Summer Analyst Review

I found it challenging but rewarding at the same time. The campus recruiting team kept us busy with a number of events, speaker sessions and learning sessions. I got to engage with the intern cohort, grads as well as my team and individuals from across the company. I was entrusted with two projects: an intern project I worked on with another intern, and a team specific project I worked on with my close colleagues. All in all it was a good mix of learning and actual work.

Whenever I needed help people would take the time to respond to my emails, and not just answer my questions but also get to know me as a person. My team members and line manager reached out to me periodically to see how I was doing and to see if I needed any help. HR treated all the interns fairly and in a way they would talk to a grad or a senior colleague. All in all I felt happy to work with the people at Barclays.

My supervisor reached out to me once a week for a longer chat, and most days we had a morning catch up with the team where we supported each other. I was given a lot of freedom with my intern project, and it was down to me to reach out to people and ask for guidance. With my team project I was closely managed and my work was made into small daily tasks, which made me feel on top of things.

With two projects to run, a number of events hosted by HR and a lot of networking to do, I was busy at all times. Whenever it got a little quiet I would log into our online learning lab and complete mandatory training modules or read some of the daily newsletters we were sent. The very last week of the internship was a little bit quiet, but it only made sense to have project deadlines in the week prior to that.

I was a little bit disappointed to find out that the same intern project brief was handed out to all of the interns. So 50% of all the work I did on the internship went towards a theoretical exercise, of which only purpose was to see how different intern teams would approach the task. In terms of my other project I'm uncertain if its content will be used in any way. So it's difficult to see any direct impacts of my time in the company.

In my degree studies, not much. I learned a lot of cool tricks with excel, which I will definitely keep on using in the future. In terms of networking I have become more confident, which might come in handy. We also had a couple of workshops around personal brand, reputation and influencing others, which might prove useful in the future. A lot of the training was very focused on the organisation and different teams and projects.

I worked from home, so can't really say. We had meetings every morning, which was a nice way to get used to my team members and to get to know them. On calls most people were wearing chill and casual clothing, although most of the interns were keeping up appearances by looking professional. A lot of our communication happened via email and Skype for business, although sometimes a colleague would pick up their phone and give me a call.

HR was very slow in getting everything set up at first. It took ages to get our criminal record checks done, and the first 4 days of the internship I didn't have access to my company laptop or IT systems such as my email. The date of our final presentation was announced 2 days before it happened, and the HR representative failed to show up. Also, we had constant issues with IT and HR did not help.

They invested a lot of time - maybe too much actually. This year the internship was 6 weeks, when it's usually 9. The sessions for 9 weeks were pushed into 6, meaning at worst we had two HR sessions in a single day. Sometimes sessions would appear in our calendars with a few hours' notice and we would have to reschedule meetings to make sure we could attend. A lot of the content wasn't relevant to us at all.

Most interns will be offered a graduate scheme. It is a two year scheme with 4 6 month rotations around different business areas. All graduates will do a strategy role, a sales role, an analytics role and one additional role. HR wants to give all graduates a good understanding of the overall business. After the graduate scheme grads are rolled off to regular AVP level jobs within the organisation. It's a good route to future employment.

Among the interns we had weekly networking/venting sessions. We did one social, one pub quiz and one escape room among the interns and the grads. Grads in general were really helpful and tried to engage with us in a friendly way. We were all matched up to informal "buddies" who were there for us in case we had any problems. I didn't spend much time with my buddy, but I got along with other grads pretty well.

The internship is based in Canary Wharf, London. However, this year it was moved to a remote virtual approach. I managed to work from my home town, which is great. I saved a lot of money on rent by not having to move to London. I still got paid my £2000 moving bonus though, which was really fair. If I want to join the graduate scheme, I will have to move to London though, which will be expensive.

I was so tired and working so hard that partying was the last thing to think about. All pubs and clubs are closed anyway due to coronavirus, so there isn't a way I could have gone for a night out. As all interns are based in different cities, we don't have a chance to see each other in real life anyway. The nightlife in London is apparently really great though, I'm sure I will venture out there once I'm on the grad scheme.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic there isn't much the interns could get involved in. Paradoxically HR kept on encouraging us to get involved in things, but nothing was available to us. We did do a virtual pub quiz during working hours, which was run by HR, was echo-y and super awkward. The grads organised us a virtual escape room which was actually quite fun. But in terms of any other activities, nothing was available to us.