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Interviews:
Chris Church; Team Leader, HSBC Life
Susan R Basson; Pensions Admin, Bristol
Christopher Coe; Client Services Team Leader, Regional Service Centre, Europe
Rachel Gedrim; Training Support Officer, District Service Centre, Coventry
Quxi Ren
Rupert Gill Martin, Customer Service Manager, Regional Service Centre

Chris Church; Team Leader, HSBC Life

What were you expecting the job to be like before you joined?
My expectations before I joined the company were that it was going to be a very formal, smart kind of office.

However, when I got down on to the team and amongst everyone they were very friendly. They made you feel very welcome. It’s a very calm and relaxed atmosphere and whenever you need any help there’s always someone there to help you.

Most big companies offer good training, what’s so special about HSBC?
HSBC provide great training. They provide it on a one to one basis as well as in group sessions.

When you first join the company you're not expected to know everything. That is what they're there for; to help you and support you through your first few months at the company. No question is a silly question within the company. That's what they're here for; to help and support you.

What are your ambitions over the coming year?
My ambitions over the coming year are that I've just been appointed as a Team Leader, within the company and I want to become successful in that role.

I want to provide my knowledge to the team, to help them through their working day and working week. I want them to feel at ease when they come in to work in the morning, to feel that if they’ve got a problem, they can come and speak to me.

I want to be able to gain the skills and knowledge to be able to do that.

Susan R Basson; Pensions Admin, Bristol

What were you expecting the job to be like before you joined?
Before I joined HSBC I thought that I would be working in a small office in the corner of a room somewhere, or perhaps just processing all day maybe with a headset on occasionally speaking to customers, but I found that it was a lot bigger than that.

The bigger picture that I'd not seen before was that everybody in the office intermingled from section to section. There are a lot of different sections and you can move around if you want.

We have a very structured workplace where, every day, people are telling you what needs to be done and what's most important. They help you to prioritise your tasks and at the end of the day I feel like I've done a good job.

What does it take to be successful at HSBC?
I think to be successful at HSBC you need to have an open mind. You need to know what you want from the job as well as what the job wants from you.

If you go in with ideas to your manager and people above your manager all ideas are taken on board and considered. Some may be used and some may not, but every idea is welcomed.

What would you say to anyone who’s considering a career at HSBC?
If you were thinking of a career at HSBC I can highly recommend it.

I've been there for 11 years now and I've worked in several different departments, had lots of different training and become a trainer myself, travelling abroad with the company to do some training.

The perks of the job are that the Staff is very friendly. Everybody made me feel welcome right from the word go. I've met an awful lot of interesting people. I have a lot of contact with people outside of the office and I know that at any time there are jobs available in all departments of HSBC that you can apply for.

What are your ambitions over the coming year?
My ambitions going forward for the next year and a few beyond that hopefully, will be to keep doing the training I'm doing with our global colleagues. I'm continuing with all that and I've got a close contact with the people abroad.

I'm then going to continue to do my job in the same way as I've done for the last 10 or 11 years with a very can-do attitude.

Christopher Coe; Client Services Team Leader, Regional Service Centre, Europe.

Most big companies offer good training, what’s so special about HSBC?
I've worked for other large organisations in the past and the different thing that I’ve found about the training, where HSBC differs from the other companies that I’ve work for, is that they give it to you on an individual basis.

Where I've worked previously you've been in a large group, sitting round a computer and you don't really get that personal feel with the training, you don't get that rapport built.

The difference in HSBC was that you were sitting with one individual. They were talking you through the aspects of the job, so you had that individual rapport. You got to know that person as soon as you came in to the company, which made you feel more at home firstly and it makes you feel more comfortable actually learning the role within the company.

What does it take to be successful at HSBC?
To be successful within HSBC, first and foremost you have to be a self-motivated person. Go in there with a positive attitude straight away and the company recognises that within that person.

Secondly, just ask as many questions as you can, get to know as many people as you can, show a general interest in banking and you won't go far wrong.

What would you say to anyone who’s considering a career at HSBC?
To anyone who wants a career within HSBC, I'd say go ahead and apply today.

To be honest, they've got so many varieties of jobs within the bank. There are excellent career opportunities, but they've also got jobs where you can come in, do your 9 to 5 and go home after that, as long as obviously you're willing to do a good job.

There are so many opportunities across the board for a variety of different people. You can go abroad if you want to, or you can stay in this country, there’s just so much opportunity out there.

What are your ambitions over the coming year?
My ambitions within HSBC are to move up within the next 12 months to a management role.

I'm currently in a team leader role, at the present time and obviously the natural progression from that would be to move in to a management role.

I want to do this because I get a pleasure out of what I'm doing at the moment and I want to take that to the next scale. I feel management would give me that.

Rachel Gedrim; Training Support Officer, District Service Centre, Coventry

What were you expecting the job to be like before you joined?
My expectations before I started, was that it would be quite boring.

