Corporate Banking, Private Banking and Overseas Services and Barclaycard International Review

I enjoyed a majority of the internship. The first day was a bit slow to start, but towards the end we did some very fun and enjoyable activities. The other days were very informative and this made me enjoy it, particularly when I was interested in the business area. There were some very interactive activities, which were more enjoyable, but the passive ones weren't as fun.

I felt valued a majority of the time. There was a person in charge of our insight week who was always looking after the people in the programme. He usually made himself very available, ready to help and interested in how we were which made me feel more valued. There were busy times or times where we weren't doing much, where we felt less valued but this was understandable.

We received quite a bit of guidance and support. As I said, the organiser of the event was very helpful and made himself very available to answer our questions. I think there were times where communication was conveyed in a slightly less clear way that it could have been, which meant there was less guidance.

I think the skills I developed from this insight week will stay with me throughout my working life. In particular, networking skills were a big focus and I think I learned a lot about how to do this well via practice and tips from others. Other than this there were also a lot of teamwork and presentation skills learned. It was all focused around what would be useful in the workplace.

I think it was fairly well structured. Each day had a particular focus (on a business area, for example), which gave the week a clear structure. We received a timetable describing what would happen within each day. Sometimes this wasn't adhered to by the minute, but this was generally okay.

I got a very friendly atmosphere from both the staff at the firm and my fellow spring week applicants. The staff all seemed to be genuinely interested in helping us and speaking to us. Other spring week applicants were also very enthusiastic, which made it a lot more fun, especially for group activities.

I think the company invested quite a lot in our personal training and development. There were some very senior colleagues who took time out to impart their wisdom, which is a large time investment. Also, they hired a person from an external company to develop teamwork skills, which was also a good example of investment. The week seemed to be focused on us developing skills and knowledge.

We got to speak to a wide range of people in a wide range of roles in the company. This gave us a really good insight into what it would be like to do any particular job, particularly with face to face chats. There also seemed to be a clear corporate culture that shone through. There were probably some roles less clearly explained than others probably due to their technicality.

The corporate culture that the company was trying to achieve really shone through. They very much drilled into us the company's values from day one. Also, getting to meet a lot of the people actually working there gave us a good idea of the culture, because this is ultimately made up of the people.

It was very informative, because we got to speak to people in several departments doing lots of different jobs. Also we got to speak to people at different levels in the corporate hierarchy. Finally, we also got to hear from people with a wide variety of career paths, some of them less traditional. I think actually doing some of the work would be more useful, but obviously this is difficult.

I was given £250 of spending money and was reimbursed for travel to and from the spring week. However, I was only reimbursed for one journey to (on monday morning) and one journey from (on friday evening), when I was expecting all the train tickets to be paid for. The rest came out of the £250 so that was okay.

Networking was a massive part of the spring week and one of the big focuses that they kept on pushing. There were networking lunches and breakfasts. There were times where it would be a small group talking to employees. There was also surprisingly the opportunity to network with some very senior employees.

They were okay. There were definitely lots of them and perhaps the quantity made them a bit more tiring throughout the day. They were definitely interesting and informative. I found that I enjoyed them when they were a bit more structured. I would also prefer not to have networking lunches, so I can eat.

Yes, there were lots of activities that employees get involved in. This was mainly found by speaking to employees. There were a few "networks", which were emphasised, but from talking to a few employees by chance I realised that there were a lot more activities than what was formally told to us via scheduled events.

I definitely would. I think that its definitely informative for anyone who wants to be involved in the financial industry in any way. You get to develop a lot of skills. It's quite a large, well-known company so I'm sure it sounds good. It also gives you a good springboard to actually work at the company.