I applied online. The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at HSBC (London, England) in Sep 2018
Interview
I applied online through LinkedIn and got an email within 2 days asking me to complete an online questionnaire to see how I respond to difficult management decisions. I completed the questionnaire online and received a call the next day asking for an interview. I had a phone interview with the man that would be my boss. Then they asked me immediately to come in for in-person interviews with 2 people that would be peers as well as a video conference with the same man from the first interview (who would be my boss). I flew to London for the weekend for personal reasons but had to rebook my flight home and pay for an extra night in a hotel to stay for the interview. I inquired as to reimbursement of my travel expenses and was declined by HSBC.
Through the entire process the HSBC recruiting/HR individual was very prompt in calling or emailing me. Very pleasant and always kept me updated at the times he said that he would. Overall I had a fantastic feeling about working for HSBC and was thrilled to feel that I was a great candidate for the role. This was a management/senior level role. They were only interviewing about 4-5 candidates in total. The interview with the people that would be my peers felt strange because they focused 10 minutes of the 50 minute interview asking me about my education even though I have 15 years of experience and this is a management role. After the interviews I had emailed HR to extend my thanks to my interviewers and was told I would receive feedback soon. And then the automated HSBC bot rejection email came 1.5 weeks later. No call or email from the guy I’d been working with for 7 weeks. No feedback on why I wasn’t the chosen candidate. It’s extremely painful to go through an automated rejection like that with no feedback for a senior management role and completely soured the experience for me.
Aside from that I had interviewed for a different role at HSBC about 1 month before this and they also told me I would receive news on next steps shortly. A senior management role. Weeks later they hadn’t contacted me so I reached out to inquire status. Nobody wrote me back.
Overall makes me doubt ever interviewing with HSBC again.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell us about how you feel that your skills contribute to the needs of this role
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at HSBC in Jun 2017
Interview
Was referred internally but had to compete through entire process. Immediate pickup of my app by HR (likely because of referral), then 3 interviews at SVP level. Offer was 2.5 weeks after my last interview.
soft skills questions and technical interview testing specific job knowledge Overall background and previous experience, long application to be filled in, some basic testing and an assessment online test prior to the interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A difficult customer experience situation and how did you handle