Summer Financial Analyst Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my internship at Barclays. I couldn't fault it. The culture and attitude of colleagues working there was welcoming and I felt supported at all times. Colleagues of all levels were more than happy to make time for me. The working hours were good and expectations more than reasonable. I also found that HR had organised an extensive number of insight or educational events for the interns to attend which made the experience very productive.

I felt highly valued throughout my time here. Colleagues would email me asking for my help or bringing me onboard with work which made me feel included. Additionally, my line manager and team send me a card and lovely gift upon completion of the internship which reaffirmed this feeling. Finally, at no point during the internship program did anyone not reply to me, people always responded and showed up to chat with me no matter how busy they were.

Extremely good support systems were in place for the interns. We were provided with line managers, senior managers and graduate mentors - all of which we were in regular contact with. Additionally to this, we were assigned another group mentor for one of our project which enabled us to perform well. These interactions provided a structured but reliable system such that our support system was structured and easily understood. This system was benefitted further by the approachability of said support and their encouragement.

How busy I was varied from day to day. Some days I found myself extremely busy and others relatively quiet. This was largely due tot he nature of the work my team was doing. However, at no point was the amount of work expected unrealistic and on those quieter days there were always things to do, such as using the Barclays online services to complete extra study. HR had also organised events so there was rarely a day without anything official arranged.

I had responsibility for the individual projects assigned but other than this the work I was given was well constructed to enable me to take on enough without being too liable. Furthermore, a lot of the work that I completed was presented back to my line manager such that the responsibility was on her moving forwards. This balance was very positive and enabled me to work comfortably as a new started in both the team and the industry.

Much of the training we were offered was very beneficial. Some things like the financial markets training and excel training will be very useful when returning for my final year at university. Other sessions were less skill based but experience based. We got the change to talk to relatively senior colleagues from all areas of the bank and make valuable connections. While a lot of what I've learnt is not directly applicable to my degree subject the skills are certainly those I will carry forwards.

With the internship being virtual this year as a result of coronavirus the atmosphere was very different to how you would anticipate it usually to have been. However, this said, it was still surprisingly social. There was lots of communication between the interns as well as within the team I was placed in. Social events were organised which enabled casual relationships to form and everyone was very friendly. Virtual quizzes, drinks and games were weekly at minimum.

It was very well organised, with HR based events almost every day and set projects for the interns to keep us busy. As well as this the management structure in place meant we knew exactly where we were and who we were working with, which proved beneficial for good communication. Sometimes the events were placed over lunch hours, but this was the result of senior speakers setting lunch hours aside for us - so no complaint there. There were some initial set-up/tech issues (to be expected setting up virtually) - but these were quickly resolved.

There were many training events throughout the internship: leadership training, financial market training and excel training were only a few. I also had training on systems and reviews. Barclays had clearly made a great effort to provide us with the best experience. There were objective reviews in place throughout the duration of the internship which enabled me to stay on track and recruiters were in regular contact to ensure we felt supported and sufficiently challenged.

Working there would be very appealing in the future. We will have to wait and see what happens in regards to this. There is a change to get a grad scheme offer off the back of the internship depending on performance and funding.

As the internship was virtual, it was hard at first to develop a casual intern relationship. However, we had a range of quizzes, intern drinks and games which helped us mix and interact more casually. I imagine, if in person, the social side to be excellent. I did get on very well with some of the interns and will stay in contact for sure. Further to this, we had an informal group chat to communicate with each other and ask for help and advice.

Due to coronavirus I was living at and working from home, therefore costs of living and socialising were minimal.

Again, due to the virtual nature (and all clubs and bars being shit for the majority of the internship duration) this wasn't applicable.

There usually would have been, if we'd have been in the office. Barclays have a range of groups and societies such as sports teams, support groups, music groups, ect, etc. These were spoken about by many but unfortunately we were unable to benefit from them due to the current global situation.