Where It Began
Original Timestamp: February 2, 2015
I’m Perkins, currently a project manager in Information Technology & Operations for one of the leading international banks. I started off my career as a management trainee, finished my traineeship, and deployed to the project management office.
Figured I would start my first blog post by writing something informational about what processes did I have to go through to get into a graduate scheme (some called management associate program) in banking.
How did I come across MA programs in banking?
Summer 2014, I woke up early to work on my dissertation and capstone project at the library, as usual. The dissertation, the capstone project, and job hunting — I had a lot on my mind.
Back then, I was only looking for an opportunity in consulting. Banking was never on my mind until one day I came across this 104.com job ad sent by HSBC. It’s an invitation to its MA program called Young Banker.
How did the interview with HSBC go?
I still hadn’t secured a job at that point anyway, so I went for the HSBC interview. I was stunned that the interviewer was an Indian lady who didn’t fall under the definition of a patient person, especially when she had to put up with my inability to understand her thick Indian accent.
The interview only took 20 mins, and of course, I failed to proceed to the next stage. To be fair, I didn’t invest much time in preparation because my heart was still with consulting.
How did it go from HSBC to SCB?
However, HSBC interview didn’t sacrifice for nothing. I had a chance to do some researches in banking and I found out there were opportunities which my skills and degree would be a fit with. SCB was similar to HSBC, and its application deadline is in 1 week. I gave my resume a quick makeover and sent it out just in time. I applied for Human Resources International Graduate (HR IG).
What were the application processes and how long did each of them take?
I went through the below steps for HR IG position.
- Resume
- Online psychometric
- Phone interview with agency outsourced in India.
- Video or phone interview with HR from SCB.
- Assessment Center, which consisted of
- One on one interview with the panel that’s composed of BU Management team.
- Group presentation.
- Group interview with the panel that’s composed of BU Management team.
- One on one interview with the Country HR head.
- Offer.
The entire process took about a month. I went through all these steps and flew back home for steps 5 and 6 just to let SCB called and told me their IG headcount hadn’t been approved 2 weeks later. At least they were kind enough to transfer me to another BU’s MA program — IT and Operations. (Yeah, it’s HR to IT. Considered this a career transition before you even start your career.) So, I had to go through one more session — Panel Interview. This time was in SCB HQ in London using video conference. (Thank god they didn’t ask me to fly all the way back home for this interview).
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It didn’t take long for SCB to give me a job offer after the Panel Interview. It was about 2 weeks. Then, I confirmed my availability and willingness. Signed the contract. Everything was set!
What preparation did I do before each step?
- Resume — It’s all about quantifying your achievements and a good looking layout that will make you stand out of the crowd. Use dollars, percentages, etc.
- Online psychometric test — It’s all about the practice in advance online. Find test resources online and prepare as soon as possible. You might want to start your preparation as soon as you start your graduate school.
- Phone interview with agency outsourced in India — They only ask common competence-based questions. You can prepare it, have your answers written down, and print them out or have them in front of you while you do the interview. They don’t see you shuffling among pages anyway.
If you’re not an English native speaker, or you foresee difficulties in understanding Indian accents, you might need to find a couple of YouTube videos with Indians hosting the shows or watch Bollywood for a while just to get used to it.
When at the interview, if you don’t understand the questions, just nicely ask for a rephrase or an explanation. The best way is to rephrase the question to your phone interviewer to confirm your understanding. If it’s not what the interviewer is asking, they will shoot you the question again.
Keep in mind that the purpose of this stage is to collect information about your skills, experiences, background, and competences. It’s not an English listening test.
Another tip — when you answer to the question, speak a bit slower than you used to and stop at somewhere that makes sense. Before you move on to the next passage of yours, ask if you can move on or your interview still needs a minute to finish up his/her typing. It’s because the person interviewing you needs to type what you say into the application system, so the application system can do the capability mapping work without human interference. Hence, it’s important you let the interviewer captures every main point you mentioned in a structured way.
- Video or phone interview with HR from SCB — This is mostly no different to the previous one except you will speak English with someone with understandable accents, and you get to see them via webcam.
Dress up for the show. Memorize your answers, but try not to read it out like you are citing from memory. I find it useful that you do a SWOT analysis on yourself in terms of your skills and experiences against what are required for the industry and position. (Not necessary a SWOT analysis. As long as it’s something that can help you focus on your strengths and weaknesses).
- Assessment Center, which consisted of:
One on one interview with the panel that’s composed of BU Management team — I will skip the cliche self-introduction here. To impress the Panel, you have to know where are they coming from. Panel usually is made of a bunch of senior management who knows high level corporate strategies but doesn’t have to willpower to implement it. Or worse, they socialize their way up to that position (aka social butterflies that usually are no brainers). Anyway, what you should prepare is a presentation deck where you demonstrate your analysis on the company and propose no more than 3 opportunities facing the company with a constructive way of rolling it out. I remembered I dug out Annual Statements in the past 3 years, and gathered as much information as I can. The Annual Statements were my primary source of company information later on used in my presentation deck.
Not only would you need to do great on your analysis and proposal, but also need your attention to the interactions and reactions among Panel fellows. Oftentimes, the no-brainers might side with you, and you can leverage the social pressure among the Panel to gain some more votes and likes.
Group presentation — It’s about how you interact with your teammates. Again, personality. This is where you demonstrate you can work in a team as they stated in the job description.
One tip is to find a role to play in the team that matches your true personality. Go do some Google search on role-playing in a group interview. From what I observed, the panel tends to favor coordinator who facilitates the group conversation and leads them to a conclusion everyone can all agree upon.
Don’t worry if you’re a shy type. You can play the note-taking role and summarize the entire conclusion at the end. It shows you’re well-structured and you can follow the conversation flow.
Remember, the point is how you can contribute to the group as a member.
Group interview with the panel that’s composed of BU Management team — Normally you should be able to sense the vibe whether you did good on previous Panel sessions or now considering that they might tend into your statements among your fellow interviewees. To strengthen your already great impression, you have to be reasoning in a constructive and structured way. Remember, you can always disagree with what your fellow interviewees said but do this nicely. Focus on the logical points instead of getting personal.
One on one interview with Country HR head — there wasn’t anything to prepare. If you make it this far, that means you have already prepared everything you possibly could — ability wise and time wise. At this stage, I believe it’s all about personality. You can dig into the background of the head from Facebook or LinkedIn just to have a feeling about what his\her personality is, and if that will be compatible with yours. However, you have to be able to find the person first.
