CMB Intern Review

My internship at HSBC was not only invaluable but very rewarding and enjoyable. There was a wealth of opportunities throughout the bank during my placement but also within the wider community. This internship enabled me to specify personal and placement goals and tailor my internship so I could gain as much out of it as possible. I was supported incredibly by the graduate community and my intern colleagues. There was excellent communication between myself and my manager, daily check ins really helped with my progression and ensured I could ask for feedback regularly. The thing I have enjoyed most about this experience has been the people! HSBC has some fantastic colleagues, all of which are warm, intelligent and inspiring. It has been a privilege to work alongside such individuals.

During my internship I felt extremely valued by my colleagues. After reflecting on my internship I quickly realised I have become far more confident in my ideas and abilities, being in such an environment supported this. I have never worked in a workplace before where I have felt so valued and respected. A key part of communication is listening, and the bank are extremely good at listening. The speak up culture of the bank was very apparent and this enabled me to put forward and action my own ideas.

Daily conversations occurred between myself and my manager, we would schedule a call for an hour a day to catch up on everything I had been working on and he was extremely dedicated to supporting me throughout the internship. My manager often asked what I wanted out of my internship and what I aimed to achieve which was very refreshing. We would then work together to achieve these goals and ensure the tasks I was being set reflected both my goals and his goals. The bank has an excellent feedback culture, so when asking for feedback it was easily accessible. Beyond my manager, I reached out to other managers/directors in the bank to gain further perspectives for feedback but also opportunities to learn from their wealth of expertise. Overall, I would suggest I was given excellent support and guidance by my managers - however I would like to iterate that the level of support you receive is down to the intern. This relies on proactivity, it is important you take the opportunities to learn from others, speak up when you are unsure and need support and make the time and arrangements to do this.

During my 5 week internship I was very busy and I thoroughly enjoyed my workload. There are so many opportunities to get involved with during your placement. It is important to prioritize your workload and your interests. It is impossible to attend every single zoom event, especially those beyond working hours. I took on a lot during my internship as I wanted to make the most of the 5 week period. I would say how busy you are depends on your level of pro activity, I was very proactive during my internship hence I had a larger workload. However if you are not proactive during your internship you may find yourself being not that busy. That is the only reason I have scored this lower. I also believe that since my internship was virtual I was probably more busy than previous interns, since zoom meetings were back to back.

I was fortunate to be involved in a range of projects and tasks that ensured I had a large responsibility. I hosted my own event for the intern community as well as produced work that was shared locally, regionally and nationally. Seeing how my work could impact others was extremely rewarding. I was often given small briefs on projects which meant I had to decipher for myself essential components of the project and I was responsible for the relevance of the document I produced. This internship was very much down to you, this was an opportunity where you could just log on every morning and log off at night. Or alternatively you could make the most of everything thrown your way, take responsibility and the reigns of projects and meet fantastic people! I did the latter so I would suggest you have a huge responsibility - you run your own show on this internship! You get out of it what you put in!

This internship has been a life changing and unforgettable experience. What I mean by this is that, this internship has changed the way I think. It has altered my motivations and made me realise what I can accomplish when I put my mind to it. This has instilled a new found confidence in my abilities that I will take with me in my final year and then into my career. I can now put forward my ideas confidently, challenge my colleagues in a professional and empathetic manner and manage my time and workload appropriately. I cannot speak highly enough of the colleagues that supported me. I have realised the importance of work experience as well as academia, I thoroughly enjoyed my placement and I cannot describe what I have learnt.

Given that the internship was virtual it would be difficult to answer this question honestly. As meeting my team was via an area zoom call, it was challenging to understand the office dynamic. A negative aspect of zoom is that unfortunately Zoom only facilitates for one conversation so often during zoom meetings the same individuals would speak. However despite this every single colleague I came across was supportive, kind, friendly and personable and I could really see myself feeling comfortable should a working office have these characteristics too.

This internship was incredibly organised. I can only commend the emerging talent team for their excellent planning and organisation. I attended a range of exciting and informative events, I was very well connected with my team and my intern cohort. Personal touches such as sending out a welcome package in the post made us feel valued and part of a community. Phenomenal efforts from all of the grads and emerging talent team members ensured I never felt isolated, I was well connected, consistently busy, engaged, had a huge level of responsibility and was involved in some really exciting projects - all from my bedroom. From sending out welcome packages, supporting technology set up and being on hand for any support. Thank you!!! My only advice for the future would be even more break out rooms!!

Since the internship was only 5 weeks we were very much thrown into the deep end which was a very effective way to learn. We had access to degreed learning, LinkedIn learning and HSBC university which were all useful tools for development. As well as this we had weekly milestones and we were put in touch with our grad coach prior to the internship which was valuable. We also had OPM groups which enabled us to meet our OP manager and members of the group to form relationships very early on. We were advised banking modules to complete or useful talks to attend all in aid of our learning. My only criticism would be that milestones were given too frequently given our workload and ideally it would have been better over an 8 week internship however I understand that this could not be helped!

Future prospects are extremely appealing. This firm is everything I want from a company in terms of work. It has an excellent well being attitude, a fantastic speak up culture and feedback culture. As mentioned previously I have never worked for an organisation where I've felt so valued and respected in my life. I feel privileged to have had this experience and met some inspirational people. I would be honored to join the bank in the future, this internship has confirmed for me that I wish to join the bank at some point in my career - hopefully as soon as possible! A real peoples bank.

This is hard to comment on given coronavirus. I met up with a few other interns who lived near me which was lovely. However a lot of socials were virtual and had around 70 attendees, zoom can only facilitate one conversation as a time - therefore at any socials it was often the same confident select interns talking whilst the other 65 listened. This seemed like you were listening on someone elses conversation. This could not have been helped due to corona virus. However in the future more break out rooms at socials would be better with 4/5 people in each. Your time is as social as you make it. You could have joined every social if you wanted, or alternatively liaise with people in the office.

N/A Worked from home - so no effect on cost.

N/A Coronavirus

There was a wealth of opportunities during my placement. There was a range of grad and intern events occurring, charity fun runs and initiatives, fitness classes, ERG events, talks and even ukulele concerts! Plenty to be involved in and you could be involved as much or as little as you liked. A lot of these were virtual given COVID19 however I am certain that these are consistent both virtually and physically! Volunteering is a fantastic part of the programme, I volunteered hosting sessions for HSBC colleagues children in a summer camp! This was global, I have never done anything like this before - it was fantastic!