Pros
HSBC is a great place to start your career and get boots on the ground hands on experience especially as a Junior banker in the US. Teams are much leaner than at other larger bulge brackets which allows juniors to have more meaningful engagement with C-Suite clients and senior bankers/management. This also fosters a community where more or less everyone knows everyone at the NYC US HQ. Depending on the team you are on, deal experience can be quite positive where your overall flow can stack quite high with various middle market sized deals. HSBC is a global bank, so connectivity worldwide with clients/internal teams is basically a given. This can result in some pretty interesting/unique deals coming across the desk that you may not see at a comparable mid-sized US bank. Junior bankers have a great work life balance as well compared to other US banks. The culture is less about grinding resources to the bone and instead promotes in depth learning opportunities and growth across the bank. As a starting point and ending point for one's career, HSBC is a pretty great option with good benefits/lifestyle.
Cons
HSBC's US deal flow (in terms of size / bookrunning role) is typically more in the middle compared to other US banks. Rarely is HSBC US Lead Left or considered for an advisory/lead role on US deals (hence probably why there were lots of recent IB layoffs). This can result in pay that is usually less than that of competitors. As a mid-level employee, it seems vertical movement on a team can stall and it may be better to search for opportunities elsewhere (get paid more / learn different things) and then come back to ride into the sunset.
