Andrew Pedder graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in History. He joined HSBC’s Executive Management Programme in 2009 and is now a corporate banking analyst.

Why did you choose corporate banking?

A key attraction for me was the wide range of businesses we have relationships with: one day I could be dealing with a credit renewal for a family-owned manufacturer, and the next I could be on a site visit with a FTSE-250 telecoms provider.

How did you end up where you are?

I joined HSBC straight from university on the Executive Management Programme, which is a two-year graduate scheme consisting of four six-month placements in different areas of the bank. I spent six months in our Corporate Banking Centre in Southampton, then moved to a placement working in the global commercial banking strategy team in Hong Kong. Corporate banking seemed like an ideal choice for me.

What is a typical working day like?

I support a team of corporate relationship managers with wide-ranging portfolios, meaning there is usually a steady flow of new deals and annual credit renewals all year round. My main responsibility is preparing credit applications, analysing a client’s performance from a financial and non-financial perspective based on meetings with the client, their annual accounts and information from the relationship manager. I’ll then pull together this information into a credit application and submit it for approval to our central credit function.

What are the highlights of your job?

Getting out to see clients is a good element of the job. As the portfolios here are extremely varied it can be a great experience to learn more about a wide range of industries, and also to see the client’s business in action.

What are the downsides?

I would say the only down-side to working in corporate banking is that you can very easily have your plans for the day scuppered by urgent requests from customers – but this is to be expected and, in fact, working in such an environment helps improve your flexibility and responsiveness which are important skills to possess.