Internship Spotlight: Linnea Andersson, Barclays

Linnea Andersson '22 BSBA (Management Information Systems) was a Technology Analyst Intern at Barclays in Whippany, New Jersey.

What was the process of getting this internship, job, or summer experience?

Landing an internship as an international student is extremely challenging and requires a lot of extra research to make sure you are not wasting your time. Yet, last fall I was lucky to receive a scholarship to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration for women in tech virtually, and through that, I connected with Barclays. After a few assessments and interviews, I was offered the position.

What was a typical day like?

The internship consisted of a mixture of project-based work on my team, networking/speaker events, and a few smaller event planning tasks related to the program as a whole. I would work at the office Tuesday-Thursday, and these days were usually filled with panel speakers, networking, and meetings. Mondays and Fridays were more fit for progress on my project or to work through training modules.

What was your favorite part of the experience?

All the networking opportunities. Within my division, GTIS (global technology infrastructure services), everyone from early-careers people up to directors and even the department head were all interested to get to know us, hearing about our experiences, and helping us in any way they could. 

One of my absolute favorite experiences was when I had the chance to together with 3 people sit down with the bank's CIO for a 15-minute chat.

If you worked on a big project, please describe it below:

I was on the SharePoint administration team, but my main project for the summer was around Power Automate, a Microsoft platform that allows for low-code automation between different parts of M365. My main flow took a daily report coming in through email, transferred it to a Sharepoint list, and posted a message in a Teams channel with the new items for the day. The old, manual process to do this would take about 4h/week, and the new, completely automatic flow's run time was about 4min/week, 6,000% faster.

After the end of my project, I used my newfound knowledge of Power Automate to create a company-wide guide of my flow, help with real incidents around the software, and demo the software to other interns and full-time employees.

What did you find most challenging?

I think the most challenging part for me was the switch of mindset where the project I was faced with didn't necessarily have a set solution, and because the software was pretty new to the company as a whole, I didn't really have anyone to ask for help. I think in school we become so accustomed to the fact that there is a set way to do things and that is the only correct way, but while working on my project I was faced with issues where I didn't even know if they had a solution. It was definitely a valuable lesson to learn that reality isn't as black and white.

What did you learn?

I really got to specialize in Power Automate, a software I had never even heard of prior to coming into the internship, but I also learned about the importance of networking. Throughout the entire internship, full-time employees of all levels preached about the value of networking, and how you will not climb internally without a strong network.

What advice do you have for other students looking for a similar experience, or advice for future students to be successful?

Coming into my internship, I was almost proud of the fact that I didn't have to network to get it, but instead just "did it on my own". I quickly learned that this is not something to brag about, but rather a disadvantage. Others had already connected with a few full-timers and were able to use these connections to grow their network within the company further. I also felt less comfortable in networking situations at the beginning of the internship, and wish I would've practiced that in low-pressure situations, such as college networking events. 

So in summary, I would say: practice networking as much as you can while you're in college, network prior to the internship even if you don't get a referral, and know that networking doesn't stop outside of college, quite the opposite actually.

How did Eller Prepare you for this experience?

I think all the social and collaborative aspects of Eller really helped with feeling more comfortable working on a team and networking across the company. I also felt very comfortable presenting to a room of people during our final presentations. 

Did you feel supported by the company or organization you worked with?

Absolutely. The division I worked in is doing a large push to increase the number of women in tech at Barclays as a whole, which led to a lot of support from higher management. Me and another female intern in our division had weekly lunches with directors and other women within the division, who shared advice and experiences they've had as women working in technology and banking, two extremely male-dominated fields. These conversations really became the foundation for my self of belonging at the company, and I will carry them with me wherever I go in the future