First Year Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the placement and exposure I was given in the commercial banking sector. All of my colleagues were extremely supportive in my development and the HR team were very supportive as well in ensuring I saw all areas of the bank. I also made friends with a few of my fellow interns so I have grown my professional network which I believe to be very useful.

My colleagues made me feel extremely welcome and I couldn't have wished for a better team to work with. One day some of the relationship managers took me down to a bar in the afternoon and we spent the rest of the day there. In addition to this I was invited to the out of office olympics event which was for team building purposes. This and the general treatment I received made me feel really valued at HSBC.

From my first sit down meeting with my manager on my first day I was very well supported by him. I believe he went above and beyond to ensure I got a lot of experience out of my internship. He organised and authorised trips to different divisions within commercial banking such as credit and the business banking sampling team. From this, I believe I achieved a well rounded experience.

For the majority of the time I was busy and had projects to be working on. However, I always had time to go and speak to people around the office and find out about their roles and paths their careers have taken. The times I was sat twiddling my thumbs were few and far between and even then, I managed to fill my time by exploring the intranet and enhancing my product knowledge further.

I don't think I was given a great deal of responsibility during my retail banking and wealth management placement despite it being my third time returning to the branch. However, I understand that this is because of compliance and internal regulation but it just meant I was repeating the same stuff that I had done in previous years. In my commercial placement I was allowed to go on client visits with the relationship managers and speak with the clients myself which was extremely good.

Too early to say.

One of the best things about working for HSBC was the teams I was in. I could honestly class a few of them as my friends. It was a extremely laid back atmosphere and there was no job level issues with senior managers being extremely pleasant with those with lower level jobs which was great to see. I even felt comfortable having 'banter' with them myself which is a testament to how inclusive the teams I worked with were.

I believe the internship was well organised. A two day induction then four weeks in one rotation followed by a volunteering day in East London at a primary school where we built a forest garden for them. After that, we proceeded onto our second rotation for a further four weeks before we went to Canary Wharf for our farewell event. My only complaint is the time at the beginning of the internship spent sorting out IT issues as I believe it would make more sense to have this arranged before we start. However, I understand this is the probably the case within all large matrix organisations.

At both the induction event and the farewell event we had team building activities which I believe improved my interpersonal skills and team work skills. Aside from that we had weekly 'Lunch N Learn' conference calls which was where senior managers from different areas of the bank given talks and hosting Q&A's on their specific area of expertise. I believe this was a great way of getting exposure to extremely senior employees and being able to ask them questions.

I have been offered a position on the Commercial Banking penultimate year summer internship programme for next year which I intend to accept. From this, providing I receive good feedback and achieve at least a 2:1 in my degree I believe I will be able to get a graduate job with HSBC.

In London it seemed like there was a lot of social events going on for the interns however, there was next to nothing for those in the regions due geographical difficulties. Therefore, I believe that if you are located in London then you will have a really enjoyable social life with your fellow interns but those in region will not unless you are willing to travel. However, there was a summer ball for graduates and interns which was very good however it was once again held in London which made it less enticing for those not placed in London to travel down.

I was based in Leeds and Doncaster so everything is pretty cheap.

I live in Doncaster so I have experienced both Leeds and Doncaster before and I enjoy the nights out so good i guess.

As already stated, there was a plethora of activities such as pub quizzes, 5 a side football etc for those in London to get involved with but there was nothing organised for those based in the North. Although, if you include the graduate charity committee challenge then that increased the amount of opportunities we could get involved with outside of work. People did bun sales/ sold ribbons in their free time to raise money for the 'Grow £10' challenge and I participated in the stairway to hell challenge where I ran up the stairs at HSBC's global headquarters in Canary Wharf.