Intern Review

I really enjoyed my time with Barclays this summer as a Technology Intern. I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the people and the open company culture. I felt able to ask questions and contact employees in other areas to learn more about my role and the bank in general.

I felt relatively valued by my colleges during my time at Barclays. Everyone was very friendly and very willing to help. I believe the only difficulty was the short period of time we were at the bank meant there were a limited number of tasks that we could realistically get involved in without constant support.

I was given a great deal of support and guidance by my supervisor. She was very happy to help at any opportunity and I felt comfortable going to her for any clarification/advice on the project or the team in general. Other colleges in the team were also very approachable and helpful.

I was relatively busy however there was also a significant amount of freedom with my time to explore other areas of the bank, undertake personal learning goals and settle into the team. I believe there could have been slightly more long term work set prior to my joining the internship.

As an intern, I believe there is only a limited amount of responsibility you can be given. That said, I was tasked with my own individual project and given responsibility to deliver a final product. I had ownership of this project, with the support of my manager. I was also given responsibility for other short term tasks to aid the team.

I believe many of the skills developed will help me beyond my degree in the future. As well as skills such as excel and power point, I also developed soft skills such as working in a team, managing workflow and meeting with senior members of the bank. Although not directly relevant for my degree, I believe these will be useful life skills in my career.

The atmosphere in the office was very positive with helpful colleagues and a supportive manager. I felt everyone would take the time out of their day to help whether that be help me as an intern or other members of the team. There was a great deal of inter-team collaboration and skills were shared freely.

I believe this internship was organised relatively well. We were put in touch with a buddy and mentor during the internship which was useful as it gave different perspectives on the bank. However, I believe often my team weren't quite sure what my role was and what i was to be doing for the duration of the 9 weeks.

I believe the company invested a lot. I had a lot of freedom to undertake training in my days and there were a number of training/information courses organised during the internship that gave a good exposure to other areas of the bank. Weekly meetings with my line manager also helped in my development.

I believe there are good future employment prospects within the organisation. There appears to be a good range of opportunities available to employees to explore other areas of the bank and meet with other people from different areas of the bank. I believe there is also a clear trajectory from when you join.

There was a good social scene between the interns however this was mostly organised by the interns ourselves rather than coming from HR. After an initial introduction day and some training sessions scattered during the weeks there were no events scheduled for interns to mix, especially between different departments. This could potentially be improved on as I believe there probably are a number of interns that I didnt have the opportunity to meet.

It is london and Canary Wharf so as expected both were very expensive. However this was to be expected.

There was a subsidized gym membership at Barclays which had a number of free classes and activities run in the morning, during the day and after work. In addition, it was possible to join external activities in the bank such as sports teams which gave you the opportunity to meet others from the bank.