Expanding Careers to the International Arena

/ HSBC – Hanui Kim (02) /

An increasing number of KUBS students are finding employment abroad. Many students aspire to find jobs in companies operating abroad or global companies as they offer an opportunity to develop a global mind-set and learn best practices. The following is an excerpt of an interview with Mr. Hanui Kim (Business 02) who was admitted to the International Program Manager program at HSBC. HSBC was recently chosen as the ‘World’s greatest company and biggest bank’ by Forbes Magazine in 2008.

- What is the recruitment process?

There are 5 rounds in the selection process for HSBC International Manager.

The 1^st round is resume screening. The 2^nd round consists of an online numerical/verbal test. The 3^rd round is a telephone interview invitation. I talked to an HR personnel in London for about an hour on the phone. We talked about why I wanted to work at HSBC, my vision of HSBC and leadership tendencies among other things. For the 4^th round, I received an invitation from the Selection Center and chose to go to Hong Kong which was the closest destination from Korea. For two days (Jan 19-20 2009) we had to go through a series of activities that included delivering presentations, writing reports, participating in group discussions and individual interviews etc. On day one, we were told to have confidence as we had made it to the Selection Center out of 2000 applicants from around the world that applied for the 1^st round of resume screening. The last round was a phone interview with the managers in London. Unlike the 3^rd round, the focus of the last round was to see the English fluency of the applicants.

-How did you prepare?

Before graduating I tried to take full advantage of everything KUBS offered me. I got first-hand experience of state-of-the-art finance last summer when I worked as an intern at Bloomberg Hong Kong. I developed confidence while studying at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as an exchange student in 2007.

IFRA, the finance study group at KU, was also helpful in the recruitment process. Under the guidance of Professor Cho Jin-Wan every morning IFRA members gathered in the Lee Myung-Bak Lounge to read the Financial Times and have discussions. Also our weekly studies on valuation, M&A and capital markets naturally helped me to portray confidence throughout the interview process. At first I was very nervous when I saw the other talented students from Beijing University, Hong King University and Honk Kong Science and Technology University at the Selection Center. But I was able to receive good scores from the interviewers when I clearly indentified the economic issues and themes as I had practiced before. More than anything else I was able to confirm the competitiveness of Global KU when I was offered a job over 7 other talented students from the Asia Pacific region.

 - What are your plans?

Starting from June 19^th, along with the other 80 International Managers from around the world, I will receive four weeks of training in the London head office before being assigned to a job. I am deeply delighted and at the same time feel a great sense of responsibility as one of the many people who are responsible for the future of the HSBC group.

 - What would like to say to the other students?

I would like to say that you must continue to think deeply about the work you want to do. At first, the dream may seem difficult to reach and uncertain. But as your dreams become more concrete you will gain more confidence. The vague aspiration I had about finance began to take shape and became clearer after internship at companies like ING, Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank. Also have pride in being a KU student and continue to develop your potential.

* Photo: Hanui Kim (in the middle) with other interns at Bloomberg Hong Kong