Tech Developer Review

Being my first internship, I was feeling quite scared even before starting. However, when things started to kick off, the first thing that I was told was that I had 3 "buddies" that would be able to help me through my day to day activities and a "mentor" who could help me on the more complex things. This made me feel quite relaxed and feel less stress from the start. In addition, we had great introductory and networking sessions where we even got to play Bingo or kahoot every week. I can really say now that these are the little things that make an internship enjoyable. I really loved my internship at Barclays.

I have not felt any ounce of disrespect by any intern or full time worker at Barclays. One of Barclays values is Respect, and once inside the working environment one can see what really differentiates a Barclays employee with any other - their will to value anyone working with them. In fact 2 of my buddies, if not all, volunteered to help out interns during their internship. Again, this really says something about Barclays employees.

"Ask, ask and ask questions. Don't worry about not knowing what to do, just ask". This is what my supervisor, as well as my buddies, have repeatedly said to me. I have always felt I had people around me ready to work with me to solve any problems that might arise. It is important to note that these people will always support you, but they will also challenge you and give you some freedom to make mistakes and learn by yourself. Which I personally find great!

Working remotely, during COVID lockdown and in such a technical role - tech developer, I found that Barclays really made an effort to keep interns learning new things. Let it be through sessions, access to great online courses, meetings with specific people etc. I worked what is considered normal working hours in any other job, around 8h. Some days less and some days a bit more, but with a great freedom to take small breaks for lunch or any other personal issue.

Most of the time we really spent trying to request access to specific systems. The main goals of my supervisors was to allow my teammate and myself to learn the basics and be able to do things by ourselves. Firstly, we were taught how to properly do our tasks through various sessions and then we were given the freedom to do them without supervision. Of course some times, we would then arrange sessions to revise our work.

One of the skills I developed the most during this virtual internship was to communicate things in a better way. It was very clear at the beginning I was very shy, or did not feel confident to speak up. Through out all the sessions, meetings and team working events I have been able to drive ideas forward and to suggest improvements without feeling awkward. Instead of specific technical skills, I also gained a lot of insight into specific roles. For example, I met 3 directors in the cybersec sector who taught me lots of tips to succeed in the world of security and also in my professional career.

Very much. In fact from the first week onwards I already knew I wanted to gain a graduate job at Barclays. The organization the company has, the atmosphere with the work colleagues, the challenges and opportunities available etc. Are all things that really appeal to me and that I have seen while working in Barclays. The flexibility to work in different teams is also something to consider, since the graduate job places you in a rotation type programme through different teams to allow you to find what fits best with yourself.