Summer Analyst Review

I enjoyed my internship very much as the people in HSBC made me feel very welcome and were very willing to help me understand concepts within finance and how things worked within HSBC. In general, I also felt that the internship was challenging enough but still manageable. Overall, I have learnt a lot from my time with HSBC and it has been my most fruitful internship.

Although I was only an intern, I feel that my colleagues gave me enough responsibility especially once I was able to prove that I could produce high quality work under time pressure. They recognised my abilities while also giving meaningful feedback on how I could improve, as such, I felt valued but also knew how to improve for tasks in the future.

I was given ample guidance by my supervisor. While he gave me support in the form of answering questions and explaining concepts that I did not understand, he also gave me enough room to discover and search certain things. He also made sure to emphasise open communication and encouraged interns to ask him questions whenever they did not understand.

I was working 14-16 hour days on average. Apart from the first week on the desk, there has not been a time when I felt bored. There were times that I thought that I was overloaded but I was able to manage that relatively well or better than I expected as I was able to produce decent quality work on time. The internship presentation definitely pushed me as some weekends and late nights were used to complete that project.

i think that I was given a good amount of responsibility that gradually increased as I learnt more. Initially, I was tasked to do simple things like mark ups of slides and simple organisational work, but as time went on, I was given more complex data management tasks and was given opportunities to give input on how a slide layout could look like. I was also tasked to do a Export Finance database independently, which will be used in the future - this is one of the tasks with more responsibility.

The skills I developed such as time management, being able to handle large amounts of data, and excel skills, will definitely be of use in the future as these are very transferable skills that can be applied in many professional environments.

Everyone was very friendly and very ready to teach and help interns. It was a relatively flat structure throughout the entire company and I was encouraged to reach out to MDs as well. However, there would be times when there is tension within certain areas of the floor because of the high pressure nature of the job.

The internship was very well organised and there were many training sessions (general and department specific) within the internship to help students of non-finance backgrounds to be able to have the basic knowledge of finance. There was also an element of fun as seen through the mid-internship event, which was a treasure hunt.

There were several training sessions on behavioural aspects and presentation skills which I thought was relatively useful to help us in developing individual skills key to the professional environment. The level of training we received was above and beyond what I was hoping for; I think that this is a key selling point for HSBC's internship in comparison to other banks.

Due to the emphasis placed on training and providing opportunities for juniors, the future employment prospects within HSBC are very appealing. I think that it is a good place to establish a base within the industry and because the seniors within the firm are so willing to help, this makes HSBC's environment very friendly and open, further increasing the appeal of the employment prospects

There was a balanced social scene amongst fellow interns and colleagues. On certain Fridays, drinks will be organised and we would be able to interact with seniors on a more casual environment. Within the programme there were also networking drinks, which added to the social scene. Occasionally, interns would also organise a night out on a Friday, however, this depends on the work intensity of the department.

The cost of living was higher than average London prices, however, as it is a financial district, this is understandable. The £15 allowance for dinner helped a lot and for lunch the cafeteria had relatively cheap options. In the malls nearby, however, options for eating out and grocery shopping was usually more expensive.

Although there were no clubs, there are several bars near the office, which was useful for socialising with colleagues and winding down. The bars had a very good atmosphere with drinks that were not too pricey with great interior design. Overall, the nightlife was very appropriate for the working crowd there.

There were some opportunities such as dragon boat racing, department rounders etc. which were good opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. However, my participation in these activities were limited due to the intense nature of the job, as such, it was a shame that I was not able to make use of these opportunities.