Insight Week Review

I enjoyed the insight week a lot. I especially enjoyed the wide variety of activities that were provided for us. It made the insight week very dynamic and exciting.

I felt very valued during my time at the company. Everyone was very respectful (being attentive when I spoke) and very helpful when I was unsure about something or needed help.

We were receiving support and guidance almost constantly. There weren’t any moments when I felt extremely lost or confused - someone was always around to help us out.

This experience has helped me within me degree as it has taught me how to collaborate more effectively with a wide range of people. It has also aided me in terms of career wise as I have gained an in-depth understanding of Barclays and how it functions.

It was dynamic and exciting due to the wide range of activities arranged for us to take part in. Though we were given frequent breaks, it would’ve been nice to have an extra hour or so allocated to our group project work and not have the talks occur so quickly after one has just finished.

The atmosphere was very energetic and positive. Everyone has a natural curiosity about Barclays and how it functions and so is very proactive in finding out more information

They invested in us a lot by providing someone for us to shadow so that we could gain a hands on understanding of how Barclays functioned. Also, all the people that gave us talks were evidence of them investing in us as these individual voluntarily gave up their time.

Hearing first hand experiences of people who work within the firm allowed us to gain in depth knowledge of the type of work culture found in Barclays. Also, the fact that the interns were at Barclays 9am - 5pm allowed us to see and feel what a full day would feel like.

We gained a clear understanding of the culture as we heard from a wide spectrum of speakers - such as people who had been at Barclays for decades, to people who had only been there for a short time and people in differing senior roles also.

It was very helpful as we head from people who worked in various TCs and that helped us figure out which one we wanted to go in. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear from all of them so didn’t feel as though we got the entire scope of information.

I was paid for my time here and not reimbursed expenses.

There was a whole evening dedicated to it which was a great opportunity for us to understand senior roles better and acquire contacts. However, there weren’t a lot of people there to network with and there wasn’t a large variety. So some of the people I hope to get into touch with, I didn’t.

Though we were encouraged to constantly network during our week, there was really only one day dedicated to acquiring contacts. So it would’ve been nicer to have more opportunities. However, all the staff we met during the week were really open to sharing their information with us.

Not unless we asked them about it. The talks were more work oriented and only if the staff were questioned about it was it mentioned.

Definitely. It was an extremely invaluable experience - one that I would love to do again! I acquired so many new skills just during the week and learnt so much about my self also.