Spring Week Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the insight into Barclays this week. It’s allowed me to see how Technology is important within the Banking and Financial Industry. I even remember hearing the phrase ‘Barclays is becoming a technology company with a banking sheet’ and that made me excited to see what part I could play in it.

I felt valued throughout every experience during the spring week in terms of the way Barclays employees spoke and interacted with me. I wasn’t treated as simply a university student but as a potential Barclays employee. Additionally, the group work we did on Thursday with Rise highlighted the value of our ideas and thoughts at Barclays.

I recieved a lot of guidance and support throughout the insight in terms of where to be at what time and how to use certan things at Barclays (such as purchasing and paying for food). From another perspective, I received educational and personal support in terms of CV improvements.

I would say as a first year student studying Computer Science, I was able to gain a better idea of the direction I should be moving towards in terms of programming and development (e.g. learning C++). However, I would say the current technologies used at Barclays are very advanced for my current position within my degree but I could see how I could build up on my current knowledge.

The use of Launch Events was excellent in terms of providing a clear agenda to be followed throughout the week with time slots and locations for each one. However, there were certain things we were meant to do such as listening to speakers that were not able to be done so on one day, the agenda was quite ‘freely-flowing’. That wasn’t much of an issue though.

The atmosphere was very lively especially and I would say Amy and Katy, the women guiding us this week, were the reason for this. Various speakers created a serious atmosphere in terms of the importance of their job however, it came across quite relaxed which was refreshing.

I feel like the firm heavily invested in us as they saw us as potential Barclays employees. Whenever we spoke to someone new, they were eager to give us information on how to better develop ourselves whether it may be academically or in terms of actual employment.

The insight VERY much helped me understand what it would be like in a full time role. Being allowed to shadow 2 employees at both headquarters allowed me to gain a better understanding on the work involved in different roles. All the talkers also explained a typical day at work for them which was helpful.

The insight was exceptional in helping me understand company culture. Barclays invests very strongly into their employees and promotes work flexibility, a feature every employee anywhere desires. This could be seen in the work flexibility hours, the ability to work from home etc. Even small things such as wearing jeans to work on certain days showed that Barclays has a very lively culture

I would say that the content of the day helped me to understand the role of technology in the financial industry. As I’m interested in being part of a team that creates products that help everyday people or workers, this has showed me this could be an excellent environment whilst also fulfilling my desire to pursue something Economic or Financially related.

I was paid very adequately for this experience. I refused the expenses reimbursement just for ease.

There were very many networking opportunities. You could network after every single speaker spoke, network with the other Spring Week candidates and there were even events specifically for networking.

They were great. There was even a chance to go to the top floor (which had an amazing view), enjoy a drink and have an informal networking session.

Yes, employees sometimes spoke about different things they get up to outside work such as wakeboarding and dinners etc.

No doubt. I speak about it constantly with my friends and I haven’t even finished the week yet.