Commercial Banking Intern Review

I enjoyed my 8 weeks, everyone I met was really friendly and wanted you to do well and was willing to help you with that. Was quite social with the other interns in the area but the teams I worked in were relatively old and so not into the social scene. That being said I got to play football for the bank, watch England play cricket and a few other social things like lunches etc. Great working hours, genuine 9-5 and no expectations to stay longer (unless there was a tight deadline for something).

Definitely felt valued as I was set tasks which added genuine monetary value to the company and also to the teams that the projects were for

I had 2 line managers during the internship, 1 for the first month and another for the second. Both were very supportive and gave me work to do and generally let me get on with that work rather than trying to babysit me. Both were very approachable and easy to talk to about things even if I didn't uinderstand something or got something wrong.

Slight lack of work during the internship as the team that you're placed with is responsible for giving you work, and some teams have greater need for interns than others. So I found myself completing projects faster than they had anticipated so then I had to find other things to occupy my team like shadowing in other teams or approaching others for work.

Good amount of responsibility was given to me but not too much as they understood I was just an intern and wasn't expected to know everything. When given a project the team(s) would explain it etc and were happy to help out when needed but generally left me to my own devices to get on with it. The charity work that I had to do during the internship was also completely my responsibility to organise with other interns etc and did not concern the work teams. But again, more work could have been given to me.

This will definitely help me in my studies and beyond that, especially the time management skills, managing peoples impressions of you, meeting deadlines and producing high quality work.

Both teams I worked in would talk with each other and joke etc, so it wasn't a silent dull office. But the average age of each team was around 35-40 so they weren't into the social scene like after work drinks; so for that I went out with the other interns in the area. People were quite work focused which helped me also focus on the work at hand.

Many of the details about the internship were organised at the last minute unfortuantely. People were told where they were going to be based around a month before the internship started and for those that weren't placed near their homes had that short time to sort out accommodation. Also the HireRigh vetting that has to be completed to prove eligibility to work in the UK etc is a nightmare. So the run up to the start of the internship coud be improved a lot. But during the internship things went generally smoothly with a few all-intern meet ups in London for charity events etc.

The company invested a lot in the interns through supplying laptops so that we could get to grips with the systems that the bank uses and do work on it; any employee I spoke to was willing to give their time to talk to me about certain areas of the bank as they wanted me to get the most out of the internship. Organising charity events and drinks after all-intern meet ups in London meant that we gained more training than just in the office. However more training in regard to setting ourselves up on the systems and how to use them best etc would have been useful.

Very appealing; as a grad you come in as a relatively quite high role in the bank and are expected to continue rising through the global-career-bands after rolling off the grad scheme. The bank values grads a lot and sees them as the future leaders of the banks so set high expectations. Also international oppourtunities are greatest with HSBC than any other bank due to how global the bank is. These opportunities are available for those performing well on the grad scheme and not just those that have been with the bank many years. Lots of people move around in the bank between teams and between divisions so there's lots of scope to work in different areas rather than being stuck in just one.

I was lucky enough to have a lot of likeminded interns in my area (Birmingham), only one of which in my building unfortunately, but we often arranged to go for lunch or drinks after work and also a night out. During the all-intern meet ups everyone wanted to go for drinks after the day had ended too which was good.

Living at home meant I didn't have to pay rent fortunately, and the cost of Birminghams social scene is relatively affordable. Pricey for students but nothing on London level.

Birmingham is a busy area with loads of bars and clubs so there was never a shortage of places to go to

There was a few charity events during the internship which was fun, an internship-long charity project along with a few days in London for other charity-based work. Other opportunities often depended on being in the right place at the right time. With my first team I got to play in a football tournament for the bank and also took clients out to see the England cricket match, but this was because the team often entertains clients. Whereas the second team was less client facing and so had less of these opportunities on offer. Also depends on location, as those based in Canary Wharf HQ will have had much more opportunities to get involved in things