Meet an intern

Why did you decide to do an internship?
I decided to do an internship for two main reasons. The first was that I wanted to get some experience in the field I thought that I wanted to go into, and second, I wanted to see what Barclays was like as an organisation, so I thought an internship would be the best way of doing that.

Why did you decide that Barclays Wealth was the right place to do this?
I applied to about eleven banks in total. Barclays had a fantastic reputation but I think the most important thing about Barclays is just the fact that it is growing and the people I have met have been fantastic. Not only through intern fairs and careers fairs at university but also coming down to London and meeting people in interviews, fantastic relationship, really enjoyed it.

Can you briefly describe what the internship involved?
The internship for me was broken down into about four main sections. Mine was a little bit different to a lot of peoples. I actually had the opportunity to work for the CEO, Tom Kalaris, which was a fantastic opportunity and that formed the back bone of my internship for about six weeks. I also did a statistical project on the stock market working out FTSE returns, and then the rest of my time was more focused on learning what private bankers do, seeing clients and learning the different roles around the organisation.

What support and training did you receive during the internship?
When we began the internship we had two or three days of very intensive training, learning about the organisation, what we would be doing, how we were expected to do it, and then we were put into our desk on Wednesday. After that we received on the job training every Wednesday, and that would be more in the form of product knowledge and learning more about industry specifics and then most of the rest of the training was through the people you work with, with the team supporting you.

What qualities do you think you need to work in Barclays Wealth?
I think that the most important quality is inter-personal skills. I think logic and analysis and things like that, and team work especially is important, but inter-personal skills, I think, are the things that really make a difference in Barclays Wealth particularly.

How would you describe the experience of working at Barclays Wealth?
The experience I would say is a very interesting one. I studied finance as a major at Warwick University but I think that the ten week internship that I was did was fantastic because it enabled me to learn and go over everything I had learnt in the last year of finance that I had done, which is incredible, because I think I learnt as much in that ten weeks as I had in my degree up to that point.

In one sentence, how would you persuade someone to come and do an internship here?
I would say that an internship is great experience, its good to not only find out about the industry but also about the company that you are working for. I think that it is essential to do that before you go into any organisation.

What made you decide to return to Barclays Wealth, having completed an internship?
I think there are two main things, they kind of interlink, but the first is the people. Everyone that I worked with was fantastic, my manager was great, the HR people were fantastic in helping us really settle in and secondly the management really did take an interest in you. As in intern I got to meet ten senior directors of the company including the CEO and I haven’t heard of any other places that enable you to do that. So that was the winning factor for me.