Working at HSBC in China: Sammi Liu

In this case study, Sammi Liu discusses her career journey to become a Finance Transformation Platform Assistant Manager at HSBC in Hong Kong.

What is your current role and what motivated you to apply for it?

I have been working in project management since graduation in 2015, and currently am working as the Assistant Project Manager. I was heading towards the Project Management path with a pretty clear mind after graduation because we had a Project Management course in the MSc Management at UCL, and I found it super interesting and attractive.

How did UCL prepare for your current role?

I would say the best support and help I got offered by UCL is the career service. I visited the office very often and got so much help from the adviser, who very patiently helped me prepare for interviews, spot any shortcomings in my presentation/CV, and boosted my confidence quite a lot. Overall the career centre at UCL is definitely a great impetus of students’ career development.

How did you find the transition from studying in the UK to working in China? 

The problem I can foresee when students want to find a job in the UK directly through the official recruitment process of Chinese companies is that firstly, many of them have campus recruiting events, which obviously students in the UK cannot join. Secondly, there is a time gap between the fresh graduate program and the graduation time of UK universities. How I did it was that I joined a consultancy firm in the UK, which placed me back in Hong Kong directly. This might be something that students in the UK can try if they want to start working in China right after graduation.

What does a typical day at work look like for you?

My daily work is pretty routine as my projects are all long-term, i.e. more than 1 year.

What do you find most enjoyable and most challenging?

Every day I am dealing with tasks to prepare for project release, including stakeholder management, BA tasks etc. The enjoyable part is that it is pretty dynamic, and dealing with people is interesting. The challenging part is also dealing with people, which can be quite complicated.

Have you seen your role grow or evolve over the past months or years? 

Definitely, as mentioned in the above point. I am under a pure finance department, but I am dealing with a lot of technology related tasks right now, and the bank is investing in educating its employees with cutting edge technologies, or at least the parts that are being adopted by the banking industry. COVID19 is just bringing in a new working style that remote working is becoming a widely accepted and welcomed way. 

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