Associate Director Review

I am an Associate Director within the Charities & Education team at HSBC Private Banking in London. In this role I specialise in providing advice to charities on their financial affairs, with a focus on responsible and sustainable investment. I am responsible for prospecting clients and brining in assets to HSBC for investment.

I have both learned new skills and developed existing skills. Mainly working in a group again towards a common goal as reminded me to be better at delegating and working as a team to play to relevant strengths and weaknesses, this came through most when learning about organizational behavior and i have kept it going throughout the programme.

I enjoy the aspect of learning new things and getting different perspectives from my cohort, I do think having an MSc on my CV will also be very useful from a future career perspective. It is a VERY long program though and we were not told of the time commitment when we signed up so it seems to be dragging on and losing the enjoyment.

This is the main downfall as the program has not been well organised and it was obvious that it was thrown together a little - they have changed the dates of classes and exams on us multiple times which makes it hard to plan when we all have full time jobs and families.

My employer has been incredibly supportive, always happy to let me have time off for class and when I have assignments due. They are also always looking out for me with how I can complete my KSBs etc. it has been a good experience thus far and HSBC have been great.

I have not had any experience with a training provider on my qualifications, they have assigned us a tutor but his input has been minimal, however i have also not reached out to him as i don't feel as though i need much support - it is all fairly self explanatory

i don't think this aspect is of much use and it is more admin than anything else. i would say this part of the experience has been the least valuable and i may even look to drop it as i am not getting anything from it and it seems to be equal the amount of work as the masters!

yes there are a lot of extra curricular activities to get involved in at HSBC. there are sports teams, religious groups, DNI groups, social and volunteer grups, etc. there are a million different ways to network at the bank if you are willing to dedicate time to activities outside of work

Yes

If you are going to work for a big, global bank then I really believe it is one of the better ones to work for. They are very supportive of their employees and have the right tone at the top. They encourage development and back that up by providing opportunities. There are lots of jobs to choose from if you find you don't like what you are doing.

To be open to other roles if your interviewer does not feel the one you are applying to is right for you, they may think you are a perfect fit for another part of the bank. also to make sure to have an attitude that works with the open culture at HSBC.