10th May, 2010

The complementary breakfast was anything but that… A lavish spread of juices, fruits, bread, ham, sausages, mashed egg, quasedillo & cornflakes.
My friends had all of a sudden become my colleagues. Everyone looked every bit the corporate guy with their formals on. I looked at myself in the mirror. The face was still the same but the boy had graduated into a man, ready to take on the world.
This was to be our induction as interns into Barclays Capital. We reached SMU where another group of bright eyed “young adults” greeted us. People from diverse backgrounds- Pakistan, Srilanka, Malaysia, Australia and of course Singapore itself. It had the colours of a mini Asia Pacific Commomwealth summit. Over the course of the day, we got to know the organisation we were going to work for and each other better through various lectures and group activities that had been arranged . Some a little less interesting than the others as usual but it was fun at the end of the day simply because we felt so welcomed into Barclays Capital right from day one. I just hope that I am able to say the same in my last blog post. Btw, one very interesting and for us a humbling piece of information: Barclays is the first bank in the world to have introduced ATM’s . Not a bad place to intern at, heh.
The day finished off on an absolutely mindblowing note with the networking drinks session at the posh Raffles Hotel. My line manager unfortunately could not turn up but his representative was there. To tell you the truth, it really didn’t matter whether I got a chance to meet him or not. When you have unlimited free wine at your disposal and a host of exotic snacks to dig into, who cares. I just drowned myself into the pleasure of the moment. Had some nice conversation though with some of the other MD’s and VP’s getting a glimpse into what it means to be at the top of the investment banking business and what it takes to get there.
Office starts tomorrow at 9 am. It’s already pretty late and I have to sleep on an empty stomach. I don’t mind, though. Just looking forward to my first day at office tomorrow.