Operations change analyst Review

I have had a great time here and met some lovely people. I've very much enjoyed the informality in the workplace. I expected to come into work and see a very formal, boring work environment, however, this was not the case. Colleagues are always having a laugh whilst also getting on with their work.

Colleagues were very willing to give me important work that they needed done and trusted me to do so. They allowed me to integrate myself into the team with ease and from the beginning I was given objectives that were actually important to the smooth running of the business as a whole.

My colleagues and manager were always willing to help. Upon joining I was not just thrown in the deep end, my manager arranged my first couple of weeks carefully by setting up meetings for myself to speak to team leaders across different departments so I could understand the flow of the business. This helped me with the objectives I received not long after.

This is probably my only negative of the experience but it also ended up being sort of a positive as well. Once I got to a certain stage with my objectives, my side of the work was coming to an end and it was moving off to other people. This meant that towards the end I often found myself with free time, but I used this time wisely and completed various other tasks for colleagues allowing me to broaden my horizons.

As mentioned above, I was given objectives that were actually important, and not just something they quickly found in order to keep me busy. I set up my own meetings, wrote my own emails, was allowed to manage my own time and in general was trusted to do my work my own way.

I don't believe that the internship will help me with my degree as that is all theoretical. I do however believe the internship will assist me greatly once I move on from university. I will have an advantage on other graduates as I have actually experienced a formal work environment here at Barclays, and I now have a good idea of how a business is run internally.

The atmosphere was very positive. Not once did I see any heated debates or disagreements. Everyone got along well and people were always up for a laugh. I did not notice much of a social hierarchy in terms of rank, instead I felt that everyone was just as approachable as any other regardless of their title.

I am aware that my team were not given much time to prepare for myself joining as they were not aware of it until I was nearly there. Despite this I feel that the internship was organised well by both my manager and the onboarding team with their various training sessions/inductions.

We had a couple of interesting training sessions, especially the micro-tyco which was led by a very passionate and motivating guy. The financial markets training was slightly different as it was basically a short recap of what I had already learnt at university, however this was not the case for interns who do not do a degree relevant to banking/finance.

I would love to continue working for Barclays as there is not really a better bank in the UK. I also like the fact that there is offices across the country, as moving out of where I live currently is of great interest to me. From what I've seen in my short time here it seems that Barclays would be a great company to work for.

Some of the interns moved into a campus nearby as they live far away, I did not need to do this and so have had a slightly less sociable time than others as I did not live there. This was not an issue for me however as I live nearby anyway

This is where I've always lived and in general Northamptonshire is not an expensive place to live.

I feel like this is not even worth a comment, nightlife in Northampton is lacking.