Retail Banking and Wealth Management Intern Review

I was working with a great team who gave me a great amount of support! The placement involved a project on customer satisfaction (I was working in retail banking) and this kept me both busy and developed interpersonal skills I know will be valuable in the future. All in all a great placement!

The team I worked with was extremely supportive and friendly - I felt valued by everyone, despite being an intern and less qualified in retail banking than the other workers.

Although my supervisors were often very busy, they gave me all the guidance and support needed to complete and perfect my customer satisfaction project. Those supervising my project gave sensible advise and greatly improved my work without completely changing its direction, which I greatly appreciated.

I was permitted a sufficiently lengthy lunch break that meant I was not too stressed during the day, but I was kept extremely busy during the rest of the day, which I enjoyed! The nature of the work would vary day-to-day, which was also highly rewarding.

I was given a great deal of responsibility for my customer satisfaction project, which made me feel valued despite being able to have few areas of responsibility in retail banking (almost all jobs require accreditation impossible to attain in the length of time of the internship, but I still felt as though I had an area of responsibility valuable to my retail bank branch).

The main skills I acquired were interpersonal - I have never worked in retail (banking or otherwise) before, and I learnt a great deal about people and how to interact with them! I know this is a skill that I will keep for life and I am very pleased I took up my place on this internship for this reason.

My work colleagues were great fun and I am still in touch with many of them!! From day one I felt as though I was a member of the team, and I never felt an outsider! I have enjoyed working with my colleagues so much I have returned for charity events there after I finished my placement.

The work placement seemed to run smoothly and I never found I had any queries unanswered.

HSBC is fantastic at allowing opportunities to develop your skill-base. They provided a great deal of time and effort into training us for our roles.

Completing the internship gives you the chance to be invited onto an internship for the next summer, and subsequently to join them as a graduate trainee. I feel that my prospects for employment are highly positive, and I am particularly keen to join this company as they have so many international opportunities, and opportunities that are highly varied. Almost any area of banking seems to be open to me if one decides to work for them!

There were two group events for the interns, both of which were very good at instilling a sense of community. I have made many friends on this internship, which I had not expected upon arrival, and I am very grateful to have been a part of such a great community! The interns in London arranged a social activity once a week (on average), although I personally was not stationed there.

I completed my internship in the North of England, which has a relatively low cost of living. However, I did have colleagues in London where the cost of living is naturally much higher, so I imagine this would depend on where an intern would choose to complete their placement.

The nightlife in my area is good, although I only saw it on a few occasions during my placement!!

My branch colleagues held several socials, which were great fun! There was also a high number of opportunities to raise money for charity as part of a group, which was also very rewarding.