Summer Intern Review

My placement was certainly enjoyable. I met some very nice people and learned a lot about the business.

Everyone in my branch made the effort to help explain things to me. After a couple of weeks I felt as if knew they could rely on me to deliver certain tasks for them.

Owing to external circumstances my manager was quite busy at the time of my placement however this encouraged a pro-active approach to my work here and I was always given support when I did need it.

I felt I could have been busier on a day to day basis. The first two weeks I had a good deal to do, but not too much to be overbearing. For the remaining 5 however I thought my project wasn't quite appropriate to my branch and so there was little time I could invest in it.

I thought I was trusted with real responsibility from day 1. I had access to information and systems that a lot of current employees did not have access to. Each week I was entrusted to deliver tasks that had a real impact on my branch and our customers.

I thought the internship gave me a good insight into how retail banking operates. I acquired good skills in management and presentation as well as gaining an appreciation for the need for a distinct culture and values in corporate life.

Everyone in my office got along well. I would regularly go out for lunch with my colleagues, as well as all of us going out for drinks after work/ quiz nights etc.

I think that centrally the internship is very well organised and throughout my time with HSBC I got the impression the internship scheme is something the bank really values. I felt the communication between HQ and the individual branches/commercial centres could be better. Asides from my line manager, no one in my branch was quite sure what my role with them was. Further I think that the business project we are assigned should be chosen by our line managers rather than set from a regional level. In this way we could be sure that the project we are working for is something our line manager will value and will be having a direct and beneficial effect on our branch, rather than the regionally set project I had which wasn't quite appropriate to my setting.

The training and development with the bank was outstanding. I felt they invested in us a great deal considering we were only there 7 weeks. I felt that all the interns benefited from training days, group exercises, presentations and speeches by very senior members of the bank as well as volunteering and community days.

The grad schemes with the bank look extremely appealing. Throughout the internship we had the opportunity to talk to grads currently on the various schemes and they all spoke very highly of it. The opportunities to work in different areas of the business, in different countries, the scope for quick career progression, the excellent training- all these factors were evident from what I saw on the internship.

Being based in London helped as there were a few of us here. We went out for dinner and drinks on a number of occasions. We also attended a British business networking session as well as all the interns going out together during one of our community days.

Socialising in London can be expensive however I think the pay we received more than covered it.

London is unrivalled in it's nightlife.

There were a great many opportunities to do activities outside of work, many of these centred around charity events however and at some points it did feel as if charity events were somewhat being forced upon us which is not how charity should be.