Hong Kong Internship Strategy

Hey Guys,

A bit about my background: I'm going to be a Junior next year at HYP, majoring in History with a 3.9 GPA. I've got a strong Math background as well with some Econ courses. I also did a short internship this summer with a real estate PE firm. I have pretty good Chinese, written and spoken, and would like to try and eventually work in Asia.

My question is: I'm looking to find a summer 2011 internship in HK, and I am wondering what the best strategy is, i.e. timing of alumni networking, which firms to apply to, what the competition is like, etc etc. I'm a US citizen, so I'm also curious about Visa issues for working in HK. Any and all comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

AFAIK, there are definitely quite a lot more people who get internships through the family than London (and I'd assume US as well). I am from Hong Kong but most of my friends who work in the industry are in London. One of my friend at a non-BB IBD told me that he knows quite a few people there got the job from family, including himself.

I am a British Hong Kong and would love to work in Hong Kong, but I may go for London just because of the 'probably slightly' better odds. In terms of networking, i'd advice you to start now and try to get the alumni to refer you the internships ;)

 

AFAIK, there are definitely quite a lot more people who get internships through the family than London (and I'd assume US as well). I am from Hong Kong but most of my friends who work in the industry are in London. One of my friend at a non-BB IBD told me that he knows quite a few people there got the job from family, including himself.

I am a British Hong Kong and would love to work in Hong Kong, but I may go for London just because of the 'probably slightly' better odds. In terms of networking, i'd advice you to start now and try to get the alumni to refer you the internships ;)

 

Got it. Thanks for the advice! I suppose I'll try now to start making connections with alumni and people that I've befriended in my time in Asia and see where that goes. Do you think that, if I want to work in Asia in the long run, it is important to first go to Hong Kong, as opposed to starting out in New York? I'd like to keep improving my language skills if I'm abroad, so that's a factor too.

 

hey untilted, dont worry. i just got an email from lehman about my first phone interview... pretty unexpected, i submitted on their websie only.

I also have an interview with Lehman in Houston, will I be dropped from one of them?

Ranger, what questions did u get from Lehman? How techincal did it get for you? thanks buddy, i hope to see u at the superday in NYC.

 

i did the fit part for ml with a VP, technical next week, gs tmr with HR two calls from DB, one from an analyst, the other from an associate. haven't heard back yet just did UBS today, from an analyst

haven't heard from Lehman, CS, JPM, citi. ditched by MS.

 

The lehman questions were really random for me. It jumped from behavioral to technical. As far as technical gets, they asked me for the methods of valuation and the differences between the methods. they also asked for the contents and descriptions of a pitch book. and lastly basic accounting questions with all the accounting statements and how they're related. surprisingly they didn't ask me anything from my resume (even tho i had previous work experience) and the fit questions were mostly why lehman? why hk? and give me some examples of how you follow the market in asia.

As far as the other BB firms in HK, will they contact me if I'm rejected for an interview? cuz i haven't heard anything back from them yet...

 

untilted - i had the same problem as you with a BB. they didn't call when they promised to, had to send them an e-mail for an explanation. not much of an apology was received from the BB. in the end, had to reschedule for another time this week.

normally i wouldn't mind a reschedule, but because of the time zone differences between the U.S. and HK, the scheduled interviews are all at very odd times (had one at 5am last week) so a cancelled interview (especially last minute) really sucks. hopefully i won't get stood up again!

 

yes i took the test. i thought it was hard too, didn't finish the last two questions even. but nothing of it was ever mentioned again once the interview process began.

 

hey guys, just want to update on the interview process.

so far i've interviewed with ubs, jpm, lehman, merrill, morgan stanley

got dinged by gs and db

still waiting to hear back from citi and cs (although my hopes are low since it seems like everyone's gone through or got invited to the 1st round interviews already by now)

i will keep keep updating on the results from the banks i've interviewed with when i hear back

 

Obviously you do, as you applied to the program.

Claiming that no one wants to work for Citi after you applied and got dinged by the firm shows some real class...

 

anyone heard back from GS after the first phone interview?

Ranger, still waiting for Lehman to call... I must say, this 8PM-12AM timeframe is keeping me from having beers or even shower... they should call either today or tomorrow. how did u cope with this?

