Report on HSBC Relationship Banker interview questions from a Cover Letter Library member’s experiences. This is based on HSBC Global Banking and Markets Assistant Global Relationship Banker second round interview in Paris on 23-03-2017. There may be some variations depending on the offices or other new updates to the recruitment practice – so please use this for reference/preparation purposes only.
| Who’s the lucky company? | |
| HSBC | |
| For which division? | |
| Global Banking and Markets | |
| And for which office? | |
| Paris | |
| What’s the formal title of the position you applied for? | |
| Assistant Global Relationship Banker | |
| When did you apply? | |
| 27-02-2017 | |
| When was this interview? | |
| 23-03-2017 | |
| How were you informed of this HSBC Relationship Banker interview? | |
| Business person called | |
| Were you able to choose the time slot yourself? | |
| No | |
| And this interview was therefore… | |
| In the afternoon | |
| Was this a … ? | |
| in-person interview | |
| Which stage was this HSBC Relationship Banker interview? | |
| second round interview | |
| How many interviews in total were in this HSBC Relationship Banker interview? | |
| For the first phone-call interview it was actually my manager who called me to get know me better and to ask me some questions about my coursework at university. | |
| How many interviewers were in each HSBC Relationship Banker interview ? | |
| For the first interview 1 person and for the second interview (face-to-face) to people. | |
| How long did this interview process take in total then? | |
| The phone interview took 15 minutes and the second one lasted 45 minutes | |
| Were there any personal / CV-based questions? If yes, what were they? | |
| Yes, they asked me some questions about what I have learned so far in finance and some questions about specific achievements and examples of situation when I worked in team. | |
| Were there any competencies questions? If yes, what were they? | |
| Tell me about yourself. How do you cope with deadlines and time management? Tell us about a time you have work as part of a team. |
|
| Were there any technical questions? If yes, what were they? | |
| – What is the difference between equity and fixed income instruments? – What are the most important things to include in a pitch? – What does an asset manager do? – Who is the top French asset manager? |
|
| What was the most difficult / unusual question among these? How did you deal with it? | |
| Why should we choose you over another candidate?
I replied that I had an international background and that, through experiences abroad, I have acquired strong relationship-building skills and excellent language skills in English and Spanish. |
|
| Any other weird questions we haven’t covered? | |
| Not really, they challenged me with questions that I have had prepared so no there was no surprise. They really wanted to judge the structure of my answers and to assess my motivation. | |
| What was the most unexpected thing about this interview or whole process? | |
| For the first phone call interview my manager caught me off guard as he called me without telling me (while I was having a coffee with a friend). | |
| Did you get the offer? | |
| Yes | |
| How long roughly did it take for you to hear back about your offer? | |
| 2 weeks | |
| Via what means did you hear back about this outcome? | |
| Is there anything you wish you should have known or prepared for prior to applying to this company? | |
| I should have made more research about my employer and the team. I think it’s good to have some insights about colleagues before actually meet them.
I just want to mention that both my cover letter and the confirmation are in French. |
|
| Overall, out of 10, how would you evaluate your experience applying to this company? | |
| 8 | |
| Finally, before you go, is there anything else you think will help other candidates get the offer here like you did? | |
| Networking is very important. To find this internship I first contacted someone within HSBC who told me that the Coverage/Relationship Banker team were looking for a Summer intern. So I jumped on the opportunity. | |
