship was set up well with a number of networking drinks and breakfast sessions arranged for us on top of the day-to-day shadowing organised by ourselves. The structure of the work varied team-to-team but was clear and backed up by a formal framework. Talks were also scheduled from individuals high up in the firm which were informative and inspirational.

The Macro section of markets and Prime Services organised teaching sessions to give an overview of financial markets and products traded in the Macro side and HF side of the trading floor which was very helpful, particularly as someone coming from a non-financial background. Online e-training was also available and traders were always willing to send a training powerpoint across in order for us to learn more.

Future employment prospects are very appealing with many opportunities available at the start of one's career and a well-regarded graduate programme with plenty of training and support offered in order for one to make as much progress as possible at the early stages of work life. I feel like Barclays would be an excellent place to start a career.

I made friends with a large number of fellow interns and was able to learn from their experiences working with different desks during the internship. Whilst there were only a limited number of organised socials including networking drinks and the end-of-internship party, interns organised drinks and meet-ups amongst themselves which was fine.

London is generally expensive. However, Barclays include a relocation payment which covers the cost of rent and the added cost of drinks and food during the two months I was working.

There are many bars and pubs around Canary Wharf and Central London is a very easy to get with DLR or Jubilee line to where there are a few high number of things to do in the evening.

Barclays has plenty of societies and schemes to get involved outside of work but these are hard to join during an internship when the focus is on the work in the day. A group of interns organised a football tournament and some teams organised some drinks with the interns to know each other.