I applied through college or university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at HSBC in Sep 2009
Interview
They start out with an initial phone screening interview then 1:1 interview with 3 managers. I made it to the next part which was another phone interview with a different department that asked me the same repetitive questions. They told me the process would take a month and it lasted several. They asked why HSBC, why study your major, what was the hardest decision made, what was the biggest risk you took...
Describe yourself in 2 min. You should introudce yourself in short and talk more about your own experience. You should never out of focus and loss focus in the meeitng
the interview process was very quick and simple they did not go into detail regarding what the role is about they just asked why i wanted to join hsbc and one other question, it ended in 10minutes
The interview and the interviewers were really friendly and warm, especially for a student with not much experience. The process may be daunting but the interview was good. the questions were mainly about fit questions so just be aware of yourself.