Internal Audit Intern Review

I enjoyed the work I did during this internship. It was challenging and stimulating. Working in an organisation of this scale was also exciting. Because a bank plays a huge role in society, the things we were working on were inherently interesting. Meeting other like-minded interns was fun too. It enabled me to expand my network. The socialising element made the experience more enjoyable.

Everyone was very encouraging. My team always made it clear that they valued my work. They tended to give me positive feedback, telling me specifically what they appreciated. I carried out a presentation to my team and many of them took time out to give me feedback after the meeting.

I had weekly catch ups with my supervisor. This was helpful. My supervisor was always available via email/phone and promptly replied to the queries I had. During performance reviews, my supervisor was great at guiding me towards the areas I needed to work on and the things I needed to keep doing.

I believe I was appropriately busy. I will say at the start of my internship there were times when I felt I did not have much to do. However, I believe the onus is on you to reach out and keep yourself occupied. As the internship went on, I was given more tasks but I never felt overworked.

As time passed, the responsibility I was given increased. My team were keen to push me out of my comfort zone but they always ensured I was well prepared. I felt appropriately stretched. They would direct me to present or write something up myself, for example. Their encouragement has helped my confidence.

We were provided with general training about the bank and the industry at the start of the internship and this was helpful. There was a training session which assessed our personality type. This was insightful as we were given a detailed pack based on results to a personality test that included details on the things we should stop/start doing. I would have liked more formal training related to Excel.

The office I worked in was relatively lively. Everyone was friendly and approachable.

Generally, the internship was very well organised. However, it would have been helpful to have been informed about the timings of certain events beforehand. There were a couple of events that were rescheduled at the last minute or we were informed quite late. We had to rearrange our existing commitments around them and that was slightly inconvenient.

The firm arranged senior speaker sessions with senior members of the organisation. It was hugely valuable to have some time with them to ask questions and gain insights.

It is certainly appealing because good performance on the internship leads to a place on the graduate scheme. The graduate schemes are appealing because they involve completing a qualification and having rotations around different areas. The rotations sound like they would be a beneficial way to find out what parts of the business you were particularly interested in.

As there are many restaurants and bars in Canary Wharf, it was convenient for us to socialise after work on a Thursday or Friday.

It is obviously expensive to live and socialise in and around Canary Wharf. However, you get paid generously for expenses so it should not be a massive problem.

There are many bars and restaurants in the Canary Wharf area.

There are many networks at Barclays. There is a gym. There is a gender network, a sustainability network, a LGTBQ + network, amongst many others. These networks panel and networking events specifically for interns. As well as that there were panel events activities like yoga for charity that were after work and open to everyone in the organisation.