Barclays Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Barclays

Pros – Some of the benefits are okay, including the 30 days holiday and car allowance.
Good opportunity to learn corporate banking principles and then high tail it out of there to another bank

Cons – Culture is not very professional, with too many personalities not pulling in the same direction (ie focusing on delivering value for the company).
Pay is not great compared to other organisations, particularly for senior programme manager roles
Line management is awful - feedback sessions are not specific and almost impossible to act on feedback.
Although there is a lot said about Topgrading and 360 degree feedback during the interviews - none of these were ever used once working for Barclays Corporate.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Barclays

Pros – 35 hour working week, generous holiday allowance, provision for flexible working, brand recognition, and extremely supportive redundancy/relocation package.

Cons – A large company has to work in a certain way, and Barclays are no exception - there is a lot of 'pidgeonholing' of job roles, and the company is so large it's hard to stand out.
As a large company, they tend to be a little more inclined to consider 'staff' as 'human resources' - something to be relocated and redeployed to fit in with a strategy.

Advice to Senior Management – A manager is not the same thing as a person with the right technical skills. There's a good selection of managers within Barclays, but they're not there in all segments of the organization.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Barclays

Pros – Great opportunity to gain some experience for your CV and work out whether Barclays is a good company to work for in the long term - Barclays was very welcoming however there was mixed review on how good everybodys placements were.

Cons – Some worked alot harder than others - some people were neglected, so it is up to you to make the placement what you want it to be!

Advice to Senior Management – More organisation required for the Grad scheme and better organisation and standardisation of review at the end of the placement.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Barclays

Pros – Work-life balance
Competitive salary
Relatively open culture
Open communication

Cons – Politics
Bureacracy
Frequent changes in senior management Strategy
Infrastructure organisation in a mess and difficult to navigate
Motivation issues amongst employees

Advice to Senior Management – Sort out the Infrastructure organisation and be consistent in leadership strategy and decision making,

Current Employee – been working at Barclays

Pros – flexibility of working hours
plesant offices
relaxed
good compensation packages
401
group work
good managment
take leave
good canteen staff
excellent facilities

Cons – long hours
tight deadlines
some poor managment skills
understaffed
busy ebviroment

poor leadership skills.
incompetent staff
sexism
foul language used
bullying

Advice to Senior Management – keep up the good work . could be better and more understanding of employees needs . and deal with bullys better,

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Barclays

Pros – Nice enough people for a big corporate, was a good team feel until the axe came, and communication from management was ok compare to other places

Cons – Lack of job growth and opportunities. Lack of salary reviews - only 1 a year. Pretty bad project delivery due to disparate IT departments

Advice to Senior Management – Establish career paths for members of staff. Increase salary review periods and invest more in training and professional development

Former Employee – worked at Barclays

Pros – Competitive pay and benefits, good team ethic, knowledgeable staff. Management willing to listen reasonable to career development requests. Scope for internal movement.

Cons – Inexperienced middle management can cause unnecessary tension and office politics. From an software development perspective there's a lot of red tape surrounding releases and little scope to use bleeding edge technologies (although both of these are to be expected at a bank).

Advice to Senior Management – If promoting from within, provide better training or mentoring for middle management.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Barclays

Pros – There are loads of company perks, plenty of cross department moving opportunity and is also extremely equalitarian company to work for.

Cons – Loads of bureaucracy however and not necessarily the brightest people in. Sometimes it will be hard to drive your career how you would want it

Advice to Senior Management – Management is strange. Some people seem extremely capable and driving the company to success but scattered with highly inoperant people as well.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Barclays

Pros – Hard working and good people. Occasionally felt bored and a little unnecssary, as the promote the superstars, and not everyone else

Cons – domination, and how are you supposed to advance from a young stage if you are not guided by the management at all?

Advice to Senior Management – work harder to integrate your team, otherwise it's a bit useless as new people are somewhat pariahed, which is never good

Current Employee – been working at Barclays

Pros – Nice restaurant + a safe haven during the downturn.

Cons – Poor talent development, weak HR. Senior management not as good as they think. Micromanagement.

Advice to Senior Management – If you're going to cut costs...just make sure you set an example!