How to get a job at HSBC.

Do you work at HSBC? How did you find the job? How did you get that first interview?

Any advice for someone trying to get in?

Host said: Do you work at HSBC? How did you find the job? How did you get that first interview?
Any advice for someone trying to get in?

I would not see HSBC as the holy grail of employment it has a very sales driven culture. High pressure massive targets long hours and little renumeration.
My advice on getting in do not bother if you wish to remain sane

Host said: Do you work at HSBC? How did you find the job? How did you get that first interview?
Any advice for someone trying to get in?

My daughter worked in the Tampa office in the call center for 6 years. Great company. Most managers were concerned about retaining employees, training, offering feedback,etc. As all jobs, there are always a few "bad" managers. Benefits & perks were good. She got in with a personal reference.

I got an interview with them through campus recruiting. I'm not sure how else would you get an interview with them. I'm nervous as they might not pay as good as I have hope.

The on-site interview is an all-day long event. I was interviewed by 7 people, 1 at a time. Their questions were very common to those found at other companies.

I am a very highly qualified professional with 20 years of experience, and I've found Household Finance and HSBC to be a complete waste of time. The salaries are low, the HR recruiters lie like dogs, and the benefits aren't much. Don't waste your on Household Finance, but HSBC might be okay.

Annonymous said: I am a very highly qualified professional with 20 years of experience, and I've found Household Finance and HSBC to be a complete waste of time. The salaries are low, the HR recruiters lie like dogs, and the benefits aren't much. Don't waste your time on Household Finance, but HSBC might be okay.

The best method is to use a recruiter who will maintain contact with them regularly. They tend to be slackers when it comes to contacting or following up with potential new hires. After 7 years @ HSBC I have seen many great people move on after waiting extended periods of time on the HR reps. The benefits are wonderful but the corporate leaders are snakes.

Mr M said:
I would not see HSBC as the holy grail of employment it has a very sales driven culture. High pressure massive targets long hours and little renumeration.
My advice on getting in do not bother if you wish to remain sane

Do you see hsbc offering good brnefit, regardless of wages?

Mike in Bridgewater, New Jersey said: The best method is to use a recruiter who will maintain contact with them regularly. They tend to be slackers when it comes to contacting or following up with potential new hires. After 7 years @ HSBC I have seen many great people move on after waiting extended periods of time on the HR reps. The benefits are wonderful but the corporate leaders are snakes.

Its better to know exactly what type of company you are looking to work for in advance...read customer feed back

www.whoisdeep.com/2004/11/19/i-hate-hsbc/

The first 2 months of training where not too bad although a lot is to be learnt. Then the ‘fun’ part begins, you are given an ear piece, a white board and a marker and you are literally thrown off to the call centre world. I sat down and started helping customers with their queries, that didn’t seem so bad although sometimes if you do not know the answer to some of their questions, it was either you go and search for someone all over the call centre, may be a team leader is not on break, or else you risk in giving the incorrect answer and having an error coming back at you a month afterwards. For the first couple of days it was fine and also sometimes fun, but then the pressure started. A sales session was given out to our team, and after that all you would hear is “you are here to sell sell sell” in your ears, because that was the most important thing. “Spotting opportunities” and giving the customer what they (need). With every call you had to offer anything, upgrades of accounts, car and home insurance, savings, Loans, mortgages, anything that a customer can take. As long as they take it its fine for HSBC but sometimes if the customer doesn’t need it why offer?, no wonder most of the people are is debt. We were supposed to help he customer not giving them more money problems then they already have.
Pressure continued to take over even more as days went by, stupid competitions where organized, focusing always on selling. For example the team who sells less comes wearing a carnival costume the next day. Well common is this a serious job? You tell me? For me this was such a ridiculous job.
The worst part of all this was when it happened to call in sick. One day it happened, had to call in sick had a terrible tummy ache could not even walk. Human recourses took the phone and told me that I had to

I applied for a Account Executive position with HSBC or HFC/Beneficial. Anybody know about the interview process-how long it takes to recieve an offer of employment. Also what is the base salary for this position. Please any info would be appreciated.

The easiest way to get a job with HSBC/HFC/Beneficial is to apply on their website at www.hsbc.com/careers. HFC/Beneficial is looking for solid sales people and its a great company to work for!

hfc/beneficial seems like the ideal job on the exterior.. but the lingering fact is that, if you get hired, there is a 80% chance that you won't work there within a year. it has one of the worst employee retention rates out there! we're talking mcdonalds, taco bell numbers! RED FLAG! the job is horrible! one of two things will happen in your near future: you will either quit because you aren't "producing" or you will quit because you are tired of ripping off consumers. if you want a very boring job that loves gray area ethics, go for it!

jed balzch in corvallis, Oregon said: hfc/beneficial seems like the ideal job on the exterior.. but the lingering fact is that, if you get hired, there is a 80% chance that you won't work there within a year. it has one of the worst employee retention rates out there! we're talking mcdonalds, taco bell numbers! RED FLAG! the job is horrible! one of two things will happen in your near future: you will either quit because you aren't "producing" or you will quit because you are tired of ripping off consumers. if you want a very boring job that loves gray area ethics, go for it!

