Hear from Matthew as he shares his experiences as Technology summer intern

I have spent 9 weeks at Radbroke Hall in Cheshire working as an Emerging Technologist in the Cards API-Factory. Coming from a non-technical background in Chemical Engineering, I was slightly apprehensive about beginning my internship. This worry was in vain as I have been surrounded by many layers of support from other interns to Directors. Best of all, I really feel like I have utilised transferable skills I learnt during my course such as project management, problem solving, attention to detail and using various modelling programmes.

From undertaking objectives that have made a real difference to how work is completed during API development to meeting a great bunch of friends, my time at Barclays has been unparalleled.

The Cards API-Factory build domain aligned REST API services for consumers, for example the digital channels in the bank such as Retail Online Banking. To achieve this domain aligned production, I used a product called JIRA to design and implement a new workflow process that allowed for planning and management of APIs from design to release. I was involved with supporting the transition to the new workflow, presenting and answering questions to a team of around 50 from here in Cheshire, Northampton and Pune in India. The fact that I was given this level of responsibility during an internship shows Barclays commitment to creating opportunities to rise and is something I am grateful for.

 A further objective has been to produce conceptual Class Diagrams of the API-Factory domains from Microservice API specifications. This is to help colleagues understand the scope of each domain and how different domains can communicate with each other without looking through multiple layers of code. Coming from a zero-knowledge base, I was supported fully through it and have learnt how I learn best – through application and trial and error.

If there’s anything you didn’t understand when you read this, not to worry, at the start of my internship I didn’t even know what an API was!

Further to my objectives, working at Radbroke Hall gives many opportunities to get outside the office with 20 acres of grounds to explore. I was involved with the touch rugby and submitted a team of interns in to a charity event on the field supporting the Samaritans. We won’t talk about the rugby result but £480 was raised for a good cause.