 

haha i had the same problem with another bb. except 10x worse. it was on a weekend from 7am-10am so basically that meant no going out for me on friday, sat night. basically, wherever i went i just took my cell with me. i was just going to say "sorry but can you please hold for a minute while i get back into my room" if they called while i was not in my room. luckily the call came when i was sitting at my desk. good luck to you with lehman. is your interview a back to back one with two associates?

 

I just got an email from JPM with the subject: "JPMorgan ranks first as the best investment bank". I'm sure that many of you also got this same email.

Nice of the bank to sell itsself to me for a change. :)

 

got through 1st round phone interview, waiting for 2nd round interviewer to call...and hope to get in superday after that. How come IBD and GIR don't have 2nd round but go directly into superday?

 

people who had their final rds with jpm, how were your experiences? mine was a combination of fit, technical, case study, and problem solving questions. luckily i had a very friendly group for the case study ie: no fighting to take the spot light and sharing of ideas during the discussion.

the only thing that bothered me was the chinese translation test. the english article had some very technical finance terms and i had to write them out in english instead of chinese during my translation. how much do you think the translation test will affect the results of the offers?

 

Congrats... which one are you going to take? UBS clearly has the stronger name in Asia, but I really like JPM more...

 

seriously. PM me if u get an internship in hk. I'd love to meet up with u guys. it'll be a great summer. and if u guys need any info on any of interviews i'd had so far, please just PM. good luck and i hope to see all of you in hk this summer!

 

i interviewed with 6 other college juniors in chicago for jpm and ubs. they were all asian descent. HOWEVER, the interviewers from jpm, half of them were of caucasion descent. for UBS all the interviewers were Asian. Hopefully that answers your question.

 

Hey guys, I am applying from London and so far have Citigroup and JPMorgan final round next Monday, Merrill Lynch final round on 4th of Feb, Credit Suisse final round in NY on 1st of Feb (not sure if I am flying over for that one though) and am still waiting to hear back from GS after my 2nd round and MS after my 1st round this week.

Good luck everyone!!

 

Nowadays it's pretty much all Asian. There's just a massive supply in China, HK, Singapore, Taiwan. In HK, everyone's talking about working in an investment bank. Not to mention all the 2nd generation overseas Chinese from US, UK, Canada etc.

 

heard from 2 people that CS is having superdays Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun GS is having superdays Fri, Sat, Sun JPM is having superdays Sat only

there must be so many people applying for these internships

 

GS for fri sat and sun? do you mean for the whole HK team? or for a specific group? I guess it's for everything that includes IBD research PWM Securities, right?

Anyone for GS HK IBD?

 

I actually already have an offer from JPM Asia IBD. I also know that many people (at least those who interviewed with me) are getting calls today. I think you're probably on the waitlist if they told you that they were pushing it back another week... they probably want to test the yield of this round of offers. Nonetheless, I'm considering turning down the offer, so that might open up a spot for you.

 
b:
I actually already have an offer from JPM Asia IBD. I also know that many people (at least those who interviewed with me) are getting calls today. I think you're probably on the waitlist if they told you that they were pushing it back another week... they probably want to test the yield of this round of offers. Nonetheless, I'm considering turning down the offer, so that might open up a spot for you.

Yep. Got a call from JP today but too bad that I just accepted an offer from ML. =( Which bank are u turning down JP for?

 

just got a call from JPM from one of my VP interviewers, and he gave me a verbal offer over the phone

so yea, im pretty sure they've called the people that they really want already. a couple of friends of mine who interviewed with jpm ibd hk have not heard back yet, so i'm guessing they've been put on waiting list?

 

what do you guys think the odds are of applying to one bank, getting one first round interviews, and getting into superday, and landing an offer?

i think i was very lucky because the only HK BB IBD i applied for was jpm, and i got an offer without interviewing with any other banks. i think i screwed up my london apps because i left all the online numerical tests to the date of the deadlines, as i have not heard back from any others.

and also, how hard is it to land an offer from JPM? the interviewer told me over the phone he thought i 'was one of the top candidates,' but i'm sure they say that to all the people they offer a place to. i'm thinking maybe i should have cast my net wider and applied HK IBD at MS, GS, UBS, CS, LB, so i could have more options open. but i have no regrets - i loved the JPM interviewers and think they are building up a signficant presence in Asia

finally, who has decided to take the JPM offer?

 
wsosurfer:
what do you guys think the odds are of applying to one bank, getting one first round interviews, and getting into superday, and landing an offer?

