Work Experience Review

This work experience, although virtual, educated me about HSBC’s values e.g diversity and inclusion, story and growth over the years and what they are doing to maintain this growth i.e putting people first into everything they do. They also informed me about different areas in HSBC i.e procurement, trading and so on which was very interesting to know.

It was virtual due to covid so it was hard to receive training but there were a few skills I developed. For instance, my interview skills which I really gained when I was going through the recruitment stages for the programme and my research and analytical skills when going through the different areas of the bank.

I really enjoyed my work experience at HSBC a lot as I gained a lot of insight and knowledge about banking and finance. This work experience also allowed me to realise my interest in investment banking particularly. Just like with everyone else, I wish it wasn't virtual so I could get a better experience.

I believe my work experience was very organised seen as it would commence at about 9am in the morning. The schedules for each day was very structured and the wonderful team managed to stick to time consistently which was very efficient. It emphasised how the quality of the knowledge I acquired was more important than the amount of time I spent with them.

I learnt a lot about the company culture, specifically their values which I enjoyed learning about. One of their main values were diversity and inclusion which was amazing to learn about especially in our current society. This made me feel more intrigued in working a place with values like this including putting clients first.

This work experience certainly helped me in decided on my potential future career path. As said previously, this work experience piqued my interest in investment banking which I then looked into more to see where I see myself with this career in particular. Since then, I've learnt more about banking and finance even though I don't study Business or Economics.

No, I wasn't paid or reimbursed for this work experience at a prestigious company like HSBC. Regardless, this experience was simply unforgettable and invaluable in terms of the amount of experience and knowledge I acquired. In addition, this work experience still proved its value even though it was virtual.

As I've already mentioned before, this programme was virtual so networking and socialising with peers were very limited. This experience was on zoom everyday so there's a function called breakout rooms that I seem to remember engaging in a few times during my week of work experience which came in handy.

Yes

I would recommend HSBC or this work experience to a friend. This is because even from attending the work experience online, it's clear that this company puts people or in other words their clients first. Just the HSBC culture alone is very welcoming no matter what area of the bank you're going into.

My number one tip that I would give to others applying to HSBC would be to be themselves. Especially when doing the competency based questions or partaking in the phone interview, this is very crucial because as a student myself, I see that students tend to want to follow ideal responses to interview questions instead of being themselves.