Technology Spring Intern Review

I greatly enjoyed my Spring Technology Week at Barclays. There were a number of insight sessions and presentations from many business groups including Barclaycard, Investment, Corporate Banking, Business Banking, GSIS, and others. I particularly enjoyed the insight into their use of cloud services such as Amazon Web Services as well as the reasons for the continued use of mainframes such as the IBM Z-series in banking.

I felt very valued as an intern at Barclays. There were around thirty interns here at the Radbroke site over the last week and Barclays made sure that everything ran smoothly, from travel to accomodation. The days went smoothly and the staff and graduates always had time to talk more about their roles and answer questions.

I received good guidance and support during the insights, especially when it came to improving my curriculum vitae. Asking recent graduates and long-term employees questions during presentations and work shadowing offered additional career guidance outside of the usual sessions related to the CV improvements. Furthermore, the session with IDG was particularly helpful.

The insight sessions gave me an insight into all the different roles available in fintech and which allows me to have a focus in my studies to further engage with the material. By being able to link what I'm doing in university with real-world insight, I'll have a huge benefit in my future career.

The week was meticulously planned from start to finish. Each event was on the timetable before the week started allowing for looking into them beforehand. Furthermore, each session ran on time and the transport was planned to make the most of each day. The networking sessions were well structured to allow everyone to discuss with multiple people.

The atmosphere was very positive and friendly. The other interns were engaged, and the staff seemed happy to be there. Questions were answered smoothly, and with respect. There was a great deal of professionalism and care, and discussions with the other interns and staff were insightful and helpful throughout the internship.

The week long internship had a great number of insight sessions with senior staff who made time to discuss their work and business area with us. The accomodation and travel expenses were paid for by Barclays, as well as organising the coach for us to come from the hotel to the Radbroke campus, which helped the entire week go smoothly.

The work shadowing was particularly useful for understanding what it'd be like to have a full time role with the company. While the insight sessions were useful for understanding the business, it didn't give an insight into the role of a typical employee. It'd have been nice to have more developers / technical people at the networking.

Many of the speakers and employees at the networking sessions spoke about the company's R I S E S culture (Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence, Stewardship). These values are key throughout the entire organisation and tie into the purpose - Creating Opportunities to Rise. In particular, many of the speakers talked about how they went through many different roles in the company before settling where they are now, and how that helped to develop their career.

The insights throughout the week and each day allowed me to think about the different career paths available for me in Computer Science and Barclays. From a technology analyst, on the more project management side, to the developer side, where anything from infrastructure to app development in an opportunity. These insights will hep me to think about what I want to do over the course of my degree.

I was reimbursed for expenses, namely travel to and from Radbroke, in addition to a £250 payment. Furthermore, Barclays paid for food throughout the week and a hotel room at Cottons Hotel and Spa. The coach to and from the hotel was paid for by Barclays to ensure the days ran smoothly.

There were both graduate and senior networking events which allowed for networking and meeting other employees at Barclays Radbroke.

These events were fantastic. They allowed for asking questions and meeting everyone smoothly. Furthermore, the work shadowing was very interesting.

Employees talked about some of the other activities around Radbroke, such as the on campus gym, football field, and after-work sports.

I would recommend this insight to a friend. I found it very insightful.