Intern in PCB and Barclaycard Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship it gave a huge insight into the finance industry and the opportunities/ various job roles that are available within a bank. It enabled me to assess various divisions within a bank and understand what areas I enjoyed/disliked

The colleagues were great. My direct team made sure that over the first few weeks I understood what the team did and how they fitted within the division and the wider bank. I was then expected to deliver research that added value to the team

The managers of my team were open to my ideas and sometimes acted upon ideas I gave them. I felt very included. Also HR put on a huge number of events for the interns so that they understood the different areas of the bank: personal, corporate, wealth and Barclaycard. You could reach out to either for help and support.

I was kept very busy on a day to day basis. Typically my day would start between 8:30am and 9am. I would leave the office aorund 5:30pm. I would constantly be in team meetings, researching for my project and updating the team. When I was not doing this I was busy building my network and meeting other teams across the bank to understand what they did.

A huge amount of responsibility. My project I conducted alone with guidance and inputs from my team over the 9 weeks. However it was up to me to project manage and to present my findings to senior stakeholders.

I have finished my degree. However the skills I have learnt I will keep with me. I learnt project management skills, PowerPoint and excel skills, presentation skills. I also learnt to have confidence in my own ability and my own intiative. The internship made me improve my networking capabilities and taught me the improtance of building a network.

The atmosphere had a buzz. Everyone was very friendly and had a genuine interest in what role you were doing. People were willing to help and provide support with work related problems. But also people wanted to socialise and talk about non-work activities.

The internship was incredibly well organised. Interns had a reasonable amount of training before being placed in the offices. The managers knew about the interns joining the team and made the interns feel very welcomed and special. There were regular checkpoints with HR throughout the internship to ensure you were getting on well. HR organised lots of talks and seminars to expand interns knowledge of the bank

Very appealing. You can learn a lot and there is a huge opportunity to move aorund the bank to find the area you are best at. The grad program is rotational which helps you do this.

Yes, the interns would go for drinks every friday (this is optional). It was a fun place to work and Canary Wharf is a great place for drinks after work