I applied for the Head of Marketing Planning & Performance role at HSBC within the Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB) division. I also submitted applications for the Head of Client & Sector Marketing and Head of Business Marketing roles, all of which were newly created and externally posted around the same time. Below is a breakdown of my experience: I was contacted by an HR recruiter and invited to a 30-minute video interview to discuss my background and interest in the roles. The recruiter was courteous and professional, but the interview felt more like a surface-level screening than a serious evaluation of external leadership talent. It wasn’t until I directly asked whether internal candidates were being considered that the recruiter acknowledged there were several internal applicants. She also made a telling comment that, while I had a strong background, I was not "institutionalized" at HSBC like the internal candidates and that I would need to clearly communicate my value if I progressed. That comment, along with the fact that all three job listings were removed from the careers site shortly after our conversation, made it clear that internal candidates were likely being prioritized from the beginning. This left me questioning whether external postings were ever truly open or simply compliance-driven to fulfill internal policy requirements. This experience was a disappointment, particularly for a global institution that promotes values like transparency and integrity. If roles are essentially pre-filled internally, external candidates — especially at the senior level — deserve that clarity upfront. No one appreciates investing time into what ultimately proves to be a procedural formality. If the intention is to promote from within, just say so. Don’t use external job postings and interviews as a compliance mechanism. It undermines trust in the employer brand and wastes the time of highly qualified candidates. And as a final note: Given reports of mass layoffs at HSBC just before annual bonus payouts, it’s increasingly difficult to reconcile the company’s stated values with its internal practices. That kind of timing says more about the culture than any recruitment messaging ever could.