Personal & Corporate Banking and Barclaycard Summer Intern Review

The internship was a graet way for me to gain an insight into a career at Barclays, network with different people from junior and senior levels, and build long lasting friendships with other interns

All of my ideas/suggestions where welcomed and I always felt like I was working with the team and not for them. This made me felt like a proper employee and not just an intern

My manager and I had weekly meetings to discuss how I was doing and what he could do to help me progress. I always felt like I could approach my manager if I has any issues

I always had 2-3 pieces of work to do at any one time, however I still had some time to network with and meet people from other business areas. There were some days where I had back to back meetings/events, and other days where I would be sat at my desk the whole time, working on presentations or doing excel analysis. It varied throughout the internship

II was given work to do that really added value to the team such as researching a market that they hadn't looked at before or review some of the tariffs they charge clients. A lot of the work that I did contributed to the team's decision making in terms of what their strategy should be in the next year

My excel skills have developed a lot since being here which will help me in almost any role within banking and finance. I've had to present my work a few times which has made me more confident. I've also learnt to keep a detailed work plan, to help me manage my time effectively, and this should definitely help me in my final year of university.

There was a really friendly atmosphere and everyone seems approachable

It was well structured and there was a wide range of events for us to attend. It would have been helpful if these events were organised well in advance rather than each week, so that we could have more time to plan work around the events

We had two days of training whereas most other firms give interns a week of training, however the two days were very intensive and focused on soft skills and technical skills.. During the internship there were a number of opportunities for personal development through the work that I was assigned and through external activities such as the Citizenship Challenge

I would definitely accept an offer for the graduate programme. Barclays is full of really great people and is really values focused. The graduate programme is rotational which really appeals to me because its such a huge bank and I'd love to get more exposure to different areas

The Personal & Corporate Banking and Barclaycard interns were really close. We had a group message and people were always organising things to do outside of work hours, and planning what to do for lunch. They were all so lovely and really made the internship enjoyable for me. My team and I had 2 team socials during my time at Barclays. This was a really good way to get to know one another and build stronger connections.

I lived at home with my family for the duration of the internship so didn't have to worry about rent. A lot of interns who had to rent a place for the summer paid up to £2,000 for 9/10 weeks There are lots of restaurants/bars in Canary Wharf and although they weren't cheap, they weren't as expensive as I thought they would be.

In the evenings, there was a nice buzz as all the bars would be filled with people. It was a good way to wind down after work, but there isn't a big clubbing scene in the area, so people would have to travel somewhere else for that.

Barclays has a huge number of sports clubs and a number of interns got involved, particularly in football. Extra activities were organised for interns such as the Citizenship Challenge (working on a charity project) and networking events. There's always lots to do around Canary Wharf too - they showed Wimbledon on big screens on the grass and sometimes a stage would be set up and people would perform.