Commercial Banking Intern Review

I found the internship a really enjoyable and insightful experience, the 8 week Commercial Banking Internship gives you a real flavour for commercial banking. As long as you are enthusiastic, the opportunity allows you to get really stuck in with some real work.

My colleagues in the office that I was placed were so welcoming and supportive, could not have asked for a better team, hoping I get the chance to work with them again some day.

My managers were supportive and put a lot of time and resource into educating and informing myself and the other interns in my team. Obviously this is sometimes hard as they have their own jobs to concentrate on, however they always made the time for me.

I was kept busy on a daily basis without being over encumbered with a large workload, I was given work that would help me achieve specific learning objectives that I had spoken with my manager about prior to the internship. Overall a good balance of workload from my local team alongside additional work from the central internship team kept me busy but not stressed out throughout the internship/

I was given as much responsibility as I could expect or hope for during the placement. 8 weeks is not a long time to be trusted with customer contact or crucial work, however I was able to contribute to the team and felt like I was given a good amount of responsibility when I went looking for it.

Cannot say just yet, however the financial analysis skills that I have learned are sure to be a massive help in my final year at university.

The general atmosphere in my office was friendly and supportive (and busy). I was placed in an office that looked after small businesses and so often members on the team were on the road, due to the nature of their job. However there was always someone to help in the office if you needed it and the whole team were happy to have interns around and did their best to integrate us into the team.

The internship was very well organised and structured considering the number of us to cater for. The lead up to the internship was well organised and the assessment process clearly communicated. One point would be that the locations for the days were split across London and Birmingham without too much thought into where would be more ideal for each person, but this is a minor thing.

HSBC invested a lot of time and money in us. In total we had 7 training days over the 8 weeks, this was almost too much, as at points it was nice just to get on with the work in our individual offices. As well as this we had mandatory elearning to do, which while relevant to a point, took up a lot of time. The training days gave us a real overview of the wider bank and allowed us to gain a real understanding of the company outside of our individual offices.

Future employment with the company would be very desirable. The grad scheme, which has been advertised and explained to us, seems well structured and competitive. The transfer process from the internship onto the graduate scheme following the final year at university is supposedly simple and designed so that those that performed well on the internship need not worry over the applications period in their final year. We are yet to find out whether we have obtained a job or not but every one of the interns seems hopeful.

There is a good scene among the fellow placement students, we are left to our own devices in setting up social occasions, however this is no problem and allows freedom of socialising. Being in a big city definitely helps, I was based in Birmingham along with around 15 other interns, however some interns were based in smaller offices in smaller towns on their own and so didn't have this opportunity. I feel this could make an internship or graduate scheme a really lonely experience and so definitely recommend putting down preference for a larger city if that's possible.

Birmingham is not too pricy and so I'd say it was just about right. Obviously the internship wage only gets you so far, however the student accommodation that's let out by the Birmingham universities over the summer is not too expensive (£100-£150 per week). If you are looking to save a bit of money over the summer I'd recommend living somewhere you can cook for yourself otherwise you'll rack up a hefty food bill.

Nightlife in Birmingham is good, with plenty of great bars and clubs if the night goes in that direction. There are also plenty of nice restaurants and cocktail bars if you're up for a more chilled out evening. I'd recommend walking back with someone if that is an option for you, as areas (especially around the clubs) can be quite rough. Some of the interns, including myself had some quite shocking or dangerous experiences.

Unless you organise them yourself there aren't too many activities to get involved in, however there was a five a side football team that I got involved in over the placement which was good fun. You have more chance of hearing about these and getting involved if you are in one of the larger offices.