i think i was very lucky because the only HK BB IBD i applied for was jpm, and i got an offer without interviewing with any other banks. i think i screwed up my london apps because i left all the online numerical tests to the date of the deadlines, as i have not heard back from any others.

and also, how hard is it to land an offer from JPM? the interviewer told me over the phone he thought i 'was one of the top candidates,' but i'm sure they say that to all the people they offer a place to. i'm thinking maybe i should have cast my net wider and applied HK IBD at MS, GS, UBS, CS, LB, so i could have more options open. but i have no regrets - i loved the JPM interviewers and think they are building up a signficant presence in Asia

finally, who has decided to take the JPM offer?

Hey, so u had your superday with JPM in London? I was there on the 1st day of the interviews. So I guess it was John Wang who called you and gave you the offer. =D I loved them as well and actually thought I screwed up one of my interviews and would never hear back from them. So accpeted an offer from ML just hours before he called.

 

he1c14h10, I PMed you.

(JW also told me that I was one of the "top candidates, out of over 150 that they saw." generic line. =/)

 

From the sample size of "this forum", it seems like yield for JPM is not very good this year. At least 3 people have turned down a JPM Asia offer (Ranger, he1c14h10, and myself) and they usually have a class size around 20 (I believe).

 

was told that JPM's retention rate for FT offer was 100% last year from direct hiring (excluding the SEO interns who did not get an offer). this feeling of safety for a FT offer is tempting no? haha

 

Haha... stupid SEO. I made another post about how I was not impressed by the SEO kids interviewing for JPM HK and some people seemed to get upset (people who, I assume, have never interacted with the awkwardness that is an SEO intern). I think there are various sources and posts on this msg board that affirm that SEO kids really are not up to snuff.

Someone else said it best: "I've personally had poor experiences with SEO interns. Not very impressed by them, but your mileage may vary."

 

I was very surprised to hear JPM still involved with SEO in HK (with LEH and ML) since all of the interns SEO gave JPM last summer did not get FT offers.

To Ratatouille: I always ask the person who gave me the offer how big their summer class is going to be, and what was the retention rate last year. Or you can go around this subject by asking "if all the interns performs well, will everyone be offered a FT position?"

 

Didn't realize that MER was also involved with SEO. From the SEO kids with whom I spoke, I was under the impression that it was strictly LEH and JPM. LEH sucks (esp. in HK) so I'm not surprised that they scrounged on. JPM could easily do better.

 

Where'd you hear that? Seems that many people on this board got Asia offers (and many got Asia offers but no NY offers). Also seems like Asia yield is going suck (but maybe that happens every year).

 

heard about the 100% retention from john w. i asked him over the phone about it. he did make it clear it was 100% retention only from direct hires (aka excluding the SEO interns who did not get offers)

 
Best Response

Yes - avoid the midlevels like the plague. Overpriced and not convenient for public transport. Every single expat and most in finance/law for some reason move to the midlevels. I almost made the same mistake. I would have except I could not afford it. Wanchai and Sheung Wan (close to Central) are also getting incredibly expensive. If you are on HK Island side, you can live in a number of places as long as its near the Island line so consider options say in Tin Hau, North Point etc. It's only about a 15ish minute subway ride to work and can save a lot of money.

I know for less about living on the Kowloon side (ie. if you work in ICC at Kowloon station) but housing is much more reasonable in parts of Kowloon such as Hung Hom. I think TST is quite pricy, and places like Mongkok/Jordan/Yau Ma Tei may be a bit noisy for your liking but a true HK experience and very convenient. Public transport if awesome in HK so if you live near the MTR (subway) you should be fine in general.

For short stays, ask around. Look at airbnb as well as asiaxpat... Don't know about internships or pay, sadly.

Good Luck

I used to do Asia-Pacific PE (kind of like FoF). Now I do something else but happy to try and answer questions on that stuff.
 

Kennedy Town is a good place to look. There's busses, siu ba and cabs to get you to work (siu ba for me to ifc in less than 10 minutes most mornings), increasing number of Western places to eat, local Cantonese food and a wet market if you're inclined that way. Big public pool to cool off in on weekends.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
 

...And K Town is supposed to have MTR in 2015 (sometime...)

I used to do Asia-Pacific PE (kind of like FoF). Now I do something else but happy to try and answer questions on that stuff.
 

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Greed is Good.
 

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