Spring Insight Intern, Global Business Functions (Technology) Review

Just amazing! One of the best weeks of my life, and definitely the most rewarding and educational experience of all! I definitely felt like a valued member of the Barclays family, welcomed and had all the best possible treatment, way beyond my expectations. Compared to other insights I have been on, this has definitely been the best, most action-packed and educational insight, and it definitely helped me gain a much better insight into the financial services industry and Technology! I'd recommend it to anyone!

Extremely! Not only did we have our own badges and were treated as proper employees for the week,b but also it emerged clearly that the firm had put a lot of effort and money into organising the week, held at the best venue in Canary Wharf with a splendid view! Their amazing dedication and the fact that we were very much valued also emerged by the fact that, unlike any other insights in the industry, the work shadowing comprised 3 sessions of 3 hours each in which each one of us flanked a specific graduate or employee, gaining extremely useful insight into the firm and also having access to confidential information, real data, real applications and systems that were shown to us by the people we were shadowing. The trust the company put in us definitely made me feel very valued! Also the fact that both HR and other departments' employees were keen to talk to us, network and more, and the social events put on by the firm, definitely made me feel like part of the family!

There were plenty of opportunities for networking, group work, sessions regarding both the bank as a whole, its core values and the Technology department; furthermore, we were able not only to have real work-shadowing sessions where we received the best hints and tips from current grads or employees, but also we received mentorship from employees from our division during the group project, which really helped!! HR were also magnificent in ensuring the week ran smoothly and helping us make the most of every opportunity within the insight!

Definitely, definitely did and will. Invaluable experience and great amount of learning were involved, and not only was I able to enhance my existing set of soft skills (like communication, presentation...), but also I was able to understand how Technology is applied in a real work environment, and I learned the importance of values within the corporate world. I feel that these skills will be extremely important and useful for my future degree studies and career because the insight has equipped me with experience which will be extremely helpful when applying for internship and grad jobs, and will also help me do better in my university projects.

The week was very well structured. On the first day we were firstly introduced to the firm and its values (both Global Business Functions, including Tech, and Front Office programs were together for this initial stage) and then we had a wide range of activities including values training, divisional and firm overview, group projects intro, presentation skills sessions and more, concluding the evening with a wonderful networking welcome drinks session in the beautiful venue. Between Tuesday and Thursday we had morning sessions including all sorts of different training and fun exercises both in groups and individually, and in the afternoon we had individual one-on-one work shadowing across different divisions of the Corporate Bank and the Investment Bank sectors of the firm. on the final day, after some morning sessions on skills and assessment centres/CVs, we had some extra time to prepare for our presentations and then a couple hours for the various groups' presentations, followed by a wrap-up session and description of the next steps (and we also got a hoodie!!)... Definitely a well-structured insight overall!

Excellent! The fact that most of us came from outside London and all had accommodation in the same place meant that some great bonding between us interns happened, and also both during the insight in the day at the venue and after, back at the accommodation and working on the group presentation, the atmosphere was both relaxed and intense at the same time, and many great opportunities for networking and bonding arose. Definitely great atmosphere and an experience I'd repeat from the very beginning!!

I feel that the firm did their absolute best to invest in us as interns and to see our future potential; all training opportunities, skills building sessions, etc. definitely demonstrate a great intention not only to invest in us but also to train us in preparation for a potential 2015 internship offer... Over the course of the week, we received training of all sorts and the group projects and networking opportunities definitely helped us develop and build skills which, if employed by Barclays or not, in the future will allow us to be better graduates and excel at what we'll be doing. The company definitely visibly invested a lot of human and monetary resources in us, and it's very rewarding and gratifying!

Greatly! Most of the sessions included networking opportunities in which we were able to ask questions to current grads, employees or recent hires regarding their daily work and satisfaction; furthermore, the company and divisional overview and the work shadowing opportunities definitely helped us get a hands-on experience of what it would be like to work at the firm and what sort of roles we could end up covering at the firm. Unfortunately, however, the work shadowing being only on 3 days of the week instead of 4 meant that we could not get an overview of all 4 roles we could end up doing (AppDev, AppMan, Business Analyst, Corporate Tech), but instead just 3 of them; some interns also ended up doing 2 or 3 shadowings in the same area rather than shadowing people from 3 different departments.

Very much! What appeared clearly from the beginning of the week was that the company has some solid values and an outstanding company culture and community engagement; with specific values-training sessions and constant reminders of the culture, it was a great opportunity to understand and learn about what environment we would end up working in if we managed to get an internship offer!

The content of the week definitely helped me decide on my future career path. With the possibility of choosing between application development or application management/project management/BA roles within Technology, I was in the beginning unsure of what path would be right for me. However, both the overviews and the shadowing sessions in different departments helped me get hands-on first experience of all these areas and therefore now, as a result, I am definitely sure that I would like to continue on the path for Business Analysis/management/AppMan roles rather than development, which I wouldn't see myself working at on a daily basis.

We received a payment of £250 for any expenses incurred, and furthermore accommodation and return economy travel was paid for separately, and breakfast and lunch were provided every day. Definitely a great experience and more than adequate pay and reimbursements!!

Plenty! Every day there was at least one session involving networking opportunities, and plenty of time was always cut out for Q&A after each presentation/session. Furthermore, there were two networking socials with current grads and employees, and there were three 3-hour long work shadowing sessions throughout the week which were one-on-one with people in our department.

Amazing! Every session, social event and networking opportunity saw a variety of people from across the business exchange great conversations on their career at the firm and daily roles with us, and the fact that we received personalised corporate business cards to distribute not only made us feel valued, but also allowed us to exchange contact information with those employees and hires we met and build a reliable network of contacts for the future!! However, there were often more grads than senior people, and it would have been great to have a bit more variety!

To be honest, these were mentioned a couple times only throughout the week and not stressed enough, in my opinion. I did find out more about such activities and opportunities by asking the employees I have been shadowing about what they have been doing personally, and we did get an initial training session where they mentioned these. It would have been good to have had an overview of these in a bit more detail, though!

100% YES!!! I have been on 3 different insights so far, and I believe this one was miles ahead of the others! Great insight experience, hands-on shadowing opportunities, real work exposure and great group projects, combined with plenty of networking opportunities, skill and team-building sessions and more, as well as a great atmosphere with the other interns made this week the very best and most rewarding and educational learning experience of my life!