Summer Analyst Review

I cannot say that the internship was always enjoyable but retrospectively I would definitely say it was an enjoyable experience. From time to time I felt I lacked challenging work or an work at all which made for a frustrating experience. However, when I got the exposure it was very valuable.

We were able to have informal conversation and discuss work/personal life in a very friendly manner. There were a few occassions where we could relax after work and get to meet and socialise with seniors, however, these were few and far between. I was often given the opportunity to succeed and was thanked when I did.

In terms of the actual work my colleagues were incredibly helpful and provided more than enough training to ensure that I was comfortable with myself. Their feedback was usually constructive and positive. In terms career guidance and support the lunch and learns were insightful but actual concrete help in finding the right division for me was difficult to find.

For about 75% of working hours, I was occupied doing useful tasks for the team or working on my person project presentation. This did leave a substantial amount of time where I went around my team offering help but being left without staffing. Work then came to my desk at a late hour requiring late night working, which was slightly frustrating.

I was given a lot of work during my time at HSBC which mean that I was able to find responsiblity quite easily. Work I was sometimes unsure as to whether I could complete I was given time to figure out and make a valid contribution to my learning and the team. Nonetheless, work that I was very confident in was checked ruthlessly, which cost my seniors a lot of time and devalued my contribution.

I definitely learnt skills in efficiency and in certain software that will enable me to complete tasks in any vocation quickly. The market awareness I am now developing because of the internship will be useful in personal investment and in future business service jobs. The specifics of the job, unless I remain in ECM, will maybe be not too applicable.

People were broadly positive in the work they were doing but there was a lot of negative senitment with regards to structuring of the division and the changes that were arising due to new management. People often questioned why I wanted to join banking insinuating that anywhere else would be better.

The internship offered great insight into different areas of banking and didn't fail to get me involved with a lof of different kinds of work. I was often left without guidance from my line manager, mentor and staffer despite asking for it so I relied on staffing myself most of the time.

A lot of money was obviously spent on our personal development and encouraging to broaden our insight of HSBC and investment banking. A lot of different members of the team reached out to me to involve me in different work. The resources I left the bank with will enable me to continue my learning very easily.

Overall, if you are interested in investment banking, the teams are incredibly welcoming and care about your progress and opinions. HR are very invested in developing all interns and therefore, are very keen to offer jobs to all those who are interested and capable. The divisions appear to be hiring a lot due to lots of staff leaving following structural changes.

Between the placement students we found very little time to socialise beyond during lunch and dinner which made it difficult to develop deep relationships. The staff above were able to organise parties on different staff's behalf but many inidcated this was unusual and usually much rarer than it was during my time there.

Average spend on food a day was between 20 and 25 pounds and accomodation ended up at about 1000-1200 a month. Drinks were yet more expenisve but at the events we attended they were usually paid for, so this was less of a concern. But in general if a job was accepted it would be onyl worth it due to the high pay.

There was next to no nightlife. Apart from on Friday night's where colleagues had drinks together, Canary Wharf is dead. It is very indicative of why companies would prefer to work in the City rather than in such an obviously corporate environment.

We were offered a couple of opportunities to get involved with acitivies but these were poorly advertised and usually we had no time to get involved in these properly.