Pros
- If you join Barclays, chances are that you will be working with people from at least two different countries, sometimes even different time zones. Great opportunity to learn and hone your English skills (it's a must-have anyways)
- Great variety of financial and IT-related skills to pick up on the fly, depending on the team you joined
- You will gain insight to one of the biggest investment banks in the world, a brand recognized in the UK and US mostly
- Good salary, and other benefits, sick days, vacation (in Europe at least).
- HR (and generally everyone, with some exceptions) is helpful if you need assistance
- most people, including managers, are nice to work with, especially within IT
- varies by the team and month, but generally speaking, IT jobs can be pretty relaxed, Barclays has quality pressure on you, not time pressure. (quality over quantity)
- as an IB, the company is performing well, their quarterly results are public, and you can expect this to be long-term employment. It's not unusual to see people working there for 3+ years. There are regular promotion evaluations, although it's difficult to get promoted, it does happen if you perform well above the expected
Cons
- with big multinational company comes big multinational issues, policies, mandatory training (potentially) completely unrelated to your job, slow and painful procedures (just to ensure everything is fine, so it has some quality assurance benefits, I know)
- things can feel slow the further you are from trading floors
