Spring week intern Review

While I think the input of activities was a great part of the week I think if a few more had been inserted earlier on bonding within the group would have occurred earlier. Also the amount of presentations on the second day was excessive and if they could have been spread out more then I would have paid more attention

The people leading the course are extremely friendly and speak to individuals as well as to the whole group which does add a sense of value. As previously mentioned I think if earlier on more bonding activities had taken place then the experience could have been more enjoyable from an earlier stage.

Despite the numerous presentations on the second day I did have a great idea of what department of what I wanted to do till the fourth day where the presentations and the graduates I spoke to gave me a better idea of what their department was about. While I think there were people to ask questions to I did not have a great idea of what to ask till a late stage.

I think I’m terma of public speaking and presneting I have definitely improved as a result of this week. Although the course I study (history) cannot be benefitted too greatly through learning about banking, I have gained a lot more skills than I had expected that I think I can use within my subject.

As previously mentioned I think too much time was spent on successive presentations on the second day. I think getting us out of the Barclays building on the third day was definitely made the experience more exciting and the amount of breaks was at a frequent enough rate to be able to relax.

Successive presentations did cause a fullness within the atmosphere and I think that while there were some activities that did create a fun atmosphere, there definitely could have been more of them. Overall with the leaders always being friendly and cheerful the atmosphere was generally good although there were mediocre periods.

In terms of training I learnt a lot about how to present a new idea to a group of people and innovative new methods of ways to advance banking. I think while a lot of terminology, ideas and facts about the business were explained through the presentations, it would have been helpful to possibly been given out a list of key things to know

Many of the presenters explained their role within the company well, especially with the business banking graduates who appeared particularly passionate about what they do and explained each one of their roatations in detail. I think with such a wide range of ideas it would be difficult to remember each of these but I think plenty of information was given out.

The companies values are widely expressed and an emphasis is placed on employees encorporating these values. Throughout the week I’ve further understood the direction in which Barclays aims to go in both the near and long term future, especially with the projects they’re currently undertaking as well as the projects they encourage from the interns

I didn’t have a great idea until the fourth day but I think depending on which graduates you talk to also helps in how quick you make your decisions. I think if there were more examples of what the everyday work and projects interns and graduates got up to then it would’ve helped in reaching my decision sooner.

I am extremely pleased with how much I’ve been paid as well as how much I’ve been reimbursed. I was also pleasantly surprised by being given £7.50 to spend on food in the canteen every day and the week has been supported very well throughout financially speaking and does not need any improvement.

Especially in the q&as after the presentations as well as in the shadowing, there were opurtunities to meet employees and network. I think there definitely could have been separate networking events as well as greater emphasis placed on graduates managers to meet the interns as in my instance the manager was on a phone call and didn’t have the time.

I do not remember there being an excessive amount of networking opurtunities where interns could speak to both graduates and higher ranked employees within the Barclays structure. There were plenty of opurtunities to talk to graduates and to make connections with both the shadowing as well as going round in groups.

While if asked about, these activies were spoken about in some form, I at this moment do not know a great amount about the activities outside of work. As far as I’m aware people do go for drinks outside of work but whether this is organised by the company is outside of my knowledge.

I would recommend this insight week as before coming into to this I had not a great deal of knowledge about the world of banking. Now I could explain with some confidence the different areas and what some of those departments do. I have also learnt skills that will help me in life.