My final week of work at Barclays Bank Suisse, has left me with an immense feeling of achievement and of privilege! As our last week began, my primary concern was finishing off any loose ends on my current tasks which still needed that last bit of detail before being presented to Alastair, and to Warren McRae. In order that my analysis of the Citi reports for Barclays Bank Suisse, for the months of May, June and July, be more succinct, I worked on producing a report which highlighted an overview of the main issues and concerns which arose in the course of these past three months. Identifying those main clusters of trades which had failed to settle, or had required repair or had settled late, costing Barclays Wealth consider amounts, meant I was able to indicate the solutions to the numerous trends of problems which were regularly surfacing for within the Operations Team in Geneva. Further, Henry and I both had to finalise our presentation of our fee discounting task which we both had been working on over the past 8 weeks! This required us to consider what was the most effective way to format our findings in relation to client discounts from the various teams at Barclays, as well as to consider what measures we believed each team could implement in order that reporting of client discounts be uniform and easily accessible to all. On Thursday, we met with Alastair and Warren to each present our individual task, as well as our joint project. Of course we had been nervous in anticipation of this final presentation, however any anxiety had been unnecessary, the response to our work was extremely encouraging! Both Warren and Alastair recognised how hard we had both worked, and that the excellent work we had produced would prove very helpful. They both also commented on the positive influence Henry and I had made on the Operations Team during our time in Geneva. Our farewell on Friday proved more emotional than I had anticipated! Saying our goodbyes, exchanging contact details, and making promises to keep in touch with everyone, our team presented Henry and I with gifts and cards, thanking us for our input over those past 8 weeks. Their generosity really made me feel like I had made an impact, and that we really had become one of the team during our internship!
Overall, my 8 weeks working in Barclays Wealth, Geneva has been an incredible experience. It has challenged me on so many different levels and has enabled me to grow personally in ways I could not have anticipated. If I had been told three months ago that I would have been carrying out all the variety of projects to completion that I have, I would not have believed them! I have grown in confidence and feel able to take on a whole new range of challenges! I want to express my thanks to all at the Saltire Foundation and at Barclays Wealth for providing me with such an amazing opportunity.