Stephanie Crombie

Did you do an internship before joining?
Before I joined Barclays Wealth I did two internships. One in shipping and the other in Barclays finance.

What have you been doing since you joined?
Thus far, since I joined, I have worked with the regional investment director for London and I have worked in the structure development team.

What support and training have you received?
Since I’ve joined Barclays Wealth I’ve had numerous amounts of support and training. We’ve dome the IMC which is the Investment Management Certificates and that was completed within the first eight weeks of when we joined. Since then we have begun the CFA which is the Chartered Financial Analyst Programme, and it is a three year programme and we receive classes once a week which help us towards the exams which happen once per year. And, more than that, we have done the mentoring programme in which we receive a mentor who helps us develop our careers over our course on the graduate programme.

Can you describe what your current role entails?
Currently I work in structural product development so on a day-to-day basis we develop products that would suit private clients based on the markets. On a day-to-day basis we price them; we develop ideas to reflect current market conditions. The term sheets that we then produce are presented to clients to give them ideas of what they could include in their investments and their portfolios that they hold with us here at Barclays Wealth.

What are some of the most interesting projects you have been involved with?
Thus far I have gotten involved in obviously two separate roles in the business. So, working with the Regional Investment Director, I assisted her with in working and developing her portfolio management team, so that was by far a very interesting project. It gave me a very hands-on experience of what it takes to run an actual team and that was great. Now, when I work in structural product development the clients that we work with, the things that we work on, are on a more general level so we will be developing products that could be sold to clients in one stream of the business such as the UK Private Bank or the International Private Bank. But we also work on bespoke deals so we will develop products that we feel may be appropriate for one type of client and if a client comes directly to us and says this is what we like then we can develop that also, so I find the bespoke aspect of the business very, very interesting and because the nature of the clients these days are very sophisticated it means you are quite challenged by the request that they have.

What did you do yesterday?
There is no such thing as a typical day at work but yesterday I did some financial modellings on the distributions of a product that we will be launching. I also did some term sheets for a new product that we will be launching with the Wealth International Channel and I did some meetings on a new product sign off for FX products in Jersey.

What qualities do you need to work here?
To work in Barclays Wealth you need to be innovative, ambitious, and flexible. The nature of the business and the nature of the markets that we work in now are that you need to adapt to situations that occur on a day-to-day basis. Things change and you need to change with them and because we are growing so quickly, it means that you must be able to adapt to what’s going on around you.

What’s it like working here?
Thus far, working at Barclays Wealth has been phenomenal. The people around you are stimulating and there is a culture of excellence. It breeds excellence and it makes you want to be better because the people around you, especially those senior to you, are so good at what they do, they are so excellent in their fields and they are specialists at what they do and that’s what makes you want to be as good as them and to continue the legacy Barclays Wealth is trying to create.

Why should someone come and work at Barclays Wealth?
I would persuade someone to come and work here because of the nature of the business. It is going so fast and developing so quickly, that you as an Analyst, even as an Analyst, have the ability to make such a difference to what you are doing and your opinions and your thoughts are considered probably more heavily than they would in other firms.

What excited you about your future here?
What excites me about my future here is the opportunity to make a difference in the long run and that is probably the greatest aspect about working at Barclays Wealth.