Technology Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed my summer internship here at Barclays; everyone I met was extremely positive, helpful and provided insightful advice with regards to their role and experience here. The daily morning catch ups with the team, which involved informal discussions with the team added a personal touch to the experience and was a reassurance of how friendly everyone is. Everyone I reached out to was more than willing to meet with me and some even connected with me via LinkedIn.

I felt valued by my colleagues. Due to the shortening of the internship to 6 weeks, it seemed my contribution towards the team was somewhat limited due to the time constraints. However, I was able to produce a sufficient amount of work in the given time and have measurable outcomes which added value to the team. It was difficult to assess how valued I was to the team because of this, but they gave constructive feedback throughout the internship.

There was great support from the team who wholeheartedly welcomed us interns by making time to meet with us, check up on us regularly and keep us busy with a range of tasks that built our skills. A member of the team reached out to us daily to see our progress on the individual activities and linked us with any connections to help and/or progress the individual projects further. There was always someone willing and able to assist if we had any enquiries.

During the first 4 weeks on the internship, I was incredibly busy; having 1 to 1's with on average 9 people per week as well as engaging with the intern programme and working towards my delivery objectives. Towards the latter end of the internship I was a lot less busy but still well engaged in the company; here I was able to manage my time better and produce more measurable outcomes towards the company's objectives.

Towards the start of the internship, I had very little responsibility but have never felt like I was not adding to the company in any way. At the start, I was given useful tasks to complete that weren't as critical towards the company but gave a helping hand in reminding senior members of the team of their responsibilities. This also allowed me to gain a better insight into the nature of my team whilst also being of help. Later on in the internship I had a larger responsibility in that the team depended on the findings of my data analysis to identify areas for development within a particular application.

The training in the Tableau software was particularly beneficial towards my degree studies and future career plans as I learned how to use pivot tables in excel which will prove extremely useful in data analysis in the future. Furthermore, the various skills taught during the intern programme sessions are invaluable as they developed my interpersonal and social skills which will remain with me going back to university and having to work in teams and also in the future workplace.

The internship being virtual meant that I missed out on the experience in the office. Nonetheless, over webex calls and skype messages everyone seemed really friendly. What was interesting what that this attitude was extended across the team in locations worldwide. So it's evident that employees at Barclays genuinely adopt the Barclay's Way into their day to day work activities. The daily morning meetings with a group who I would've been seated next to in the office is also something I will truly miss.

At the start of the internship, my work plans weren't very structured as much of my time were spent in intern programme introductions and networking sessions, as well as meeting with multiple people in the firm. Having said this, my day was quite packed with numerous activities and began to follow a particular trend as the internship went on. My day typically started with a morning call with the Barclays employees I would've been seated next to in the office. The rest of the morning consisted of introductory sessions to the business at Barclays as part of the intern programme and in the afternoons I spent most of my time working on my delivery objectives towards the firm.

The company largely invested into my personal training and development in the daily insight sessions that provided an introduction to the business and the numerous introductory sessions by the team members into different software used at the company.

Extremely appealing. There seems to be a wide array of routes to take here at Barclays, some of which have been thoroughly explained. From feedback, it seems there is always something fulfilling, challenging and engaging here at Barclays.

Amongst the interns not so much, although this might have been made more difficult due to the virtual nature of the internship.

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We designed and partook in a charity fundraising event which was inspiring.