Spring Week - Business Functions Review

I enjoyed it very much. I felt that the programme was very well-planned in the sense that they tried to fit in as much events as possible in the short one week time. However, there was also an adequate amount of breaks, so all in all it was a very well-planned programme. Logistics also went really smoothly which helped a lot given that we didn't have a lot of spare time.

We were given a lot of guidance and attention even though we were only at Barclays for a week. Everyone that came to speak to us or took us for the work shadowing sessions were really engaging and helpful, and it was evident that they genuinely enjoyed their time here and that they wanted us to feel the same too.

We had a lot of guidance, especially since we had to work on a presentation we did a lot of research by speaking to different people working in the bank. Everyone was very helpful and did their best to provide as much information as possible for our research and we really appreciated it.

I developed a lot of soft skills such as communication and public speaking during this week, and I believe skills like these will be very useful for me in future.

It was very well structured. I personally could not think of any instances where the time management was poor because all the events fitted into the schedule very nicely and we did not have any instances where we went beyond the time or had tons of spare time.

The atmosphere was generally relaxed albeit it being a professional environment. I did not feel stressed during the insight because everyone was so helpful and supportive and we could always clarify anything we weren't sure of.

I felt Barclays invested a lot in our training and development. For instance, there were a lot of directors and leaders within the company that came to address us, and it made us feel very valued even though we were only here for a week.

I did have a much better understanding of the firm than before I came onto the insight programme, however I feel that it would be insufficient to cover every single area as our work shadowing sessions were only 1.5 hours each so I feel there were still areas which I am not aware of in the bank.

It helped a lot in my understanding, and I could really feel that the values are applied literally in every aspect as there was a lot of focus on them. I also like the culture very much, and I feel it is an environment I would like to work in.

I think the content was quite valuable, but I believe I still have a lot to learn as I am aware that there are many areas that I might not be informed of yet.

I live in London so I did not require accommodations, but my travel expenses will be reimbursed and also they had provided meals throughout the week.

There were many opportunities to meet other employees, but we met mostly graduates who were on their rotation schemes.

They were quite good, but some of the sessions were a bit short so there wasn't enough time to speak to everyone.

We were able to get a gist of some activities such as the sports activities.

Definitely. I enjoyed it very much and I believe others on my batch did too.