Barclays - Analyst Barclays Employee Review

Every employee who joins the company has to wait a minimum of 2-3 weeks before they get their systems access (sometimes more) so be prepared to sit around for a while when you start. Worst HR function of any company - nearly every colleague will experience missed or incorrect pay at least once in their time here. The true culture of this company is all about gains in the short term at the expense of long term losses be that by making staff redundant unnecessarily or paying for cheap systems that don't do the job they're supposed to do. This is why Barclays is struggling and will only struggle further in the future, expect this company to go under in about 5 years time. Be prepared to learn at least 3 to 5 different acronyms relating to the company's hollow values which change every year and can never be realised due to the aforementioned issues. The company has gone from one extreme of being a cut-throat organisation that was all about numbers to the other extreme of a company that now pretends to be a humanitarian aid charity (its still all about the numbers) - no basis in reality and why it will continue to fail. Absolutely no commitment to any kind of coherent business strategy, in some areas of the business the name of the department you work for and your job title will change at least once a year if not more. The internal organisation of the company is an inefficient constantly fluctuating mess. For any job you do at Barclays be prepared to earn at least £5000-£10,000 more in Lloyds, Nationwide or even in a smaller company for the same role, Barclays prefers to hire cheap. Intelligent staff don't last long and move into more reputable companies that pay their employees better, idiots stay behind and learn to hone the key skill of BS which is the only real way of getting far here. The company expects to own you for a really low wage compared to others, if you get paid more than £32,000 be prepared to lose evenings, weekends, sleep and your partner. If you get paid anything below this you will should have a good work life balance. Being actually good at your job will only ensure that your managers keep you in your position for as long as possible which is why Barclays prefer to hire external management candidates over experienced and competent frontline staff. Only about 15-20% of the employees in this company are fit for their roles, the rest are incompetent; there are many Project Managers with no qualifications or previous experience, Analysts with no skills in Excel and don't understand the nature of their roles and Managers who don't understand the departments they're managing and delegate every aspect of their work to frontline staff. The company is rife with parasitism. Generally the company is less racist compared to others, any racism is only ever localised as there are a lot of individuals from ethnic minorities evenly spread throughout the business however they tend to only hire Muslim women who dress, how shall we say, 'liberally' - there aren't many headscarves about. Sexism is rampant, there are a lot of older women in senior positions but male managers will routinely act inappropriately towards younger female members of staff. The management staff generally fall into two general categories; the first are poorly qualified individuals who have been there since before the 2008 financial crisis, have slowly risen the ranks by default and hence owe everything they have to the business, aren't likely to leave unless they get pushed out and are generally brainwashed drones of the cult of Barclays, there is a strange cultish mentality around corporate grades and how people are treated based on them. The second kind are also poorly qualified individuals who have come in from the cold and hired directly into management positions, they have no real experience except for a couple year long management positions in other companies, are good liars and have to parasitically leech off competent staff beneath them - the latter tend not to last very long and usually jump into a management position in another company after a year or so (repeating the same lies). Due to the abysmal hiring processes in the bank the wrong people are hired time and time again. Hiring is a continuous process with staff constantly leaving for better jobs or being made redundant and then the business having to be re-hire their positions again after realising their roles were vital. Internal mobility does happen but it is very slow due to the fact that the company does not put any real investment training its current staff. The company would rather hire a stranger from outside who has the role qualification they need over investing in someone trusted who possesses everything needed in a good employee sans the required qualification for a higher job. Be prepared to hear a lot of BS regarding personal development. Only consider this company if there is absolutely nothing else available in your area.