PCB Summer Intern Review

Highly enjoyable and challenging. I was thrown in serious real work for a permanent analyst at Barclays which was exciting. They will not give you the typical intern mundane tasks. I have gained immense insight into my business and other areas. Perhaps more importantly, I now have an understanding of how things works at a big organisation like this one and know how to approach work accordingly. Essentially, whats interesting is that you are able to drive your own tasks and efforts and have freedom to determine where you want to focus within the scope of the objective of the line manager. I think its alot down to you, you can be extremely busy (like I have been) doing multiple things and sponging up everything or you can choose to follow the strict objective path which both will give good training. What was interesting about working here is that there is a constant work on projects long and short + adhoc things and then all the events which is something you will learn to balance. It was really cool to gain insight into how the different areas ties together and meet people from other areas - this programme is a great oppertunity to find out which business you want to pursue

Very much so, I felt like I was 100 % part of the team. Much of my interactions and work was with people outiside my team, attending meetings and collaborating and they treated me like a normal barclays employee. People really do respect you but in return they also expect you to add value. This is not an internship where you can get away with not doing real work which supports your colleauges.

This really depends on your line manager, some like to micro manage other like least communciation as possible. For me it was the latter, so we had our dailiy catch up meeting where i outlined my week and progress on the work i was doing and he would confirm/give feedback into that. Essentially, at the start i was told i asked too many questions so he wanted me to be more independent and this really worked as I drove my own work, i was working without any guidance rather a confirmation of i was going in the right direction. There was however plenty of support/guidance and advice from people i was working with and they were the experts in the field so was great.

Extremely so, i think its partly due to myself for pursuing soo much as well as being packed with HR events to make the most out of it. Many times had no time to leave desk and no lunch etc. many late nights around 9 pm... this was my deceision and i know most interns left around 5/6 pm, i just initated a lot for myself, which was something i wanted to make the most out of the time.

As outlined earlier, massively so. Sometimes I felt it was way too much expected of me but as i progressed i understood my role and how to handle that.

I have learnt a lot about stakeholder managment skills, which i think are essential to be successfull in any career (never heard of this expression before the internship). I have also learnt about time managment prioritisation and being to the point and succint in pitches. I have learnt so much about processes, project managment, regulations and commercial awareness wihtin the bank and wider industry. I will this has been a gamechanger to develop my career.

Very nice people and friendly environment

Very organised on HR part but moore loose in team

HR put on amazing training sessions which really supported insight into the bank

Definately. This organisation offer oppertunites to grow, different areas and roles. I would love to get on a graduate scheme.

Yes, a lot drinks after work

Expensive but the pay was substanial

its CW so ok