Summer Analyst

Applied on company website for Investment Banking Summer Analyst 2018 position sometime in September 2017. Did not hear back until February when I was asked my availability for a phone interview via email. Soon after the phone interview began it was clear that the firm was recruiting specifically for LatAm DCM, although it was never explicitly stated. The interview was 2-on-1 and started off normally enough with questions about myself and my resume. Approximately halfway through the interviewers asked me if I would be comfortable switching to Spanish. Being fluent in Spanish I had no problem and completed the interview in Spanish. The rest of the questions were also standard behavioral questions about teamwork, prior work experience, leadership, etc. The final question of the interview was about whether or not I was interested in specific aspects of investment banking:

"One of our jobs as analysts who are interviewing is to make sure that we can place candidates in teams properly for superdays. So would you say you're more specifically interested in M&A or LevFin or....Latin American Debt Capital Markets?"

Despite the clever subtlety, I was able to deduce that they were recruiting specifically for LatAm DCM. I made up a story as to why I was interested in learning about LatAm DCM and the interview ended there. A few days later I received an email saying I had been selected for a superday with the LatAm DCM team. I flew out to NYC, interviewed with the LatAm DCM team, two people at a time. Received the offer to summer there a week later.

I later found out that HSBC had already filled up their recruiting for all other teams that weren't LatAm DCM by November.