Barclays Corporate Client Coverage Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement at Barclays Corporate. It was an incredibly challenging, but very rewarding 9 week internship. There was a very high level of exposure to all aspects of the Corporate Bank.

During the internship my opinions were always respected. However, I did feel that in order to be valued by my colleagues, I had to quickly build relationships and prove my worth. Nevertheless, I do feel that this added to the challenging aspect of the internship, and made it all the more rewarding as a result.

The guidance was brilliant throughout the internship. Supervisors were always on hand to help, and if occupied, other members of staff were always willing to help. I feel this support network helped me to get more out of the internship.

The workload came in waves. In the last two weeks I had a lot of pressure to complete my projects and reach my targets, but over the 9 weeks, there was space in the diary to explore the bank and meet senior members of staff.

The responsibility I was given throughout positively surprised me. I was given work where I could make a valuable contribution. In addition, upon completion of certain tasks, my work was recognised by senior staff members.

The skills acquired from the training and development have increased my commercial awareness and given me transferable skills to my degree studies and beyond. I am not from an economic or finance background, so I feel the training was invaluable to put me in a position where I could succeed.

I was involved in a team with a great work ethic and brilliant atmosphere. I was able to get involved in regular team bonding activities, and played football once a week. This team spirit made the office atmosphere excellent.

I think the organisation of the internship was excellent. I never thought I would benefit as much as I did from a 9 week placement. I have acquired so many transferable skills as the internship was very well developed to get the best out of people.

As mentioned above, the organisation of the internship displayed how much the firm invested in the candidates. The sky was the limit, they set out with the intention that anyone from the internship can become a senior member of staff and that stood with me throughout.

I have been offered a position on the graduate program. This demonstrates how highly valued contributions are, and shows that having a placement can lead to greater things. I am very happy to be returning.

It was a very sociable atmosphere between most of the fellow students/ colleagues. Immediately, we were thrown together and got the chance to meet each other with ice breakers. Throughout the placement, there was organised socials too.

As the placement was in London the cost of living was very costly.

London is a very vibrant city. There was an array of nightlife opportunities. Some of the best nights of my life were during this internship and came with my fellow work colleagues. This speaks volumes of how awesome it is!

Barclays are very good at getting staff involved in various citizenship activities and team bonding activities. Aside from this, I didn't find much time to get involved in other activities on top of the workload and socialising.