Global Markets Summer Analyst - IS FX Sales Review

I expected the trading floor to be a very competitive place to work but at HSBC people work together rather than against each other. I particularly enjoyed that I got much freedom in terms of how to organize my work day and which interests to puruse. Furthermore, I got the opportunity to reach out to many different desks and everyone is more than happy to schedule meetings and answer your questions. Overall, I got a very broad and detailed insight of what it means to work in Sales & Trading and I kept on learning everyday.

I could always approach everyone in my team with questions and if someone did not have time to answer them immediately, they always came back to help me later. Furthermore, I was taken to presentations of management and informal drinks after work, which helped me to network and made me feel like a full team member.

I received a lot of freedom to pursue my different interests by exploring many differnet desks and talking to the poeple in charge of HSBC's technology strategy. However, when I asked for guidance and feedback, I always received help. Furthermore, I did always have a say in setting my tasks and objectives as my manager very much focused on giving me the best working experience and a good overview of FX and Macro Sales in general.

I got several tasks that I performed on a daily or weekly basis (e.g. market wraps or coming up with trade ideas) and in between I was working on continuous tasks and my final project. Especially in the first half of the internship, I also made use of HSBC's online learning platform to get to know the different products. Furthermore, we regularly had market wraps and lunch&learn sessions with the other interns as well as formal work shadowing afternoons. Additionally, I was encouraged to plan plenty of meetings with people throughout the trading floor, which helped me to understand the business as a whole. In conclusion, I never felt under pressure but I was busy all day long and never got bored.

As my desk was dealing with very sophisticated clients, I could obviously not interact with them directly. However, I was given much responsibility for my own learning and networking, which was a great advantage.

The skills I learned during the internship are much more real-life relevant than what I need for my studies. I would say the main learnings I got out of the internship are that I now know how it feels like to work in a bank, what people expect of you in a professional lenvironment and how to quickly gather relevant informaiton. I believe that the internship experience was extremely useful for my furhter professional development as I spotted which skills are important, where I still have knowledge gaps and how to close them.

While I believe this depends on the desk, I very much enjoyed my time at HSBC. The people on my desk got along very well, they often treated each other with cakes or ice cream and laughed together if there was time.

The internship was very well-structured and we were always informed on time about any upcoming events or learning sessions. Only the onboarding could have been a bit easier, we received quite a lot of similar emails and the deadlines were sometimes a bit tight. However, HR was very supportive at all times and, which is why this was not a big issue.

We received one week of general training and were exposed to different business areas through the lunch&learn sessions and shadowing afternoons throughout the internship. However, even more valuable than the formal part of the training was the time my colleagues (including senior MDs) spent with me - the conversations with these people were invaluable for my personal learning and professional development.

I still have much to learn and HSBC is a great place to do that - the collaborative and friendly culture are unique in banking and create a great learning environment. Moreover, the global scope of the business and especially the support I received when reaching out to our colleagues in other offices around the world are an incredible learning opportunity.

All interns within markets got along very well. As we all had different skill-sets, we reached out to each other for help and gave feedback on each other's projects. This highlights HSBC's collaborative culture where people work with each other from the beginning on. Of course, we also met up and went out during the weekends and expecially coming from abroad, it felt easy to make friends.

The cost of living and going out is generally high in London but as long as you sometimes buy food in the supermarket and don't go out everyday, it is possible to keep the costs at an acceptable level.

Canary Wharf offers great pubs, restaurants and bars. However, while we often had after-work drinks close to the office, we also often spent time in the city during the weekend. Since Canary Wharf is well connected, this was not difficult and we could make to most out of out time in London.

We had the possibility to go to HSBC's gym and could once participate in a CSR day, after wich we went go-karting as a social activity. These offerings were great but beyond that it was our own responsibility to sign up to extra activities privided by HSBC.