It was only meant to be a part-time job while I was doing my A levels, but I found that I really enjoyed it, found it really fulfilling and 10 years later I'm still here and I'm enjoying what I'm doing.

The role has changed a lot in that time and I've got a whole lot of experience from it and I’ve been given a lot of opportunities as well.

Most big companies offer good training, what’s so special about HSBC?
What I think is great about HSBC training is that it tends to be people that know the job that they are delivering the training.

As well as getting the training you also get support when the training's over, so it's not just a case of right, there you go, get on with it. You've got that support.

What we tend to do where I work is to have a point of reference. Someone on the team is always there to hand, to answer questions on different situations that occasionally come up. I know certain teams even have a buddy system so they've got someone there all the time.

In addition to that, I work alongside our Centre Trainer and we deliver other courses to help develop skills. One, for example, that we're doing at the moment is ‘Professional Telephone Techniques’. This helps people because it's something that they are quite often daunted by, going on the phone and dealing with customers. It's somewhere where we can hopefully put their fears to rest, before they are actually in the situation.

What would you say to anyone who’s considering a career at HSBC?
If anyone is considering a career with HSBC I'd completely recommend it. It's a great place to work and you meet a lot of great people. The work is quite interesting and varied and you get a lot of support.

In my time here, over 10 years, I've seen a lot of changes and I've been involved in a lot of pilot schemes.

One of the things that I've personally experienced is getting to ‘go global’, to help out there, I've really enjoyed that. I've been to Sri Lanka and India through that.

I've also been involved in work improvement groups; working parties set up to improve a process that already exists. That's been a great experience for me.

That are your ambitions over the coming year?
Over the next year or so, I'm really hoping that I can stay involved with the Quality Presentations we're delivering at the moment. I'm one of about five people delivering them and I'm finding that, as well as being really informative, they’re great fun, they get everyone involved as well and let everyone have their say.

So that's ongoing for the future, but I'd also love to stay involved with the training role that I'm doing at the moment. It's great to work with a variety of different people and really help them develop their skills.

Quxi Ren

Most big companies offer good training, what’s so special about HSBC?

I think there are two things special about HSBC's training; firstly, they keep you training on different departments so you have the opportunity to learn more things and secondly, the way they do the training courses is interactive and fun so you can learn things very easily, pick up things very easily and memorise things easily.

What does it take to be successful at HSBC

If you want to be successful in HSBC, my advice is to be accurate, effective, efficient, reliable and the most important thing is to be a very good team player.

What would you say to anyone who’s considering a career at HSBC?

If you want to work for HSBC just do it, because it has a good reputation, it's a multi-national company, it offers you great staff benefits and if you want to progress there will be opportunities for you.

What are your ambitions over the coming year?

My ambition for next year is to get myself promoted to a higher grade.

I have done my degree, so I hope that I can find work at HBSC in the Investment Department, where I can practice my theory at work.

Rupert Gill Martin, Customer Service Manager, Regional Service Centre

What were you expecting the job to be like before you joined?
I was expecting, when I first joined HSBC, for everyone to be quite serious and for everyone to be quiet. I think a lot of people have an idea of people that work in a bank as being very formal.

In actual fact what I found was a whole range of characters, a very lively atmosphere and a very sociable place to work. There are a lot of things that happen outside of the bank and inside the bank and it's full of very engaging people.

What does it take to be successful at HSBC?
Being successful at HSBC is very much down to you. All the tools are given to you to be successful and it's very much down to your own ambition and how hard you'd like to work.

There are many opportunities for you here and I found that I joined right at the bottom of the bank and rolled my sleeves up and got stuck in. I very quickly found myself being able to move through the organisation to the areas of the bank that I really want to be in and develop my career in.

I've been really impressed with that. It's genuine commitment when the people at the top of the bank say they really care about progressing people and developing people, because the people are the organisation and I've found a genuine commitment to that.

What would you say to anyone who’s considering a career at HSBC?
If someone said to me they were thinking of joining HSBC I'd encourage them to do that. I think it's a great organisation to work for and I very much enjoy my time here.

There are lots of opportunities available in things like operations. There are challenges as well. It can be very tough, demands are made of you, there are deadlines that you have to meet and commitments that you have to make and that's not always easy.

If you're the kind of person that really takes pride in what they do and really likes to make an effort and get rewarded for that, then this is a place you'd really want to work.

What are your ambitions over the coming year?
The next year, I think, is going to be an exciting one for me because I'm moving to a different area of the bank and it's one where I am particularly keen to make a career.

It is looking after some of the largest corporate customers of the bank, being the face of HSBC, if you like and bringing various areas of expertise to the customer as and when required. I’m the point of relationship with one of our larger customers, but behind me there stands all the expertise of HSBC.

I think I'll be good at it and I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in to. My time in the operations department has been a really good grounding for it. There are an awful lot of opportunities actually within operations, but I've found it's given me a really good foundation to go on and move in to another area of the bank, which particularly interests me.