2021 Summer Analyst Program for Hong Kong/Singapore
Havent seen any thread regarding APAC so i thought id open one. Any idea when the apps will open? Could the internships for summer 2020 get canceled?
Havent seen any thread regarding APAC so i thought id open one. Any idea when the apps will open? Could the internships for summer 2020 get canceled?
+186 | Ideal College/Recruiting Timeline | 38 | 2d | |
+134 | Military Officer vs. IB analyst | 47 | 7h | |
+75 | Lied on CV? | 60 | 7h | |
+28 | Is there a point to networking if you have (nepo)? | 8 | 6h | |
Got fired after 1.5 years as an Analyst, want to stay in Banking but I am confused | 10 | 2d | ||
+24 | Recruiting is messed up and I'm not doing this.... | 19 | 5h | |
+23 | Are Single Managers Just Not Hiring? | 10 | 5d | |
+23 | How do I go about explaining huge gaps in a CV for Spring & Summers? | 11 | 2d | |
+21 | IB > PE, except burned out. What now? | 8 | 18h | |
+18 | Laid off, what next? | 8 | 5d |
Career Resources
Networking does not work 90% of the time. You may have better luck if you reach out to someone who studied both university and high school abroad with a more westernized face (caucasian or Chinese who looks ABC).
I guess you are not mainland Chinese given you don't have citizenship. Better not to randomly email them if you don't have anything common. Usually they will help someone they know in real life or undergrad/high school alumni. It may back fire you if you are too westernized to them.
At most firms the juniors can help a bit.
Some firms the analysts screen resume while in others they can shoot HR a short note to help you score a few more points at least.
The main issue is it can backfire you if you are not a mainland Chinese and not used to the mainland Chinese culture.
Actually 90%+ of mainland Chinese will not respond to you anyway unless you are 1) also mainland Chinese (they will just ignore your email for networking if your name does not look mainland Chinese) and 2) having ties such as same high school / undergraduate university or family connection
Occasionally you can find someone who can offer you some tips / advice (but may/may not offer you referral) but sometimes there are toxic people who forward networking emails, laughing at kids trying too hard to beg for internships. At my old firm, there were toxic VP who read out "I am interested in investment banking" in cover letter loud and start non-stop laughing.
I would say nice / toxic people are both rare and most will just ignore your email even you followed up. But if you don't have any ties, better not to try casting a net too wide to avoid these toxic people.
There is a strong preference for mainland Chinese though. At my old BB, they hired 20+ interns this year, only 2 are Hongkies and the rest are mainland Chinese (no Southeast Asian/Korean). You will be tested Chinese very hard during interview and internship. If Chinese is not good enough to translate an English written investment highlights into impactful Chinese ones, then you may better avoid doing IB in HK.
Given your Singaporean ties, I would recommend trying to reach out to Singaporean/Hongkie bankers in HK, preferably with westernized education more than just an undergraduate degree. These people are more used to networking mentality and will take you more seriously.
I have worked in SG and HK. Hope you can land a decent position in HK. Finance in SG is painful I know
HR does not discriminate based on citizenship.
Your interviewer is likely to choose someone who is native in Chinese (that means writing and speaking as good as someone growing up in mainland China and not HK) over anyone else.
Completed internship at a top BB in HK this past week and might be able to add some more color to this discussion. I go to a US target while most of my peers either went to local schools like HKU or semi-targets in the states. Not sure if that helped during the recruiting process (or off-set my less-than native reading/writing skills). I speak like a native mainlander due to my family background and can translate decently well from Mandarin to English, just not the other way around at a high level. For example, I could provide meeting notes during Mandarin DD calls, but could not efficiently translate English decks to Mandarin - this was definitely seen as a negative in my profile.
In my class, only 2 interns were Hongkies. I got close with an analyst towards the end and was told that Chinese ability is so important that certain kids with "elite" Mandarin language abilities were able to secure the return offer purely based on that front, despite severely lacking technical abilities. One intern could barely use MS Office but came from Qinghua/Beida and secured the offer - you get the idea. On the other hand, my personality and work quality was praised by enough people on the floor that they were able to look past the less-than native language level and give me the offer. From my experience, if your language ability is similar to mine, then you definitely need to work a bit harder by delivering work that is at a higher quality than a majority of your peers.
If anyone in this thread is considering HK IBD, feel free to DM me and I might be able to offer some advice from the perspective of someone who just completed an internship here.
Does anyone know why people seem to prefer HK over SG for their internship? Or are both locations equally, say, prestigious>
HK hires 3x more interns
And 80% population in HK are mainland Chinese while 80% in SG are Singaporean. Different demographics but there are probably way more mainland Chinese educated in US on WSO than Singaporeans.
Also, the SG analyst worked with me told me he slept in office for 4 weeks during his SA. While my SA in HK goes home at 3 or 4am even on a very busy day with only 1 all nighter during his internship. SG FT analysts at the more intense shops are having lifestyle of HK SAs
2021 HK/SG SA&FT App Updates, feel free to amend
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SD4YMsSjXEvCEhqXdXInkcstIgZOXDj…