This was the funniest things ever, you must have been let go for not producing, its SALES and of course alot of people make it and its because sales is DIFFICULT. I think you know as well as I do there are no gray areas with the audit that is in place-COME ON.

They shortlisted me in 2006 for software development at Bangalore.

Firstly, there was a telephonic technical talk on my cellphone!! It took about 90 minutes talk with some HSBC guys from USA office.

A week later, they called me at Bangalore office and wasted my 2 hours there. There was also a telephonic conference in which same guys participated. It was also technical. After that Bangalore guys showed me their computers, what work they doing. Later, we went terrace and smoked. I was interested and agreeing to their terms including day-night (its similar schedule as day-night cricket matches) work schedule as I'm really habitual to sleep late and wakeup late.

Less than a week later, they called me again on my cellphone for HR round. It was a voice communication error and I couldn't understand, what they folks were speaking. They old guys (HR team) might be using some conference room, sitting round a dinner table and talked me more than an hour. I couldn't hear and understand them properly. They got irritated and I knew, I may be losing this job. This one was a non-technical but HR talk.

I didn't received any offer from them. I wasted my 6 hours in this nonsense process. First thing, they should know that, a person shouldn't be interviewed on his or her cellphone; making international calls, this way is not correct to judge anyone's candidature. Second thing is that, they are also a failure as they wasted their time in conferences, calling me on my cellphone!

I disagree with what they did to me. I was interested. I'm still looking for that kind of job because software/ technical, I got bored and I don't trust their business.

Host said: Do you work at HSBC? How did you find the job? How did you get that first interview?

Any advice for someone trying to get in?

I am "in" and am waiting to be severanced. This is not the best opportunity in the US. i would suggest another field.

Not a complainer in Albany, New York said: The easiest way to get a job with HSBC/HFC/Beneficial is to apply on their website at www.hsbc.com/careers . HFC/Beneficial is looking for solid sales people and its a great company to work for!

do you actually work for bene? omg! it is the worst company left!!!

Easy, don't go there. HSBC is a sweatshop. terrible place to work. Rips off consumers and makes you feel bad when you don't carry their water.

HSBC just sucks. Nothing more to add

Then what are best companies to work for?
Or should be become entrepreneurs?

There may be some companies who support and grow intrepreneurs ;- )

guideseeq in Bangalore, India said: Then what are best companies to work for?
Or should be become entrepreneurs?

There may be some companies who support and grow intrepreneurs ;- )

In Bangalore, there are no companies I can suggest.

I wouldn't recommend them, especially now. Like someone else said it's a sweatshop and I have witnessed this in several departments. They won't hire the people they need so they'll work you like a slave until they can send the jobs to India and then lay you off. (this is happening in MANY departments right now). They have been laying off hundreds at the Buffalo operations centers in the past few weeks. In some departments they're not even giving 2 wks notice to the employees! Salaries are pretty low especially considering they're going to work you like a slave and put you under tremendous stress. It's a horrible atmosphere right now (a few people on my floor actually walked out, quit on the spot-it's got to be pretty bad for people to do that).
Another rant I have is the fact that they make unqualified people managers just because they've been there for a long time. Most managers I've had didn't even have a bachelor's degree, yet some of the jobs they managed required a degree! I actually had a manager who was totally illiterate and couldn't even construct a grade school level sentence. Her emails to us were hilarious. I wish I'd saved them because they were just so unbelievable. She could not even understand simple concepts either. So yeah, most management sucks.

luxe deluce in Buffalo, New York said: I wouldn't recommend them, especially now.

luxe deluce in Buffalo, New York said: I wouldn't recommend them, especially now. Like someone else said it's a sweatshop and I have witnessed this in several departments. They won't hire the people they need so they'll work you like a slave until they can send the jobs to India and then lay you off. (this is happening in MANY departments right now). They have been laying off hundreds at the Buffalo operations centers in the past few weeks. In some departments they're not even giving 2 wks notice to the employees! Salaries are pretty low especially considering they're going to work you like a slave and put you under tremendous stress. It's a horrible atmosphere right now (a few people on my floor actually walked out, quit on the spot-it's got to be pretty bad for people to do that).
Another rant I have is the fact that they make unqualified people managers just because they've been there for a long time. Most managers I've had didn't even have a bachelor's degree, yet some of the jobs they managed required a degree! I actually had a manager who was totally illiterate and couldn't even construct a grade school level sentence. Her emails to us were hilarious. I wish I'd saved them because they were just so unbelievable. She could not even understand simple concepts either. So yeah, most management sucks.

