Spring Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the insight, it provided a great insight in to Barclays and also into FinTech as a whole. I am now a lot more knowledgeable around the subject and its been a great experience overall. It has been really fun to meet lots of new people and make friends also.

I felt very valued during the experience, I feel like I was treated as an equal during my time and this has led to an increased learning experience, and also a much more valuable experience where the things we did actually had true impact. Hence I felt very valued during my time.

We received a good amount of guidance support, we were able to talk, both privately and informally, to a range of people to ensure that we gained real knowledge of the workplace and the sector. We were able to talk at all times with the co-ordinators Rachel and Katie as well as networking with people.

This has been a huge help to my degree and future because it gave me a true insight into FinTech and whether this is something I would want to pursue. Previously I was unsure about the sector and there was only online information available, however with this experience, I have gained a through insight and interest to the sector.

The insight was structure very well, the co-ordinators did a great job with timings and ensured everything went to plan. The only times I felt could have been improved, were the networking sessions with Graduates and seniors. This was a very important aspect of the week and more time would have been more valuable.

The general atmosphere was very chilled and fun. There are times where it can get a bit de-motivated during talks which may not be of your interest, but nevertheless they are still fun and interesting. I made some great friends and got to know everyone well, and the mixing of groups on a regular basis aided this.

The company invest a huge amount and there is a great amount of opportunity for graduates to progress through the company (although I don't know how realistic this is), The company do provide a lot of training courses for anyone willing to learn, and this is a great tool to learn new skills.

The insight did help me to understand a full time role very well, mainly by speaking to the current graduates, they were honest with the spring week attendees, and this is the best thing they could do. The insight also provided a good insight to a day-day working experience which was very intriguing.

The culture was portrayed throughout the talks and presentations I attended. It is a very chilled place where you are able to come in at any level with a willingness to learn, there are many tools to help you learn on the job and you are not de-motivated by not knowing something in the workplace.

The content was very valuable, while a lot of the presentations were not of my specific interest, it was still interesting to me. I do not believe I will pursue a career in FinTech however this insight has provided me with this insight, therefore it has been extremely valuable to me.

We were reimbursed for our travel expenses, paid for the whole week (£250) and also Barclays paid for our accommodation and food during the week. It is always nice to earn while having this great leaning opportunity, but I fear some students may have a false idea of Barclays portrayed by the nice pay they receive.

There were lots of opportunities for networking and meeting employees, this consisted of networking events at various locations, meeting people: graduates and seniors. And also people of different areas/expertise/backgrounds was very useful to get a mix of the company. We made great connections, some of which continued onto LinkedIn where I can keep in contact.

They were very enjoyable and provided a great insight to the people who work at Barclays, we get a feel for people working in different positions and this is very helpful. The events were very fun and often had free food and drink which is always an added bonus, Overall very useful

There is a lot available of staff to do outside of work, this includes a 5 a side pitch where people can play football at any time, lots of break areas which include TVs and XBOXs where a FIFA tournament also took place, additionally there is a gym on site if you want to de-stress.

I would definitely recommend this insight to a friend as it is a great (and free) opportunity to a company as big as Barclays and also to anyone who is even partially interested in FinTech as this provides a basic insight into this, aswell as other fields like cyber security and architecture.