eFinancialCareers

Most people employed in banking have experienced the anxiety of returning to work after a holiday of more than three days: it feels like a whole year’s worth of activity has taken place in the time you were away and you have to pedal extremely hard just to catch up. Can you imagine then how it would feel if you have been out of the financial markets raising children... Read more

You may be busy, but are you in control? Now’s the time to get a grip, says ex-author and banker David Charters. It’s back to work time. The holidays are over, the end of year celebrations long forgotten, and the only thing that’s certain in everybody’s mind is that there’s an ambitious budget for the year ahead. However well (or badly) you did last year, this year has to be better.... Read more

Times are tough, but they are going to get tougher, particularly for junior staff, says Hugh Karseras, author and senior banker. In case you hadn't noticed, there has been a torrent of bad news in recent months. Banks’ bonus pools are down and hiring plans for the next year across the Street are being reined in. One consolation is that it does not, for now, look like we are going... Read more

Work hard, network hard, and don’t complain about your bonus. Happy New Year! It’s 2008 and hopefully we can put all of the turmoil of 2007 behind us. Or can we? Although many have made it through the redundancy rounds unscathed, the business environment and recruiting situation in 2008 could also be tricky. So what can you do to make sure that you don’t lose your job in 2008? Work hard... Read more

Whether your bonus is big or small, it is at least a kind of closure, says David Charters. Make the most of this. Everyone is smiling. In the words of the song, it’s another year over, and you’re smiling through the hangover from the team Christmas party, trying vaguely to recall if you really did say to the cute girl from the presentations team what your friends are swearing you did,... Read more

You’ll turn your boss off with slavish devotion and turn him on by doing his bidding. It’s a hard life, says ex-banker and author David Charters. Life at the bottom of any corporate food chain is tough. In investment banking it’s particularly so. Brownie points are hard to come by; excellence, timeliness and hard work are taken for granted. Beneath the gloss of high pay and high living, investment banking has a... Read more

Don’t underplay your achievements, says ex-banker and author David Charters. And don’t high five your boss when your bonus is less derisory than anticipated. It’s that time of year again. Team leaders, senior managing directors and members of the Management Committee are huddling together in glass-walled meeting rooms at the edge of the trading floor, poring over lists of names and numbers. From time to time they pause and look up,... Read more

David Bledin, ex-banker, now author and MBA student, on why he wouldn’t go back into banking if you paid him. I’ve just started an MBA programme and it’s amazing the number of people coming from non-banking industries who have somehow managed to maintain a startling innocence regarding the Street – despite the bleak stories they must have soaked up from their acquaintances. They seem to focus on that starting salary and... Read more

Life as an expat banker will be much simpler if you go into it with your eyes open, says Griselle Cardozo of relocation specialist Reloglobe. Until a few years ago, relocations were a relatively simple business. Banks selected their most career-oriented employees and got them to pack a few belongings and move with their family to the other side of the globe. The relocations and international assignment business has come a long... Read more

Promoted from analyst to associate this year? Our resident banking insider, Hugh Karseras, offers pointers on how to get ahead in your new position. I'm in the fortunate (or not) position of having two director-level friends who manage the analyst and associate pools at different investment banks. I asked them what it takes to progress as a newly appointed associate – and guess what? They came up with identical answers. According... Read more

Brad Hintz, analyst at Sanford Bernstein, says junior bankers need not fear redundancy – top staff will be first to go. Wall Street isn't a kind place – we shoot our wounded and we eat our young. And if today's difficult credit conditions continue, there will likely be cuts in 2007. But this year doesn't look like the 2002 downturn; right now it looks like any cuts will be done with... Read more

Once upon a time, the people at the top of the banking hierarchy were nice, says ex-banker and author David Charters. Not any more. What kind of people make it to the top in investment banking? As an industry it certainly produces great egos. Everyone who makes it to managing director is either a star or a super-star; if in doubt, just ask them. But are they good leaders? The rewards in... Read more

Want to ensure you move on from analyst to associate? Hugh Karseras, our banker on the inside, advises how it's done. Being a great analyst is not complicated. You need to get your 'stuff' done and you need to get your 'stuff' done well from day one - no matter what. Even after the months of the training programme, you are, let's face it, pretty clueless and the first several months... Read more

Complaining when work's dumped on you isn't a good idea, says Hugh Karseras, author and banker. That doesn't mean you can't get away with it. A few months ago there was an email exchange posted on eFinancialCareers between an analyst and an associate that stimulated substantial debate. The nub of the issue was that an analyst, tired of having work dumped on him, complained to an associate who responded aggressively and... Read more

Banking's not for wimps, but neither should you tolerate being bullied, says Hugh Karseras, author and senior banker. Does bullying go on in the City? In my experience, yes, but don't expect to see trading floor managers hurling chairs at hapless underlings. Bullying in the City is often a lot more subtle, a lot harder to evidence and a lot more insidious. It's important to differentiate between someone who is normally... Read more

Top banks are all very well, but the so-called 'second tier' also has plenty to offer, says Chris Mead, regional director at Hays Banking in Asia. Given their size, diversity of products and business lines, global office network, extensive training programmes and budgets, top-tier investment banks have plenty in their favour. They usually offer more opportunities for career mobility and they also offer exposure to a more diverse range of banking... Read more

Working in M&A is sooo yesterday, says William D. Cohan, author and former MD at JPMorgan and VP at Lazard. With US$5 trillion worth of transactions likely this year, the global M&A market is booming and on track to have its best year ever by a wide margin. But does that news bode well for those aspiring to a career as a Wall Street M&A advisor? The answer, alas, is "not... Read more

Australian accountants are sought after the world over, says Kevin Moultrie, regional associate director at Think Global Recruitment. A global shortage of accountants means it's increasingly easy for Australia's accountancy professionals to find work wherever they fancy. Accountants have the advantage that most roles within the industry are easily transportable. Audit procedures are similar around the world, so experience dealing with international financial reporting standards (IFRS) can be particularly beneficial when... Read more

Commodities combined with Mandarin is the best recipe for a successful long-term career in financial services, says legendary investor Jim Rogers. If you're at an early stage in your financial services career, I have one piece of advice: go into commodities. There's a gigantic need for commodities people and there's a very limited supply of them. You can go into any business school in the world and they have plenty of... Read more

Locating senior women in private equity funds, hedge funds or investment banks is as rare as finding zebras in Antarctica, says William D. Cohan. Despite their bright smiles and elegant demeanours, the sorry state of professional women in the highbrow world of private equity was on full display in a two-page photographic spread tucked into the middle of the May 2007 issue of Portfolio, Condé Nast's new business monthly. The magazine... Read more