Summer analyst - intern Review

I enjoyed my time at HSBC and felt I had a lot of varied and exciting tasks to do. I was involved in many important projects and felt that I was really adding value to my team, which was a real positive for me. The only reason I did not give a slightly higher score was because occasionally I felt as if I was not being utilised to my full capability.

As mentioned before, I felt that I was really valued by my team and I received a lot of positive feedback about how I was contributing to them. I also did not feel like an intern at all; I felt like one of the team. As well as this, I made good friends with all colleagues sitting near me and I will be sad to leave them at the end of the placement.

I was given adequate support and guidance throughout; if ever I had a query I had only to ask and someone would offer assistance. I am naturally quite an independent person, and so I think perhaps I didn't utilise the potential for support from my team as much as I could have.

Around the middle of the internship I was involved in a lot of workshops and meetings, and also had other tasks to do. I liked being this busy. At other times the work lagged a little and although I have always had tasks to do occasionally I found myself perhaps trying to drag tasks out so that I didn't get bored.

I was very pleased with the amount of responsibility I was given; I have been involved in many tasks which added real value to the team and which needed to be done. I have been told that they will really miss my contribution once I am gone and I greatly appreciate this.

I would say that the skills I have developed here will not massively help me in my degree studies. However they will definitely help me beyond. I have learnt about what motivates me, increased my people management skills, learnt how to prioritise tasks, and increased my confidence of speaking out in the workplace.

Due to the fact that it was summer, the atmosphere was sometimes a little quiet. However my desk was surrounded by a lot of nice people and so generally atmosphere was quite fun.

I thought the placement was very organised. We had regular lunch and learns which were very useful, and were notified of all details of events or self reviews or projects well in advance. I never felt as if there was anything I was unsure of or that anything had been organised inadequately.

I felt as if the company invested a lot of time and effort into me. I could see this by the frequency of lunch and learns, the regular meetings with HR, the importance of the work I was given, the fact that my team obviously wanted me to enjoy myself and take on important tasks and learn as much as I possibly could, and the fact that colleagues outside of my team were always more than happy to make time to speak to me.

Having spent the summer working at HSBC, I could definitely imagine working here in the future and I would like to get an offer of a graduate placement. I very much like the atmosphere and the people here, and that is the most important thing to me in a workplace.

There weren't many other interns in my area, so at the start I found it a bit difficult to socialise. However, over time I made friends with colleagues around me and also interns in another area through a mutual friend, and have socialised with them a lot outside of work. I think that if I was here for longer then the social scene would only get better.

Obviously being in London, the cost of both living and socialising is very high. I am commuting from home but I have still spent a lot on socialising over the last ten weeks!

I have yet to try any nightlife, but this is because I am commuting from home.

There was one event organised for all of the interns and there have been a few organised drinks or meals for within my division, however I would have liked there to be more.