Summer Analyst Review

This being my first structured internship, I really enjoyed this programme as it gave me in-depth insight into the operations of the investment bank whilst exposing me to other divisions within the bank. I was also lucky enough to work on a plethora of projects across the product offering, thus allowing me to develop my technical skill set quite significantly.

I became an important part of the team from day one, as I was given important assignments to complete to ensure the projects ran smoothly. This ranged from building a model to conducting research for pitches. I am very grateful for the amount of trust placed in me by my colleagues, as this enabled me to grow as a person.

I was aligned with a buddy as well as a mentor. My buddy helped me greatly with my day-to-day queries and concerns. As a junior in my team, he was very accessible and was always willing to help. My mentor was a senior banker in another division whom I asked for impartial advice on high-level matters such as career direction. However, I was also given informal support by my colleagues for any technical queries I had, which proved to be hugely valuable throughout the internship.

I was very pleased to have been kept preoccupied throughout the internship. As I expected, my projects were very fast-paced, which enabled me to learn a lot in a limited period of time. I was very busy throughout the internship, as I was staffed on multiple projects and had to learn any relevant material whilst handling multiple work streams. To me, this is what an internship should be like, and this is exactly what I experienced.

I developed a great work ethic, which I shall use in my last year of studies. I also received a great amount of technical training, and am to use this in the finance elective module I shall be pursuing next academic year. Finally, my analytical skills and attention to detail have been honed greatly, which I will use to analyse academic papers as well as write research reports at university.

HSBC has a reputation for being amongst the most collegiate of banks, and I can only confirm this. All my colleagues were very kind and welcoming, and offered their assistance wherever they could. Although the intensity of work was high, bankers never showed this when communicating with me. I can honestly say that working at HSBC’s investment bank felt like I was part of a wider family.

The internship was very well organised. My industry preferences were taken into consideration by my staffer, which resulted in me being put on projects I was very interested in. I particularly enjoyed being assigned to a set of projects, as this created an element of continuity, which I found ideal to immerse myself into those projects. In addition to working on projects, all interns attended regular “lunch and learn” and panel sessions in which we had a chance to interact with senior bankers across the investment bank. This provided me with a broader insight into the diverse product offering at HSBC, which in turn gave me a better understanding of the structure of HSBC's investment bank.

HSBC invested in a one week-long technical training session at the start of the internship, which I found very useful when completing assignments of a technical nature whilst on the internship. In addition, I was given tutorials for FactSet and CapitalIQ, in which respective company representatives gave me a run-through of all key functionalities of their respective databases. This was exceedingly helpful when completing research tasks, as these resources contain large amounts of information that are navigable only after having received high-quality training.

Absolutely. I made many friends whilst on the internship, with whom I will remain in contact. All interns were outgoing and very easy to get along with. The team had two social events during my time there, which is a large amount given the intensity of the work. This shows the high degree to which the team is sociable. Furthermore, many people on the internship as well as bankers had international backgrounds, which were interesting to discuss.