Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship with Barclays. With the uncertainty around COVID-19, the Barclays team did an incredible job planning and executing the internship once it was decided that it was run virtually. There was a great blend on general intern events such as a speaker series with senior members of the bank as well as more technical elements such as financial and excel training. The intern project was a great way to learn about the kind of work the bank does and it was overall a great opportunity.

The people I was able to work with and interact with was one of the biggest reasons why I found the internship rewarding and fulfilling. It was clear to see that the work the other interns and I were doing was important to them and they took a real interest in this work. Our opinions and work mattered and they were eager to provide feedback and support where necessary. It was great to be involved in such an open team.

There was a strong support network in place during the course of the entire internship. These people were always willing and available to set some time aside to talk through anything you wanted. It wasn't just that they were available to talk about the work we were doing either; we could talk about other things as well such as how we were managing the stress and the workload. It was comforting and supportive and provided confidence in what we had to do.

I feel as if the level of how busy I was varied from day to day, depending on the meetings and events that were scheduled for that day. I had days where I would be on non stop calls back to back for most of the day, but this was usually balanced out by days where I only had one or two calls and events and the rest of the time to focus on the project. Overall, I think there was a very good balance.

As interns, I understand there is only a certain level of responsibility you can be given due to restrictions and regulations. I think that we were given responsibility near enough to this cut off point in the sense that the project we were working on would have real life applications once we were gone. The team felt really strongly on building on our ideas and improving them to provide something real, so this provided a real sense of responsibility.

I think there were the key technical skills that I learnt that would be very helpful for me during my studies and beyond. The financial training is obviously key to the financial services industry as is skills such as excel. Other workshops based on personal development were also key to developing confidence and personal approach and the actual work I was able to get involved honed key transferrable skills, such as teamwork and communication. Overall, it was great learning experience.

N/A as it was virtual

I believe that the organisation of the internship was incredible, considering the team only had a few months to move it from an in-person setting to a completely virtual approach. The timetable was well structured and allowed great flexibility to allow interns to focus on things that was of interest to them. There was also a great spread and variety in the type of events we were involved with, and this was complemented by follow up calls and events.

I believe this was an area of great strength on this internship. It was difficult to do this as it was virtual for sure but that that derail the team from organising and scheduling these appropriately. There was the obvious focus on key technical training we needed to do the job, as well as key workplace skills like excel that are important. There was also a focus on our growth as people, and improving the way we present ourselves which was very useful.

The future employment prospects within the organisation are very appealing in my opinion. Provided you do well on the internship, you may get a return offer for the graduate scheme for the year after. Here, the emphasis is on the graduate to explore the bank and learn about the areas that they enjoy and want to learn more about. It is quite a fluid system and allows graduates to really explore different areas of the bank so I would be excited by this.

N/A

N/A as done from home

N/A

There were opportunities to get involved with other work opportunities. We had the main focus of the intern project which was the important aspect for us, but we also had the option to take on other projects and sit in on other calls. We did have to source these ourselves which was difficult at the time as we didn't know of the other projects. However, our support network was really helpful in this regard and they pointed us in the right direction.