They've been hiring loads of graduates over the last couple of years, and it seems that teams just aren't prepared for them whatsoever. There is very little opportunities to get involved in real engaging software development work, and it's very easy to find yourself in a team where your role is the complete opposite of what you're looking for.
It's very easy to feel like you've been forgotten, and have little to no work to actually do. Combined with full remote working, the experience is very poor for a new graduate who is keen to get thrown into the deep end, and get stuck in and learn.
Most graduates were placed into random teams which did very little software engineering, and/or have been in a cycle of being told to do Pluralsight training for months on end.
It seems the opportunities to progress in the company in the short to medium term as a graduate are extremely limited. At the end of the graduate scheme, 'graduate' simply gets removed from your contract and you continue working as you were. Promotions to AVP seem extremely limited and hard to come by, and the route to get there seems long winded and just not worth the hassle.
If you are a keen hands on software engineer looking to learn a lot quickly, I would not recommend Barclays - despite the money being very good. It's far too easy to stagnate technically, and/or learn the complete wrong tech skills which the industry generally looks for.
