Intern Review

The experience was great, had a really nice, helpful and knowledgeable team. As a developer, the people I was working with had 10s of years of experience and also I had the flexibility to choose what technologies I would like to work with, which was a nice surprise. Barclays is a very inclusive employer, so no one feels discriminated or left out at all.

It is always difficult to jump into a new culture and group of people without any hiccups, but the team really helped. I cannot thank them enough for all the extra effort the put in to make me feel valued and a part of their team. They believed in me as a team member and gave me responsibilities of proper objectives which I really appreciate.

The higher level staff / supervisor / managers are usually busy, which is something you should expect. Despite that they were very approachable, if they couldn't give me a answer right away, they would put in time in their diary to catch up later and help me with all feasible resources.

There were days when I voluntarily stayed back a few extra hours to complete tasks that I had promised, other than that I never felt under pressure to deliver unrealistic results. I observed the same culture with full time employees as well. People value work life balance, but can stay extra hours if it is required.

Just the right amount, I would say. As a developer I didn't expect to be given access to production instances, but I was given access to dev machines. The application I was developing wasn't supposed to be used externally by clients, but it was supposed to be used just by our team.

In term of people skills, it's a 10/10. As part of the internship, we met a ton of people working in different business areas in different positions, just getting an insight of how the bank operates, and how / where every team fits in. In terms of tech, it's 8/10. I learned new technologies, but the scope was only limited to software dev and I wasn't involved in any higher level architecture discussions.

Calm. It wasn't the case that people were just into their computer screens. People were chatting, having a laugh in between work and of course working. I really liked the atmosphere. The working times are flexible as well, so you could either work from 8 to 4 or 9 to 5 or whatever suits you most.

Highly organised, Had my team set up before coming, my project was decided. Faced some issues while on boarding but overall experience was nice. Though my experience was nice, but it was not the same with all other interns, some interns were given work on a day to day basis and did not have a clear plan for their whole 9 weeks.

Every employee is supposed to complete online mandatory training, we had numerous insight sessions giving us overview of different parts of the bank. We also had the opportunity to meet a few directors and MDs during our time there, which was a really nice learning experience. Other than that all Barclays employees get access to a lot of learning courses website.

Hoping to get a job with barlcays, loved the internship experience so, would be very happy to come back. Hoping for the best. Also, Barclays is opening a few new sites in Glasgow and Whippany and trying to expand their investment banking divisions which is good news with respect to growth within the company.

The social scene amongst fellow interns and my teammates was pretty nice. I had a couple of lunch events with my manager alone and a few more with the whole team as well. As part of the intern group we regularly went out on weekends or for football. Things were better than what I was expecting.

My internship was in Glasgow, I do not have a lot of experience of staying in the UK to compare it with other cities. From my experience, I don't think the city was too expensive, with the internship salary in hand i didn't face much difficulty in living there. While comparing with a place like London, things are comparatively pretty cheap.

Nightlife was nice. Depends more on your group or if you want to go out at nights or if you just want to sit back home and relax. There are decent places all around city centre, there is something for everyone taste. Also, I felt that the city was pretty safe as well.

As interns we did a lot of activities outside of work. We organised a mini golf for fundraising and some people went over to charity places to volunteer for gardening and other activities. We were also given an opportunity to spend a day in the bank branch and help employees with their day to day work. Word count: 59 (Recommended 50) In addition to these questions, is there any extra information you would like to leave about your experiences on your work placement that other students may be interested in?