You are probably correct that they make unqualified people managers just because of seniority. Reason being, you live in Buffalo and no qualified person would want to work and/or relocate to Buffalo. Move to Home Office (Mettawa) and I guarantee your comments do not apply. Buffalo is a miserable city, where I could honestly say it's worst than Detroit.

As a former employee of HSBC/Household, I loved every single day of it. HSBC is a great company to work for, especially for people who want to eventually do international opportunities. They helped me develop my skills to land a job @ Goldman Sachs.

umm I recently graduated from university with economics degree. I just applied account executive position.
Can someone please tell me what kind of questions will they ask and things I should be aware of?
I don't have much working experiences.

Ive worked at HSBC now for 5 and a half years, as a customer representative, read (lacky) and i can safely say it is the worst office environment ive ever experienced. the morale is on the floor and has been for at least 4 of those years ive been there, because of numerous factors. First is the migration of work from England to india, we are supposed to be happy to not only let our work go but we are encouraged to liase with the india staff and sometimes people go over there to teach them how to take our own jobs of us. Some people do it which says more about how dense they are than possibly how bad the bank is. Whilst ive been there targets have risen around 35-40 percent to the point where it is nigh on impossible to do your work on any given day.

Sickness is a joke, if you happen to have more than 4 percent/4 occasions off in any given rolling year (very convenient) which equates to 2 weeks with or without a doctors note. you will be put on a plan which means if you go over the 4 percent/occasions again you can be fired. Ive heard of people who have been off coping with the death of a relative being put on these attendence plans, thats how much they dont care about the staff.

On the subject of caring about staff do you remember last year when we had swine flu, we had a couple of cases in our office area, you would have thought they would have at least moved us to another office or quarantined the office, but no we all had to come in and just hope we didnt die from swine flu. They dont care if you die thats what hsbc is about you are just a number to them. This sickness ethic beds in every year because everyone is so scare of having time off everyone comes in with flu so everyone in the centre gets it and its like that for at least 6 months of every year full of a cold.

I will continue this mail in another post as im running out of room........

Don

Host said: Do you work at HSBC? How did you find the job? How did you get that first interview?

Any advice for someone trying to get in?

Don't waste yourself on this company. HR lie and treat people terribly. Morale is terrible. IT systems are the worst, to get simple IT issues resolved requests were often sent from London to India, then India to London, then London to Leeds and finally Leeds to London to get solved by which time my line mgr was tearing his hair out. If you dare to complain about such things you get reported as being a complainer and risk being sacked. No one knows what HR do. Employees have to do most things HR related themselves by computer systems via India which take ages to get anwer to and you will have to continually chase to get a reply. I saw many people 'let go' for no reason and HR managers taking the day off as leave the day the staff had to go. Junior HR staff were sent to meet with the leaving staff whom were not able to give a good reason for departure to the leaving staff. These junior HR people had no experience and were very rude to leavng staff not even allowing them to email cvs to agencies and marching them off the premises, barely giving them time to collect their personal effects. There are thousands of other better companies to work for, go there instead.

gina in Mansfield, United Kingdom said: Don't waste yourself on this company. HR lie and treat people terribly. Morale is terrible. IT systems are the worst, to get simple IT issues resolved requests were often sent from London to India, then India to London, then London to Leeds and finally Leeds to London to get solved by which time my line mgr was tearing his hair out. If you dare to complain about such things you get reported as being a complainer and risk being sacked. No one knows what HR do. Employees have to do most things HR related themselves by computer systems via India which take ages to get anwer to and you will have to continually chase to get a reply. I saw many people 'let go' for no reason and HR managers taking the day off as leave the day the staff had to go. Junior HR staff were sent to meet with the leaving staff whom were not able to give a good reason for departure to the leaving staff. These junior HR people had no experience and were very rude to leavng staff not even allowing them to email cvs to agencies and marching them off the premises, barely giving them time to collect their personal effects. There are thousands of other better companies to work for, go there instead.

As a former experienced branch staff member the definition of customer service means SELL to the customer or do not waste time with them! SALES meant more than service and unless customers were "High Value" or fee paying account holders we were told to advise them to use the phone or the machines in the branch rather than offer personal assistance and told to concentrate on anything that would help meet the branches every increasing sales targets. Pay is poor and morale low with targets being fiddled to satisfy the area managers. Staff who did not perform well on selling were put on performance reviews, managed out or given such a hard time they became ill with stress and the targets were ever increasing and mis selling became rife. AVOID HSBC

gina in Derby, United Kingdom said: Don

HSBC do not value their staff only SALES TARGETS - high stress levels if you have any morals and are an honest person who will not sell a customer a product they do not need you won't fit in.