First Year Summer Internship Review

I enjoyed my retail placement very much so and was sad to leave. There was a clear structure and you could never be bored as you could always spend time with customers on the bank floor. I felt very welcomed and had a sense of achievement after leaving after completing a project. My commercial placement was not as engaging and there were days where I dreaded going in and would leave early as I simply got forgotten about. I didn't feel as though I was pushed and wasn't many opportunities. I do think I was often forgotten about and when I asked for work I felt as though I was being a burden and was told to wait an hour+ before being given work.

I did feel valued definitely in my retail placement. The working environment is very much like a family and I was treated with respect and not just an intern to give the dirty work to! I was spoken to as a fellow colleague not as a student. In my second placement I was treated with respect, but do not feel as though I was of great value to them. Most people I only spoke to a handful of times and as I mentioned before was often forgotten about by some.

If you were having difficulties or needed help you could ask anyone. I never felt stuck at a dead end. Also, colleagues were more than happy to talk about you career with you. You could be honest with them if you were interested in areas outside of their field and they would help you as best they could and encourage you to spend time in other areas of the business. My retail manager continued to support me in my second placement when I having issues.

In my retail placement the days went by quickly and I could always find something to do. In my commercial placement I was often forgotten about. When asking for work I was told they would be with me 'in an hour or so'. I felt guilty for seemingly doing nothing, but also felt like I was nagging and distracted them from their own work when I asked for something to do. Many people were away on holiday and the few that were left were very busy, so there were times where I sat with nothing to do, bored. It was also quite dependent on who you were working with. Some colleagues went to greater lengths than others to make sure you were busy and engaged.

I was given very little responsibility and there seemed to be an inconsistency between what people running the intern programme wanted you to do vs. what the people you were working with felt comfortable with you doing. Both my placement managers disagreed with parts of the agenda I had been given- with one ignoring it completely as they felt it was too much for an intern to do. However, I think it is dependent on your manager as I know people who were given lots of responsibility. I did not achieve the programme objectives because of this and was worried this would reflect badly on me.

I believe the people skills and confidence I learnt in the retail placement and the technical finance knowledge I learnt in the commercial placement will help me with my studies and beyond.

The branch was an amazing environment. Everyone was friendly and I felt so at home working there. Working in the commercial office was quieter. They were still friendly, but the atmosphere wasn't as fun. I was also the only intern in both of my placements and the people I worked with were generally older so there wasn't any social scene.

It was reasonably well organized. IT is always difficult on your first week, but I expect that anywhere. The on boarding process was pretty long winded (I felt like I provided at least 5 copies of my passport on separate occasions) with lots of checks, tests and multiple welcome days which can get a bit overwhelming when you are revising for exams at the same time. You did know what to expect, however, when arriving at your place of work and there was a structure to the programme. The poorest part of the whole internship was how badly the pay situation was handled. The internship could become quite expensive with train tickets down to London and whilst this would be reimbursed to you if seemed to be wildly inconsistent as to how long you had to be out of pocket for- days or weeks. This would have been fine if it weren't for our initial pay check being delayed. I am not from a wealthy background and found the weeks before behind paid quite difficult. I still haven't been paid for my first week's work and only realised after checking through my payslips and bank statements so make sure you check!

The company definitely did invest. All the interns were sent on a global induction day which all HSBC staff have to attend when they start work with HSBC. You were treated no different from a full time employee and reimbursed for your travel. The intern programme are obviously very keen for you to stay on with HSBC and set up lots of conference calls for you to hear about what it is like to work there and there have also been various talks at welcome days, farewell days etc. about working for the company (although these can get a bit repetitive). The colleagues I worked with were also more than happy to set aside time to help me with my tasks, show me what they do or talk to me about working at HSBC in general.

The grad scheme looks good and everyone who I've met on the scheme speaks highly of it. It seems full of lots of opportunity and there's lots of support. It seems pretty easy to get onto the grad scheme from the internship (you don't even have to apply), As long as they like you, you get offered a place and have been told it's very rare that someone doesn't get told a place. You're very reassured by that HSBC want you to work for them- they often speak of your next five years at HSBC or your career at HSBC like it's a given that you are going to work with them. It's a little presumptuous, but you do feel reassured and valued.

I hear that there was, but it was down in London and I did not get to really experience it as I was not based there. I was not placed with other interns in any of my placements.

The benefit of their being HSBC branches and commercial all around the country is that I was able to live at home during my placement making the cost of living very affordable.

Leeds nightlife is good, but there was no one really to go out with at work. This did bother me as I had friends from home to go out with.

There were opportunities to volunteer and social events, but these were based almost exclusively in London. The volunteering day was fun, but I had to leave before the social in the evening to catch a train which was disappointing. There was also an on-going challenge to raise money for charity where some groups did meet up outside of work to fund raise, but this was quite dependent on how close you lived to others.