Spring Week Review

I really enjoyed this Spring Insight. It was very useful in terms of understanding what the different divisions in the bank are and what they do. We also had so many networking opportunities that not only allowed us to make contacts but to also gain an insight into what everyone's roles entailed. I would have liked some work shadowing but the week was extremely useful nonetheless and it has really made me want to work at Barclays in the future after experiencing the amazing culture and working environment.

I felt extremely valued, all the employees made you feel so welcome and comfortable to ask any questions no matter how obvious or complicated. We had a lot of senior employees give up their time for us which I definitely appreciate and I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say it made us feel valued and wanted at Barclays.

We definitely received a lot of guidance and support, not only from the HR team but also from the employees that were around to help and for networking. As I said they were more than happy to answer any questions which was very helpful especially for me. However, one thing I would say is that I would have preferred the case studies to have been gone through a little slower as we were all learning everything as we were going along and they were quite technical but apart from that, it was great.

Personally, I don't think I can say this will help with my degree however it has definitely helped with my career path and I'm sure will continue to help me. I was quite tempted by equity sales during the beginning of the week but speaking to so many emplyees both from sales and banking it has really helped me see that sales isn't for me and banking definitely suits me and what I want.

It was structured very well, we had a feel for everything - banking, markets and improving our soft skills alongside our technical skills. Very jam-packed with a lot of networking which I found great.

Amazing, as I said before everyone was happy to help out and talk to us so it really contributed to the atmosphere in a good way.

Barclays arranged a firm called IDG to come in and do lots of activities, ice breakers and other activities that improved our soft skills and basically allowed us to have a chilled afternoon. We then had 2 different case studies, one for banking and one for markets. For the banking one we had to use techincal knowledge to decide whethere an acquisition of a firm for Barclays' 'client' was worth it and perform a valuation. The markets case study was learning some technical knowledge and taking part in a trading simulation. Both very useful in showing us what the different jobs entail. This was the firm's way of teaching us skills we would need to know.

As previously mentioned we took part in 2 case studies and networked with a lot of different people.

So much, now I really know how amazing the culture at Barclays is which ultimately has lead to me wanted to work at Barclays more in the future.

As previously mentioned, the content was invaluable to me as I learnt what role was really suited to me and my personality and what that role would entail on a day to day business therefore lead me away from sales and into banking.

So many opportunities, I would say more than half of the time was spent networking and you create some amazing contacts!

They were very diverse and what I meant by that is we had analysts all the way to managing directors come and talk to us which was incredible.

Yes, we had a diversity panel where we had 3 employees come in and talk to us about their involvement in WiN, Spectrum and EMBRACE.

I would definitely recomment this insight and I will be encouraging my friends to apply to Barclays in the future.