Risk and Control Analyst Review

I enjoyed it a lot. I definitely feel like I benefited from being in a regional office (Basingstoke), which had a really good feel to it, and I enjoyed working with all of my superiors. At the same time, they allowed me to go into Canary Wharf whenever I needed to, which afforded me a great many good opportunities.

I did feel valued, and every single employee that I spoke to in the Basingstoke office was very happy to help. What helped in this area was the fact that the task I had been set was to benefit all of the Ops teams within Sales and Asset Finance, and so I tried my best to do a good job.

I was given as much support/guidance as I needed. Five people stood out in this area: 1) Adele Sheppard - My line manager. Set my tasks, elucidated on them, and pointed me in the right direction with many things. She essentially helped me to understand (as far as I could!) the ops processes behind Sales and Asset Finance, information that was absolutely vital for me completing my objectives. 2) Nicky Huckett - My 'buddy'. She was a great port of call for any more 'pastoral' questions, but as she worked in RCRM, she was invaluable to my risk attestation objective, and to the risk awareness objective too. I enjoyed working with her and getting to know her a lot. 3) Rosie Heath - One of the VPs in my office. Her knowledge of AF/SF ops was unparalleled, and she could answer any question I threw at her. 4) Lesley Baker - Director in AF/SF Ops. Helped me to understand the process and ethics of offshoring, and offered some visionary insights about Barclays, and the future of finance. A privilege to get to know her. 5) Carmen McLaughlin - A VP in Combined Finance Solutions. Though I didn't work for her directly, she looked out for all the interns and was very supportive of any work we did, and helped me to feel very comfortable with my tasks.

I was busy from the day I received my objectives up until my last day when I completed the Risk Attestations and emailed them to the teams. Adele did well at assigning me tasks which did take the whole eight weeks to complete, and the risk attestation especially had a number of component parts which I had to deal with in order to complete it. I was often in early, which I was very happy to do, but never had to stay much past 17.00. Business, as I saw it, came as much down to your objectives as it did your own time-management. However, there was never a time when I had nothing to do. Once the MyZone task became involved too, there was always something to do.

The perfect amount. In terms of my own task, I had ultimate responsibility over the format of the document, and how it would be implemented - this was subject to a meeting (read 'grilling'!) from the SMT on my last day. Adele was happy to help if I asked for it, but if I didn't I was fine under my own steam.

I would like to think that my time management will improve at university, as I have come to understand the value and productivity of an early start! I will also think a lot more before going to someone to ask advice or help - if you are prepared for this sort of interaction and know exactly what it is that you need, rather than just saying 'I don't understand', you are far more likely to get the information that you need to make progress. Finally, I hope that the interest sparked in finance through the internship stays with me, and that I keep tabs in the business sectiosn of the newspapers!

Very good atmosphere. As I mentioned earlier, the 'vibe' in a regional office is very comfortable and casual. That said, everyone was professional, and knew they had a job to do.

Very well organised indeed. The contact with HR throughout was unbelievable (Joanna Robinson is to thank for this - she was always on hand for a chat/email), and very comforting to know that you were 'banking with stabilisers on' to some extent! The events organised for interns were always smoothly run. All in all, a very professional outfit, that I will recommend happily to fellow students. When speaking to friends who have completed internships with other companies, it seems that good organisation is of paramount importance. They often commented that they didn't really know what their job was and that large amounts of the working day was spent 'twiddling thumbs'. The Barclays internship gives you a proper job to do, and you are always well connected to an expert support base.

It seems that Barclays invested a lot. In financial terms, the training week cannot have been cheap! In terms of opportunities, the company seems to value and trust its interns, which is very affirming. For example, I was sat with the 'movers and shakers' within my office, and completing tasks which were important, for the whole of AF/SF ops, and would be in use once I had left. This sort of responsibility is the real investment, and I felt privileged to be part of it.

I was over the moon to receive an offer of a place on the grad scheme, and HR had done their best to meet my preference of working in the London office - which is in the offer! I have accepted and returned my contract, and am excited about starting in Sep 2015. I particularly want to make the most of the breadth which is possible in the Barclays Ops Grad Scheme, and intend to do one rotation with the Corporate Bank, and one with IBD/Wealth, in order to maximise the number of new skills I can amass.

There was a good social scene yes, though this would have been optimised in London simply due to there being a greater number of interns there. However, the Basingstoke lot clubbed together quite a few times as interns, and a good time was had by all. Quite often people from the office who weren't interns would come for drinks too, which was always nice! We made good use of the allowance given to us for the Social Event, and managed a lot of attendees and a delightful Spanish restaurant.

Pretty competitive, though we did make a lot of use of the Wetherspoons in order to drink on the cheap!

Not bad, again though, it was not sampled that prolifically as I didn't live in Basingstoke, and often went into London for nightlife.

I intended to help with reading tuition at a local school during my internship (a few people in the office did this on their lunch hour once a week), but sadly, it being a summer internship, schools were closed! However, there were loads of opportunities, all of which were well catalogued on the intranet. I took part in CPR training for example, which is a valuable skill not only in work, but in life!