Spring Analyst Review

I really enjoyed Barclays Spring Insight. Before it began, I was very nervous about the stressful activities that would have been planned for us, and to meet very competitive people, however as the week went on I was actually enjoying myself a lot and didn't even stress that much! The activities planned were actually so so much fun - the spotlight sessions on different business functions were so so helpful, truly. And everybody at Barclays I've met so far are incredibly nice and helpful. Work shadowing is also a very useful aspect the spring insight. All in all, I found this programme so helpful in further my understanding in banking, and in Barclays too. I understand that time is a constraint, but perhaps next year's insight could rearrange the timings of the networking to another time apart from Wednesday evening would be relatively helpful to the spring interns, because everybody is stressed in the middle of the week and also extremely tired in the late evening. But i absolutely enjoyed my week here!

I felt that everybody I spoke to was very nice and helpful, even people from senior positions were very nice to us spring interns, and it just made us feel very appreciated and helped in encouraging us to apply in Barclays that is known for their people. HR representatives in charge of our programme was also so extremely helpful and kind, it made us feel less stressed and more towards having some fun too!

Whenever we emailed any representative of the bank, they would also reply appropriately, giving a lot of help so that was very generous of them. Their opinions are especially crucial at this time because they have the proper insight of different roles within Barclays and they can provide you with the best, credible description of different roles in Barclays. HR representatives were also incredibly helpful with whatever problem we have, and also extremely friendly.

I learnt a lot of things about being professional, and also about teamwork in a professional environment. The people - my colleagues - were actually not as scary as I thought it would be, and it was so much fun working with them, especially those in my business functions division. I also learnt a lot from others, those who had very good opinions and those who spoke very well and presented themselves very well. I will learnt these good characteristics from my colleagues and apply it to my future.

The programmes arranged for us were very well planned, and the flow of the events were generally quite well done. The different workshops, work shadowing, spotlight sessions, were all very helpful in helping me decide whether banking and Barclays is for me. It also allowed me to know more about the industry. One thing that maybe I would recommend to change was perhaps some of the spotlight sessions could be less technical, because many of us are not from a finance background and we struggled to understand what the different jobs entailed if presentations that were given were very technical and there were a lot of uses of jargon and terms that we did not understand.

Very good - people were very enthusiastic yet friendly as well at the same time. I definitely prefer the business functions division rather than the front office division as I've heard that could get very competitive and that just does not suit me well. I prefer an environment where peers help each other out and is respectful of each other. I've made some good friends by the end of the insight, which helped to make the week move by better and in a more enjoyable way, rather than just a stressful week.

The firm did not provide much technical training this week, as it was very short and it was only an insight programme, but I definitely learnt a lot of the technical aspects and the values that the company employees instil in themselves through those spotlight sessions. I do feel that I have learnt things in my short week here.

Yes, the work shadowing was very helpful in letting us get a feel of how a technical role in Barclays is like, as we get to see the offices as well as the actual jobs they do. The grad representatives who we work shadowed were very helpful and informative. However, work shadowing only offered insight into a single role in different functions, so it would have been helpful to get more insight into more roles.

Company culture was very evident throughout the week, and I could tell that the employees here at Barclays really appreciate the 5 values of the company. A lot of employees reiterated the values when they talked to us, as well as emphasizing themselves enjoying the 'people' aspect of Barclays.

Very much so, I think I do enjoy working in business functions - the middle office is turning out to suit my liking very well. I haven't had much exposure to front office but from what I heard about friends, it is very competitive and I think it would not suit me. I will definitely explore more business functions role in banks in the future. It also helped me confirm that I would like to be in the banking industry after I graduate from university.

Yes I am going to be reimburse for my travel expenses, as well as having a one-off payment for the week which I found very surprising as I was not expecting being paid at all! Barclays is very generous in this aspect.

Definitely, a lot of networking opportunities that allowed us to speak to current employees which were very helpful. It would be nice if the names and perhaps contact details of those employees were displayed properly and if their name cards were given to us because one thing I found was that I could not remember all the different individuals we met.

Good, employees were helpful and very friendly. The speed networking were very good, as well as when speakers would come in and speak to us about various functions. However, the networking evening perhaps could be rearranged to another time. Also it would be more useful to have one-to-one networking sessions sometimes.

Yes, a little. Mostly we heard about their work in the company, but we've been told that Barclays also have various events outside of work such as training and charity programmes. Barclays employees I spoke to also said that the employees and their colleagues often meet outside of work as Barclays people are friendly and you make a lot of friends.

Yes definitely! It was so much fun. Stressful in the first few days as it was long hours and also we had project work to do but as the week goes on you enjoy yourself more and more.