Penultimate Year Commercial Banking Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement. I have been exposed to so many areas of the commercial banking sector, this has allowed my knowledge to develop and gain a practical and tangible understanding of it. I have absorbed so much information in such a short period! It has been a busy 8 weeks but I would recommend.

There is a lot of respect and value within HSBC. My fellow interns were a pleasure to work with and was a pleasure to work with them on our team days. The existing employees at HSBC are very respectful and appreciative of any work you help them with, regardless of their position in the bank.

There is a lot of support available, whether that be needing to talk to other interns, my graduate buddy or my colleagues. Any questions I had (even If I thought they were silly) were always taken seriously and when we were on client meetings and I wasn’t sure what products were being talked about I was informed in a detailed way so that I could understand and join in on the conversations.

I was always kept busy, partly because whenever my work load began to decrease, I actively seeked more work. I think it would be easy to have a light workload on this placement, but It really depends on your manager and what they have planned for you. If you get through all that work it is easy to have nothing to do.

I was given a few big projects during my placement. Senior management set them for me and I made sure to establish timelines and expectations. These projects took me a longer amount of time than the other projects. When they were finished I presented the projects to the whole team. These projects were actually important to the office and my work was valued.

Being an employee of HSBC through their RingFencing process has allowed me to gain training about what this is, what the implications are and allowed me to experience the effect of these regulations on the bank. This has been amazing for me as I didn’t really understand when reading about the topic in my studies. I have also gained a lot of confidence in my abilities and my presentation skills are a lot stronger.

I was placed In two very different offices. My first was a small office with a team of about 20. And my second office was in the city and was very busy. The first office was so friendly because everyone knew everyone and there was a real family atmosphere. In the larger office it is still very friendly however people seem to stick to talking to their teams.

The internship was much organised and the events where all the interns came together where well thought out and ran smoothly. It would be nice to have more of a say in what department you are based in, or perhaps have 3 rotations. However I understand 8 weeks is a sort period of time

I attended a global induction day which was a fantastic way to learn about the history of HSBC and their current risks and support that they offer to employees. In addition I have completed many training modules on risk etc and modules specific to ring fencing and GLCM (the department I was working with).

I have the opportunity to learn a lot about the grad scheme and have heard many different opinions on it. The internship was fantastic because it gave me a taste of what the graduate scheme would be like. However it is interesting to hear how some graduates love the scheme and how some not so much. They have said a graduate offer will be given based on assessment throughout internship.

There were many social events throughout the internship. We had many days where all the interns based over the country go together for Charity events, induction weekend and a farewell day. My office environment is very social and we often went for drinks after work which made me feel involved in the team.

For my first placement I was able to walk to the office and so that was perfect for me as I didn’t have to pay for travel. However for my second placement I have had to pay around £300 for a month travel card to commute and the commute was extremely exhausting. All travel to client meeting is reimbursed.

Being in the city for my second placement was so fun as there are lots of bars and restaurants around. We often went for drinks after work with my team and other interns, however I could also see my other friends who were also working in the city which was something to look forward to.

We had many charity/volunteering opportunities as interns and that was fantastic. My team organised a football tournament for charity which was a great occasion for everyone to get together out of the office. I was also invited to a fashion show as I had helped out the relationship manager with work for that client which was a fantastic event and an opportunity for networking.