I would like to add to the review left on 29 June 2020 for the Commercial Banking (CMB) Graduate Programme to reflect that the sentiment described was definitely not an isolated case - a lot of graduates had similar experiences.
Removing subjective judgments the CMB Graduate Scheme has been plagued by numerous problems - I would address two in this review. First, mismanagement. Across different cohorts graduates have been told at the very last minute of “sudden business changes” which required re-assignments from value-adding placements to basic call centre roles, and in at least two instances even a mandatory extension of at least six months to the 18-months programme graduates signed on to. What graduates signed on to was an 18-month national mobility situation, not what inevitability transpired as described. It was widely felt that there was complete disregard for any personal circumstances, where everyone was expected to accept this out-of-contract, unforeseen arrangement without protest (for any protest received admonishments for graduates being “ungrateful” and “entitled” and “having bad attitudes”), uproot themselves and resolve any logistical or financial issues at last-minute notice, with minimum to no support.
Second, under-qualified graduate managers. While the above described could be explained as top-down instructions outside of the graduate team’s control being poorly executed by the graduate managers, the managers’ lack of CMB knowledge and lack of initiative to remedy that after years of being in the role was inexcusable. This was particularly problematic was because graduate placements were allocated by graduate managers, who screened placement applications. Graduates were told to write their applications in laymen terms, because if graduates included “technical banking terms”, the graduate managers would not be able to understand the application and would disregard those parts as irrelevant. This greatly affected the chances of graduates being placed in teams that best fit their skills and desired career paths.
Numerous other issues could be raised with ample examples which would result in this review being unreadably long. I hope, however, that the detailed examples given in this review could give some context as to how the CMB graduate scheme was run.
I could confirm here, however, that as stated in the 29 June 2020 review, favouritism and preferential treatments were existent, and that the high dropout rate of graduates particularly in the past year, as well as graduates taking time off due to the graduate programme compromising graduates’ mental health were true.
