Operations analsyst Review

Despite a couple of tech issues I really enjoyed my time at Barclays working from home. I feel Barclays did a really good job in setting up the system allowing us to work as if we were in the office. Despite a couple of IT issues which I am sure will be fixed in the future I am very grateful for this experience. It was the first time working in a corporate world and I have learnt so much!

I felt very supported throughout. I had a line buddy, mentor, 2 line managers and of course Yasmin to speak to anytime I had issues. When I was locked out of my system and IT were not doing anything I had the full support to the point where the leadership team got involved to try and fix the problem. I also had weekly meetings with everyone and daily meetings with my line managers to make sure I was completing my objectives. Jamil and Richard have been amazing throughout.

As TC5 had 2 meetings a day- one in the morning and one in the afternoon to make sure our daily objectives were being met. This was much more support than other interns. After setting up multiple networking sessions it turned out some interns were not even having weekly sessions so we were very lucky that [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] went out of their way to such an extent. Especially as we know how busy they are with their own personal projects.

Our project consisted of a lot of Data and thus a lot of Excel to formulate results. As a result I have picked up many new skills from Excel that I look forward to using in my degree. Studying Chemistry means we have a lot of data ourselves to deal with in addition to lab reports where excel us used often. Thus when it comes to my final year of university starting in October I believe I will be a step ahead than my peers.

I believe the virtual experience was very well structured considering the short time frame Barclays has to set this up. My only advice would be for our IT systems to be set up prior to joining. We did waste a lot of time in the first week trying to set up our Barclays profiles. Despite that Outlook has been such a great tool to use when forming your calendar in addition to how quickly it is to set up a WebEx chat.

I felt it was really good despite not being able to see everyone in person. Georgie tried to set up some exciting networking sessions and games despite all of us working from home. Everyone was open to conversation and values of Barclays was reflected well with all the staff. There was a lot of pressure at times but that was something to expect when working for a company like Barclays. Most importantly I felt I learnt something as a result.

I feel the firm invested a lot in me. In addition to the big project we have in TC5 we also had to complete online courses and interactive FirstRung sessions which was really interesting. All the training and development was also applicable to the work we were doing in the day and thus I tried to use the skills learnt in my day to day activities with the Bank. I also feel the skills learnt, I will be able to use them outside of Barclays too such as confidence and leadership.

I felt the time and effort put into Barclays showed to me how much the Bank cares about offering the best experience to staff no matter how long they will be staying with you. the virtual experience also showed me how international the Bank is. Setting up meetings with colleagues from New York to Chennai, India became the norm while creating presentations also gave me an insight of the full time role of the company.

Despite having to work from home, I felt all the values of the company that is listed on the Barclays website was transferred to the online world. People were respectful, open and friendly when it came to setting up meeting. Even if it meant going out of their way despite having deadlines and other meetings. Despite only being here a short time, trusty was quickly built with many colleagues very quickly which meant I could dig deeper into work quicker. [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] were agan very helpful.

Due to the short term nature of the internship and because of how big our project was, it was hard to try and find out what other parts of the Bank to. If it was in person networking and meeting people from the front and back office would have allowed us to see their content and other parts of the Bank before being able to confirm a set career path. However with regards to my role in Operations, I felt the content given to us gave us a huge insight into the GradRole.

Due to being able to work from home accommodation costs was not needed however I felt the salary was exactly what it should be. The work in Operations especially at a top firm like Barclays is a lot harder than most other jobs. The people in Operations are running the bank in the background and it can be very stressful at times. Thus having a higher on average starting salary made up for this.

Yes there was initially when the workload was low. However as our project in TC5 was larger than most people it got harder to do so as the internship went on. Meeting with directors on the other hand was completely different. They were so open and welcoming to conversation that when setting up meetings with them despite in much smaller groups, they were always more than happy to do so. I feel the values at the firm are held up by them more so than anyone. It was great to see.

Despite the Pandemic I feel networking opportunities were good. However I would have set up mandatory networking sessions between different TC interns rather than leaving it up to our own devices to set up meetings with people. It would have been nice to have had group conversations with interns in TC1 for example or TC9. Operations is a very big department thus it would have been nice to find what others were doing more deeply.

Nope I had no clue there were activities outside of Barclays. I did hear of societies being a thing at the very start of the job process but that was it unfortunately. I understand at the moment it must not be a topic of conversation as everyone is working from home but it would have been interesting to hear what Barclays employees do outside of work for future notice. I also feel if there are, it should be made more of aware of in the future.

Yes I would recommend to a friend. I feel as if I have learnt a lot about myself and a lot of transferable skills that I can take in life. It also allowed me to make use of the free time I had in the summer in a very productive manner. Especially as we have been told our work will be used in the future. I also felt the timing of the internship was perfect. It was not too late or early into the summer.