COMMERCIAL BANKING PENULTIMATE YEAR INTERN Review

My time at HSBC was quite enjoyable. I had a variety of different projects and tasks to be working on so every day was different and enjoyable. Both the internship team and my placement colleagues were very helpful and welcoming - making it easy to feel at home in the team.

The internship involved working with lots of different groups of interns as well as working within my placement team. HSBC's feedback culture is very strong meaning that if you're willing to ask for feedback you'll get it. This allowed me to feel valued by my colleagues. I also had an exit interview with my manager where I got a lot of feedback and praise. This really made me feel valued.

There is a lot of support given on the internship. Weekly catch-ups with your placement manager are encouraged and you are also assigned a 'buddy' from the graduate programme to help you with any questions. The intern team are also reachable at any time and you have two catch-ups with someone from that team. In terms of help whilst I was working I found it very easy to reach out to my manager with any questions and they always took the time to help me and made sure I always had work to do.

There was a lot of travel during my internship. Out of the 8 weeks of the internship I had to travel on 6 of them. I got involved with some of the graduate scheme committees such as the magazine, we had projects to complete with other interns, a charity competition to see which group could raise the most money, and our placement work. This meant that I was usually very busy with a lot to do each day but it was manageable and not overwhelming. The first and last weeks of the internship were the least full as things were just starting off or wrapping up but the majority of the time I had things to be getting on with.

I was given access to most HSBC systems and was treated as though I was a full time analyst on the team (albeit with slightly more guidance given). The work I completed on the placement was very important to the team and they also let me take part in many client and internal stakeholder meetings and calls.

I learnt a lot about how to work in and lead a team effectively as well how to give good feedback. I think that these things will help me at university, especially approaching my final year where I'll have a mandatory group project. I also learnt a great deal about commercial banking in general, which is what I wanted from the internship.

The internship was very well organised as there is a dedicated intern team made up of people on the graduate programme. There were several dedicated events in the Birmingham HQ including induction, development and celebration events. There were some small hiccups but they were usually due to things that had changed from the previous year so they were new and untested. The intern team did also have other roles so sometimes you didn't get a very fast reply but overall it was okay as you had your own graduate buddy to rely on. We found out our placement locations around 8 weeks before we started so there was plenty of time to organise accommodation for the summer.

There were lots of development opportunities and I was encouraged to take them all even if they involved expensive travel (which was all reimbursed). I attended a development day within my placement area and one for interns, as well as a 'join me' day in London where I got to see how they worked in the team there. There were weekly guest speakers for interns to video conference with and we had e-learning modules to complete too.

Success on the internship means you're quite likely to be offered a place on the graduate programme and you'll find out not long after finishing the internship. The grad scheme is 18 months in 3 different locations and business areas. It's a good chance to live all over the UK and you'll be able to apply to full time roles at the end of it.

The intern cohort was around 100 so there were lots of people to get to know and work with on various projects. It was mandatory to hold at least one social event in the north, south and London regions, however the North one never took place which was disappointing. There were many opportunities to attend events with other interns either in person or over video conference so it felt very sociable most days.

The cost of living wasn't too expensive in my placement city, I was able to buy lunch at a reasonable price from local shops, although I understand that some HSBC offices have their own canteens. I commuted in from the next city over and this was reasonably priced too. The main socialising I did was with the other interns in Birmingham when we attended events there. This was quite inexpensive.