Summer Finance Analyst Internship Review

I really enjoyed the Internship. Whilst it was certainly different as a virtual internship compared to in the office Barclays tried to make sure we got as similar an experience as possible. It was a shame the internship was reduced from 9 weeks to 6 but this did make sense as we did not have access to data and files due to the virtual aspect. Everything, apart from the IT issues, was great! I would definitely recommend the internship as I have really enjoyed it.

Everyone was willing to take the time and speak to you and answer questions about their role, their career and their experience with Barclays. I got the chance to speak to lots of graduates, analysts, assistant vice presidents, vice presidents and even some directors. They asked for your input and ideas and respected your feedback. They also did not expect us to know every detail and were more than happy to explain things such as the acronyms and technical aspects.

They were really good at ensuring you felt supported throughout the internship. Each intern was assigned a buddy who was a first year graduate who would act as an informal support and help you with day to day issues and make you feel more comfortable. My buddy also put me in contact with lots of other grads in different areas of Finance so I could see the various transaction cycles. We also had a line manager and a senior line manager each. The line managers were third year grad who were about to role off their graduate scheme. And the senior line manager was their line manager. I had calls with my line manager 3 times a week to have a catch up and discuss what I had been doing. He always offered to help with stuff and was great throughout. I had a meeting once a week with my senior line manager who would always ask if I felt included in the team and offer support with work. We also had a HR contact who was great and was there to offer support with any issues.

Throughout the internship we had online training through webinars. We had a training series of financial markets which included an introduction to Barclays and banks as a whole, equity markets, debt and credit markets, FX markets and derivatives markets. These were really useful to help you understand the financial sector. I had already covered the content in university but it was a good refresher. We had an excel training series as well. This was quite fast paced but we were provided with instructions we could go back to. This was really useful as it was a skill I wanted to improve upon. We also had a leadership training series which gave us some work to do between sessions. My favourite was the fraud masterclass as I found this really engaging and interesting. Overall, I have definitely developed skills and learned new information which will help me going forward in my career.

The internship was well structured. We were given access to our Microsoft calendars and from there we could view all our upcoming training, speaker series, networking events and meetings. We had a one or two speaker series sessions each week which were webinars of colleagues in different areas of finance explaining more about their role, their career and their advice or experience with Barclays. We had several events scheduled from the various colleague networks across Barclays such as WIN (the gender network) and BPF ( Black professionals forum). We had 2 projects to complete over the internship one which was individual and one as a group. Throughout the internship I found I was kept busy with various events, training, meetings and project work without feeling overwhelmed.

Positive, friendly, welcoming and enthusiastic. I was expecting to feel more pressure and less positive engagement from colleagues. However, everyone was so friendly and willing to speak to you about their work, their career and experience. The other interns were friendly and happy to have a chat as well although this was more difficult due to it being virtual. Whilst my line manager was assessing me throughout the internship I never felt intimidated or the need to try and impress him. He was so friendly and genuinely happy to help that you forgot he was assessing you.

Barclays did a lot of training for the interns. We had training in Excel, leadership, financial markets and more over the internship. Alongside the training we had set objectives for over the internship and these were designed for personal development. Barclays definitely wants to invest in you, not only through official training but through encouraging you to speak to colleagues. One of the objectives is to speak with 3 directors across Barclays. Through speaking to colleagues you develop 'soft skills'.

The internship definitely helped you understand the culture of the company and experience it first hand. As it was a virtual internship and it was made virtual in short notice the interns did not have access to a lot of files etc. This meant we were not able to help work on the majority of the work, from this aspect we did not get to experience the work per say of a full time roll. We did get to join all the meetings etc. though so we still did get a good idea.

The internship was excellent for getting to experience the company culture of Barclays. I found the best way to see the true culture was to email colleagues and ask to meet and have a chat with them about their role and experience at Barclays. Everyone I emailed replied and was happy to meet with me and have a catch up and make time to talk to me. One employee even offered to log in on his holiday to speak with me.

I was already pretty set on my career path as I know I want to do my chartered accounting exams at a firm. However, the internship did reaffirm this. The financial markets training was useful as this would help you understand whether or not the industry is something you want to go into. The speaker insight sessions were the most useful probably in understanding the career progression possibilities and how they got to where they are.

We were paid pro rata the salary of a 1st year graduate at Barclays. Barclays shortened the internship from 9 weeks to 6 weeks as it was moved to a virtual setting. However, Barclays said they did not want the interns to lose out financially and so they paid us as if we completed the full 9 weeks. Barclays also gave every intern an accommodation allowance as London is no the cheapest place to live. Despite the internship being virtual they still paid us this allowance as well.

There were a few specific networking events but these were not on the same scale as if the internship had been done in person in London. The onus on networking was put more onto the individual intern to reach out to colleagues across the bank. As everyone was so willing to speak to you this was an easy enough task and an enjoyable one. A lot of the colleagues I spoke to then put me in contact with people form their network who they thought I might be interested in speaking to. This was really great as I had a chance to speak to colleagues from almost all the areas within Finance.

The specific opportunities/ events were limited due to the virtual nature of the internship. However it was clear from the start that if there was someone you wanted to speak to then reach out to them and they would find a time for you. When there was speaker sessions they always had a chance for questions and also said that if anyone wanted to reach out privately to ask a question or have a chat they were happy to do that.

We had several events held by the colleague networks explaining the different activities we could get involved with as full time employees. The networks included a black professionals forum, a gender group, an LGBTQ+ group and many more. Whilst some of the events they held were specifically on the activities of that network others were simply opportunities for the interns to ask questions to Barclays graduates and employees to find out more about working for Barclays.

Absolutely! I have learnt a lot from the experience as well as improved some professional skills such as networking, presentation skills and more. I have also really enjoyed the internship and found it a great chance to get to know some of the employees and the real culture of Barclays. It is also a great chance to get ahead and be fast tracked on the graduate scheme applications. I found the internship really helpful for so many different reasons.