Stacy-Ann Sinclair – Analyst, Technology, London

My attention was brought to Investment Banking through a friend while I was at university. I found out Barclays Capital was hiring through a university careers website. I did my research on the company and remember thinking “This Barcap is going places; I want to be part of something great.” The fact that they were also one of the only banks that looked sturdy after the economic crisis hit made me feel confident that it was the place I wanted to work.

Technology was always my career path of choice, from studying for the IT Practitioner’s at college to my Computer Science degree at university. Throughout my education I have always envisioned working for a software company, which I pursued through internships and placements. I never considered an IT career in Investment Banking before speaking with a friend who had. In the summer of 2008 I discovered a new and exciting interest for the world of finance through an internship, where I worked on stimulating projects such as designing a system that identifies rogue trading. I had never thought about technology in this light before and the mixture of the two coupled with the environment makes it an absolutely fascinating experience.

During the following summer of 2009, I undertook an internship with Barclays Capital within Global Technology Market Data, which concreted my initial beliefs as to why I wanted to work in an investment bank. The environment was fast-paced, the people were smart, friendly and eager to help, and the pool of knowledge available is simply mind-blowing. I worked in that team for several months before making the transition onto Barcap’s highly involved graduate training programme in February 2010.

I am currently based in London and on my first (six months) rotation of three, undertaking a development role within Research IT Analytics. This is a vast contrast to my previous position (an advantage of the graduate programme). I now work with technologies such as C++, XML, SQL and SharePoint dev. My team works very closely with the Research team to develop analytical tools and industry-leading software that provides functionality such as trade ideas to our traders. My team is highly optimised, meaning project completion turnover is very high, with us recently contributing to the winning of the Best Research Portal award in the Profit and Loss Digital FX Awards 2010.

I am also on a Continuous Professional Education (CPE) program. This is apart of the graduate programme and runs parallel to my current role. The CPE ensures that my technical and business knowledge is continually being developed, which keeps me competitive and better equipped to do my job and any future roles I may take on.

From day one I have been involved in high impact projects. My role within Market Data helped to develop my project management skills by being involved in a cost-saving initiative project, cutting costs across market data globally. I had the opportunity to meet with senior members of the firm and had frequent face-to-face time with the business units. I was in charge of a project to discover, maintain and evaluate all the internal market data systems across the bank, which exercised my communication, analytical and problem-solving skills. The acquisition of a major investment bank provided an opportunity to be involved in a huge consolidation project to merge the market data management systems across both entities; this was a highly complex and challenging piece of work involving many different people from various locations.

In Research IT, most of my work involves the improvement of Barclays Capital Live, a web portal used by both internal and external clients. I have been given an individual project to create the team collaboration site, which will host all our data.

A typical day for me looks similar to the following:

The role of my team is to provide analytical research data to the bank and its clients through a variety of desktop and web applications.

On a daily basis I interact mostly with my team members and members from the global research team for requirements gathering, testing, etc.

My favourite aspects of my job are the amount of new things I am learning and the fact that I see my work as valuable and appreciated.

Rotations are very useful and as graduates it’s a luxury we are very lucky to have. Working in different teams gives such a new perspective on the bank, broadens your knowledge of how it all works together, improves your skills, allows you to gain more experience and confidence in your career, and extends your internal network across the bank.

Above all it gives you the opportunity to find a role that’s right for you before deciding where you’d like to be placed after the programme ends.

If you get the opportunity to be part of the graduate training programme, I would highly recommend taking it! The training programme held in London was 1½ months long and consisted of graduates from all over the world and from different business areas.

Prior to starting my role, I was very concerned that coming from a technology background with very little knowledge about finance would put me at a disadvantage. However, the graduate programme addressed this and after successfully completing the programme this was no longer a concern for me.

Among the many advantages of interning and being on the graduate programme is the ability to work in different teams and take on different roles before deciding on where you’d like to work permanently. This is a wonderful opportunity as not only do you get a taste of different areas of the bank, you greatly develop your knowledge of how all the systems and business areas interrelate, which helps you to see the bigger picture. You gain a real depth of knowledge, feel more experienced and confident in your career and, most importantly, you get a better view of what works and what definitely doesn’t work for you.

The skills needed for my role are:

• Good communicator (both oral and written)
• Sound technical abilities
• Able to pick up new technologies easily
• Be inquisitive, ask questions!
• Attention to detail
• Ability to respond and cope with changing priorities.

My greatest challenge so far is the learning curve. The nature of the business and the structure of the programme mean that you constantly need to learn something new and this is not always an easy thing to do and get right. However, this is also an appealing aspect of my job!

The culture of the bank is great. It really feels like a flat structure. You can very easily approach and converse with incredibly senior members of staff and this is encouraged. Barclays Capital is one of the only companies that I know of where its employees often get so much personal interaction with its CEO. Regarding work/life balance, this is led from the extreme top downwards: Bob Diamond cannot stress enough how important this is and to make sure we enjoy life. We also have a ‘No Jerk’ policy and he rings it home every chance he gets!

I am never bored for things to do. If it’s not after-work drinks with my team, previous teams (maintaining previous relationship is very important!), or others from the graduate programme I am taking part in corporate sports competing with other banks. I was happy to discover I had a huge range of sports, social and volunteering activities to satisfy my needs.

This is not only a great way to do something I enjoy but it also gives me the opportunity to extend my network, not just internally. It makes me try something new now and then; I have dragon boat racing practice and orienteering next week!

Graduates should join Barclays Capital because its training programme is truly world-class, highly involved and very relevant, and it will prepare you well prior to joining your desk. Its people are some of the best in the business: very smart, friendly and willing to help you get up to speed. Not only do you get trained up on the Initial Training Program (ITP) but throughout your career as well.

If you have never considered a career in investment banking, then maybe it’s time you did! The environment is fast-paced; you’ll never be bored; the challenges are great; and the sense of personal achievement is even greater!

You have a supportive pool of people and resources around you, designed to bring out your best. At Barcap we have a clear goal and it feels like everyone is working towards that; this is a great atmosphere to be working in.