Spring Intern - Barclays Investment Bank Review

The insight programme was highly enjoyable; not only are Barclays employees particularly laid-back, but the group of interns was also very friendly.

There were many opportunities to interact, ask questions, and find out exactly what you wanted to know. In this way, everyone could achieve exactly what they wanted to from the Insight Week.

As mentioned earlier, there were countless opportunities to ask questions. Furthermore, there was decent exposure everyday to the employees from HR, so any advice/support for the programme was readily accessible.

Many of the interactive case studies and tasks involved quick-thinking, teamwork and time-management skills; most, if not all, of these can no doubt be transferred to university studies and life in general.

The programme was very well structured; we were all given a specific and detailed programme on the first day of exactly what we'd be doing for every hour of every day during the Week. A lot of thought had clearly gone into this!

The general atmosphere was excellent; as previously mentioned, both staff and fellow interns were laid-back, happy to answer questions and just generally smiley-faced.

There were numerous sessions where Barclays had employed external training firms to come and work with us and either teach us about the Investment Bank or teach us valuable skills.

There was a great insight into the culture of the firm (rather than simply just what the firm does on a day-to-day basis), which is crucial when deciding which bank to begin your career with. This insight came from the numerous shadowing and networking opportunities.

With the daily exposure to Barclays employees, there is no doubt that the Insight Week was very useful in terms of understanding the company culture. Evening networking sessions in particular provided a great opportunity to talk to employees outside of work hours and ascertain exactly what sort of people you might be working with if you joined Barclays.

This is where the Barclays Insight Week particularly excelled; rather than focusing on simply one division within the Investment Bank, all interns were given a broad overview of all subdivisions of the front office, meaning that we were exposed to areas we hadn't even considered before and had an excellent opportunity to ask sufficient questions to determine whether a particular career path was the career path for us.

We were reimbursed expenses, provided accomodation, and paid for our time with Barclays.

The bank held 2 evening networking sessions with free food and drinks; these were an excellent opportunity to meet employees from around Barclays and ask more and more questions about things you were unsure of. In addition to this, there were shadowing sessions and speed-networking sessions throughout the week which permitted this also.

With the free refreshments, the networking and social opportunities during the Insight Week provided an excellent opportunity to not only get to better know Barclays employees, but also to get to know the other interns. They were highly enjoyable.

Although there was less focus on this, we were made aware of the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the bank, and the sorts of activities that people have been involved in in foreign countries in the past.

Highly enjoyable, highly informative and highly useful. I would definitely recommend this Insight programme!