Each summer, students from the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics gain valuable professional-level exposure through internships. This year, young scholars were able to traverse the complications of COVID-19 by pursuing an array of internships, externships and other professional development opportunities. Each profile of this series will detail a Lerner student’s experiences working remotely on business-oriented projects.
Finn Lasse Reese, a Class of 2021 MBA in business analytics student, spent his summer working remotely as a credit strategy intern at Barclaycard US, a Barclay’s Bank subsidiary.
Q: How did you find out about and choose this internship?
Lasse Reese: On a Handshake graduate internship program listing.
Q: How did the coronavirus response impact your internship search and working experience?
Lasse Reese: I am working entirely remotely. I have a company laptop and remote connection, but it took me almost two months to get access to most of what I needed to do day-to-day operations. COVID-19 has put some huge barriers of receiving proper training and proper setup in my way but as the internship is progressing, I am learning a lot more and have adjusted to the situation, which likely will continue for a while longer.
Q: What did you learn through this internship that you don’t think you would have learned anywhere else?
Lasse Reese: Many things. I have experience in the technical skills required to work my job, but the credit card business as a whole is new to me. Also, patience is a key factor that one learns when dealing with COVID-19 adjustments.
Q: What is the most exciting project or task that you have undertaken in your role?
Lasse Reese: I don’t want to disclose too much, but we are revamping a program within my department and I am very involved in it, which will affect millions of customers across the U.S. and have a positive effect on the bank moving forward, so I am excited to be involved in a project this big.
Q: What is an example of a time you were able to apply something you learned at Lerner to your role?
Lasse Reese: I have learned many technical skills within the areas of programming and analytics, which I am using on a daily basis in the internship.
Q: How do you think this internship will help you with your professional goals?
Lasse Reese: I am hoping to stay with Barclays full-time upon my graduation. If there aren’t any open roles, I think the internship is putting me into a great position to join other big banks and be successful.