DrKW lures students with fantasy trading and cash rewards
In order to tempt students to apply for jobs, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has come up with a novel feature on its recruitment website - a fantasy online trading game.
Though the trading is not real, the rewards are. At the end of a nine-week period, the student who has made the biggest profit on an initial fantasy investment of €20,000 will win €10,000 (€6,000). Nine runners up will win between €5,000 and €300.
The game runs until March 15th 2001. To prevent experienced traders or redundant investment bankers from making off with the prize money, winning is conditional on current enrolment on a university course, postgraduate studies included.
After logging on and filling out a form with personal details, the bank awards players their fantasy stake. This can be invested in companies listed on numerous European stock exchanges.
Ignorance of the names of suitable companies need not be a barrier to entry: the computer will choose names for you. However, it is up to you to either keep the shares in the companies that it chooses, or to sell them for shares that you think are more likely to go up in value.
Trading takes place in real time. Riches are therefore most likely to accrue to people who read the financial press and can make informed decisions about companies likely to do well.
DrKW does not provide access to Bloomberg, the information system that real traders rely on. (Anyone who does have Bloomberg access will have an advantage, as DrKW's fantasy prices are at least 15 minutes behind the real markets.)
The bank did not have hardened traders in mind when it conceived the game. "We are always looking to broaden our reach to potential candidates for graduate positions. We felt this would be an innovative way to encourage students perhaps with little or no knowledge of financial markets to develop a taste for what is involved in a career as a trader," says Terence Perrin, vice president of human resources.
The game's launch has been timed to coincide with the season for recruiting summer interns. DrKW plans to take on 40 interns in summer 2002. An as yet unspecified number of places will be available in equity sales, equity research, and equity trading.
At the end of the first week of the game, DrKW said more than 1,100 fantasy traders were trading fantasy portfolios.
Students hoping for a short cut on to the bank's graduate programmes will be disappointed, however. Top fantasy traders will have to be satisfied with the money, as doing well in the game will not guarantee them an interview.
"When people apply to work at the bank they go through a complicated selection process. The skills that we require are not all tested by this game", said a spokesperson.
But who knows - mentioning the game on the application form, together with a clever investment strategy, may be beneficial.
The fantasy game is at www.careersatdrkw.com
