Summer Internship - Equity and Prime Trading Review

I am very content with what I have learnt in the two months I have spent on a rotational internship at Barclays (Equity and Prime Trading). The work environment is both challenging and supportive and while there is obviously a significant amount of work involved I didn't really mind as I was really enjoying it. The best part is that I got motivated to extend my knowledge in other fields I would have never otherwise considered, such as coding and banking regulation.

Very. Being on a trading desk everyone is really busy during the market hours, but they still took time to answer my questions and what I really appreciated - to check up on me regularly, observe and guide my progress. After the market closes, when everyone relaxes a bit, we are chatting and joking around and it happened quite often that I stayed late in the office just because I was having a good time with the team. I felt valued by the surrounding desks as well, for instance when I was allowed to help with a more complicated trading idea even though that meant extra work for them as they had to explain everything to me first etc.

Again, traders sometimes don't even have time to get up from their desks to grab food, for managers it's even harder. Despite that, I received excellent support from my line manager and several managing directors. They sat down with me to explain the business, to give me guidance and often just because I needed advice on unrelated matters, such as my plans for the next year. Also, when I received mixed feedback about my communication with the team they took the time to go over it with me and discuss where the problems might have been and what I could do to improve my relations with the others. All in all, everybody from analysts to the COO of Equities was very approachable and more than happy to give support and advice to the interns.

Very. Our day starts at about 6.30 am and usually ends at about 6-6.30 pm, we have lots of projects to work on that were given to us at the start of each month. Apart from that you're encouraged to go and sit at other trading and sales desks to get a better understanding of the department and there are also networking events and speaker series which are advisable to attend. Furthermore, Barclays offers the opportunity for interns to participate in a Citizenship challenge where we get paired up with a local charity and try to offer them assistance with problems that they are facing at the moment. If you want to do a proper job in helping them it will involve quite a bit of work, depending on the project, but it is also one of the most rewarding parts of the internship. Personally I preferred Trading to other internship opportunities in Banking because of the relatively short but more action-packed schedule.

Quite a bit. Part of my job was to propose trading ideas which would then be discussed with the analysts or work on small projects which were needed at the time (in Excel etc). It was enough to make me feel that I am contributing something to the activity of the desk and therefore be encouraged to perform well.

One of the first thing I learnt was how to analyze a company from the bottom up and put it in the context of its industry and macroeconomical environment. By doing this I gained an insight into a very wide range of industries and macroeconomical factors. I was also shown how to price and package products and even how the sales team pitches them to clients. Finally, I gained Excel, VBA and basic coding skills. Even though my internship was in trading, I believe all the skills I got exposed to would benefit me in fields from banking to consulting to working in the public sector or in international organisations, based on previous experience and hearing about the internships of friends.

It never gets dull. The atmosphere is casual and fun even though everybody is really busy. During market hours the traders have to concentrate intensively but towards the end of the day there's quite a bit of chatting and joking around on the desk as we finish up odd bits of work. This made work so much more enjoyable and me much more efficient.

Very. We got very detailed emails and frequent reminders of what we need to do so that everything runs smoothly. Even though it was my first time properly living in the UK, I had absolutely no problems with getting an UUN or opening a bank account due to this. My desk was able to organise a day for me to come and meet them before the internship even started. During the internship, our objectives and tasks were very clearly stated and questions to the HR were answered promptly. Also, numerous networking events were organised to ensure that every intern benefits from every aspect of the internship.

As mentioned, we had events where we got the chance to meet people from all over Barclays and also very senior people, who took time to get to know the interns personally. We then got to sit down for a talk with several Managing Directors. At least from my perspective this was extremely useful for my personal training as I received really good advice from them and they took an active interest in my development. Barclays offers us extensive mentoring as well. I had two mentors and a buddy from different parts of the Investment Bank who were very supportive profesionally but also always available to just have a casual chat. We also benefited from Barclays' Women Initiative Network, which organised specific networking events and speaker series aimed at female interns. The most useful part of it was getting to meet women in senior positions and finding out about job-specific struggles from their perspective. Many women working at Barclays are more than happy to be a mentor for incoming female interns.

I felt that the selection process for the internship was more rigurous than for other banks and it makes sense seeing how many resources they invested in us during the two months. Therefore, if you perform well and get along well with the team there shouldn't be any reason not to be able to convert the internship into a full-time job.

Yes, we had lots of intern events organised on a weekly basis either by the Investment Bank as a whole or by our respective department. We also got to meet interns from other parts of Barclays through the Citizenship Challenge. Everybody is really nice, I got along really well with the other Equity interns and even though there is some degree of competition, it didn't put a damp on our relationships.

Reasonably high. Canary Wharf is quite expensive but you can find accommodation in a 2-3 station range around it that is actually cheaper than in the rest of London. Bars and other socialising places aren't much pricier than elsewhere.

Yes, we got involved in working with a charity through the Intern Citizenship Challenge. Barclays also offers various sports & other hobbies groups.