“Last summer, I worked in Citibank as a global consumer banking (GCB) summer analyst for 10 weeks. Within the consumer banking division, I joined the customer acquisition team as a full-time intern to support the day-to-day responsibilities of the team.

It kicked off with a 1.5-day orientation with over 100 interns across different divisions. The orientation sessions provided a brief overview of the banking industry to all summer analysts. It has also introduced me to many new topics such as compliance issues, anti-money laundering, etc., which are valuable insights for interns like me to tap into the business world and understand what opportunities and challenges the banking industry faced at that time. 

I joined the customer acquisition team under the Segment department of GCB division. The job scopes of our team include attracting Citibank’s targeted high net worth clients through the introduction of competitive offers, organizing events to attract new customers and facilitating a smooth onboarding process for new clients.

What was notable was that Citi organized different workshops for interns to interact with senior management teams and also the head of consumer banking, Mr. Lawrence Lam. We had several thought-provoking discussion sessions with the senior managers which allowed us to know more about the future development of consumer banking as well as the future direction of the bank.

I believe an internship is a golden opportunity for students to tap into the real business world to gain first-hand experience of a particular company as well as the nature of the industry. Internships can better prepare students to transit from a school environment to a work environment once they graduate. My internship at Citibank not only broadened my horizon to experience responsibilities in the retail banking industry, but also provided a platform for me to use my knowledge learnt in school in real life practice. Through this internship, I learnt more about the limitations of my knowledge and am devoted to working harder to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to perform better at work.

On the whole, I am very positive towards the GLEF program. The academic and career support given by GLEF is abundant. Our Program Manager, Ms. Holly Ha, is very helpful in facilitating good communication between the program directors and GLEF students. She helps students greatly by reserving quotas for our major required courses. She also sends out a draft schedule each year as a reference for students to structure their own study plan. She is a responsible Program Manager that makes my university life in GLEF much easier and happier so that I can focus more on my study, extracurricular activities, and job hunting instead of worrying about the enrolment of courses.

All in all, I believe the support given to students in this program is enough to help students academically and with their future career development.”