Spring Intern Review

I personally found the insight week extremely rewarding and interesting. I thought it would have been very formal, with a lot of work, but it ended being really interesting and fun, though tiring. The first day, I thought I would not get much out of this insight week because we did not learn much about the company itself, and spent a lot of time doing teambuilding training with IDG. In general, I learnt about topics I would have otherwise not been able to find online, and actually enjoyed listening to the talks revolving around a variety of topics.

Both recruiters, Amy and Katie, were constantly welcoming and made us feel at home. At first, I thought I would be intimidated or feel like the environment would be really serious and not friendly at all, but I was proved wrong. They made us feel very welcome, made our insight week more enjoyanle and treated us like equals, never feeling much more superior than us. At the hotel, there were snacks at all times, which made our stay much better.

Anytime I had a doubt about something regarding Barclays, or the insight week, or any other query, both recruiters were constantly available to respond and give me advice. Honestly, I have felt like there has been support at all times during the week, which really affected our experience and stay here.

One of the key skills I developed during the week was my networking and communication skills. I had previously had to work in similar situations, but not as serious as this one. Having to work with people you have just met is often difficult, especially if you do not know them and thus, do not know how they will react and whether you should tell them the truth about their view or not. Regarding my networking skills, I have never had the chance to talk to so many employees, let alone seniors. It turned out to be a really insightful and valuable experience, both in terms of my networking and communication skills, as well as gaining a different perspective and view of the company. Undoubtedly, the skills I developed during the week will be extremely valuable for my future career development and success. Regarding the information I received, I found out about many projects Barclays is currently working on, its history, as well as its culture and working environment. In general, knowledge I would have not gained by searching online.

The structure and schedule of the insight was really well-thought through. I found it really helpful to put the IDG workshop at the end of the first day, especially considering it was the first day. However, I would have personally made the group project hours shorter or changed the way it was planned. For example, it would have been better to do small exercises in group every day, but chnaging the groups in order to meet new people through the week.

The general atmosphere was really enjoyable. Everyone at the spring week was really nice and worked well in teams. The people you spend the week with makes a really big difference on the overall experience of the spring week. I have to admit, I found everyone really interesting and nice, which explains why we hanged out so much out of "work" hours.

The company undoubtedly invested a lot in all the spring interns. I did not expect to have such a variety of talks about the company itself. The fact that the talks were extremely varied and the talkers had a lot of experience in the company, really made a difference. Linking this to the company's investment in my personal training and development, I feel like over the week I have gained invaluable knowledge and developed my communication and interpersonal skills, both through the networking events and by meeting the other spring interns.

All the events during the week definitely helped me understand what it would be like to have a role in Barclays, especially in a role related to technology. The networking events, both the one with graduates and the one with seniors, were extremely insightful given that it gave us two different perspective of what it is like to work at Barclays. Moreover, I found the two shadowing sessions very helpful in terms of finding out what a regular day of one of the employees is like at Barclays, and found it to be the perfect opportunity to ask deep questions about their jobs.

Without this insight week, I would have never realised how relaxed and friendly the culture at Barclays is. Considering Barclays is an investment bank, the common assumption to make is to think that the working environment and the culture at the company is extremely formal. However, during the week I found out that the culture at Barclays is actually really relaxed and friendly, and enjoyable, unlike any other investment bank in the industry.

The talks made me realise that I should be really open-minded in terms of the kind of role I wanted to have. For instance, I had always had in mind to have a role in the area of Artificial Intelligence, but after meeting various data scientists I found their role extremely interesting and would actually consider having a role in that area.

Considering it is a spring week where we would learn about the company, I did not expect to be paid after the insight programme. Therefore, I found it really generous from Barclays' part to pay all our travel expenses, plus all the breakfast and lunch meals; as well as a £250 at the end of the week.

We were given a lot of opportunities to network with current Barclays employees. The fact that we had two networking events with different levels of experience at the company allowed me to get to know what it is actually like to work at Barclays, and the actual different opinions from each employee.

Most of the people at the networking events had really interesting things to say, and came from really varied backgrounds. Since there were various employees at the networking events, it gave me the opportunity to ask all the questions I wanted to ask to the employees and graduates, which gave me a real insight into the company.

During one of my shadowing sessions, Niko (the graduate I shadowed), he mentioned Barclays has a lot of activities you can join, one of them being the cricket weekly trainings. Apart from that, he mentioned that the team you are in usually organises activities for the team outside of work, such as going for a few drinks. Moreover, I also found out that at BarclayCard they get a ticket for the British Summer Time, which I found super interesting and exciting. Overall, I found it really surprising that Barclays has so many activities for its employees, as well as the fact that the people you work with do socials outside of work.

I found this insight not only interesting and insightful, but also really fun and enjoyable. I met lots of like-minded people from different backgrounds and universities, learnt a lot about the history of Barclays, what Barclays is currently working on and what it has planned for the future. In general, I gained invaluable knowledge about investment banking, especially about Barclays and what is behind all the processes of banking we see in our everyday life, and how Barclays is involved in everything from innovation, to supporting start-ups.