Tom is an international commercial associate at HSBC. He graduated in 2006 with a BA in Business Studies from the University of Sheffield.

I wanted to go into a career where I would be able to use the knowledge that I gained during my degree. I applied to the HSBC retail banking graduate programme, amongst others, and progressed through the various rounds - online testing, interviews and an assessment centre. After the HSBC assessment centre they contacted me and suggested that, due to my analytical skills, I would be better suited to their commercial banking scheme instead. I did my research, liked what I found out, and never looked back.

I spend my time analysing accounts and business plans, and making decisions about whether the bank should lend to clients, so my degree laid the foundations for all the analysis and numerical skills that I use. A business-related degree isn’t a requirement for the role though, so I don’t think it helped me to secure the position.

The graduate programme was a series of placements designed to develop my knowledge of the business and how it runs. The first three months were in retail - a high street branch - dealing with day to day customer queries, helping to meet their needs with our products, which was an excellent introduction to the bank’s customer service ethos.

I then moved into commercial banking for nine months as a business specialist. This was working with the smaller businesses which typically have annual turnovers of less than £500,000 per year.

My third placement, also for nine months, was as a commercial officer, supporting various commercial managers. These managers were dealing with larger and more complex business customers.

My final placement was shadowing a senior manager. This level of management looks after large, complex and long-standing customers, so I was able to see high level customer relationship management in operation, and the types of decisions that bring in a great deal of revenue for the bank.

At the end of the scheme I was promoted to commercial manager. The main purpose of this role was to help my portfolio of 250 small and medium-sized businesses (up to £2m turnover) grow. Over the 20 months I was doing this role I worked with an incredibly wide variety of companies: retail, wholesale, agriculture, manufacturing, you name it. It’s impossible to be an expert in every sector, so I regularly worked with the bank’s industry experts and discussed clients with my peers.

I’m now an international commercial associate, based in Harrogate, covering North Yorkshire firms that have a turnover of more than £5m and which trade internationally. The size and cross-boundary nature of these businesses make them very complex, so I now spend even more time liaising with colleagues, many of whom are based overseas, and ensuring that the correct paperwork is completed.

I really enjoy meeting the people behind the businesses, seeing how they run their companies, and helping them move it on to the next stage. There are some brilliant business people out there and it’s great having a part in their success.

I’ve also really appreciated the excellent training I’ve received, and development opportunities I’ve been given. The bank has also supported me through my Diploma in Corporate Banking from the ifs School of Finance which I studied for via distance learning.

I’m really enjoying commercial banking, so I’d like to progress along that route. I’d like to spend sometime in the more technical aspects of the role, such as the credit team, who do the in-depth analysis related to large lending requests.