Choice between two offers
I was lucky enough to get two offers for a summer analyst position:
1) HSBC Global Banking Advisory, London 2) Bank of America Advisory, Hong Kong
Having trouble deciding between the two and could use some advice.
As far as I'm concerned, the pros of HSBC are that one of the Associates told me they will be giving most of their (12) advisory interns full time offers this year considering the standard of applicants. Also, unlike the BofA offer I got the internship through the interview process. Cons, its HSBC Advisory, so lower dealflow, less focus on investment banking company-wide (they recently scrapped their healthcare team for example), also the people there didn't seem to enjoy their work, or working at HSBC.
I'd be interested if anyone knows what BofA in Hong Kong is like. Cons first, I got the internship through a family friend without an interview, so as far as getting a job at the end goes I don't really know. I've spent some time studying Mandarin (far from fluent though). Basically, it has a better reputation, and more focus on Advisory, also Hong Kong is amazing and it'd look great on a CV.
What do you guys think?
HongKong, for the wow factor and the experience of Asia itself. I have heard London is a pretty depressing place to be these days...
Hong Kong. You'll get very depressed in London.
for sure - but that's only because I'm already in Asia and could do with some London/NY experience
If your family friend had so much pull as to give you an internship without an interview, is it not fair to say that you have a decent shot at a FT offer so long as you are a decent/good intern? I can imagine it working against someone if they were average or below par (others besides the family friend thinking - well this guy kinda just waltzed in here via connections, etc. - there was an intern at my old group who was just abysmal - it was very obvious he got in via alumni help or something) but that will be the case regardless given the limited spots this year.
Shouldn't you learn Cantonese if you're going to HK?
Educated HK citizens speak English better than the average American. They use a larger vocabularly than the average American and have less run-on sentences as well as better spelling and even grammar. There was an article on this but I'm too lazy to go dig it up. What screws the Americans in this research are all the Urban and Southern people.
Anyways, you'll be fine speaking English.
one more add to juniorr's point
If you want to be successful in HK doing banking, Mandarin is also a must.
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