Ask the Expert: Choices, choices
Our panel of experts answers career questions from readers. Other readers can contribute their views.
I have just completed an MBA at one of the top French schools and have been offered three jobs in London in equity capital markets, debt capital markets and derivatives sales. My background is three years in project finance at a major European bank. How do I decide between the roles and how do future earnings compare?
How can a highly intelligent, experienced and qualified person like you - a top MBA and three job offers! - find it so hard to make basic decisions?
What is your difficulty in choosing between these options? Presumably, you understand the technical differences between the jobs. Classically ECM thrives, when DCM suffers and vice versa. Derivatives may be a little less cyclical than the other two and has been seen as a sexy place to be recently - but none of this is enough to base a career decision on. Assuming it is all sales positions you are up for, there will be more similarities than differences in terms of the skills and attributes they require of you. And as for the money side, as recruitment expert Tony Tucker puts it, they all pay bloody well.
You need to focus your decision on the people you will be working with, says careers and ethics consultant Roger Steare. 'It's typical of investment bankers to think first of products and figures. But we learn from people; we work with people.' Which organisation do you think you will best thrive in? What are the people like that you will be working with? What kind of corporate culture prevails? What prospects are there for learning and advancement? These are the factors you should be considering first, not the product area or - God forbid - the money. 'If money is what matters most to you, get a life,' says Steare. 'That's not where we derive value from in our working lives and a great deal of unhappiness is caused by people failing to realise this basic truth.'
To help you decide about the people and the organisation, advises Steare, ask to spend half a day in each of the departments you'll be joining. It's a slightly unorthodox (but by no means unheard of) request and even just the reaction you get to it, could help you make your decision. It should certainly give you an idea of the way people there think. Do they claim to 'put people first', 'encourage initiative' or 'treat people as individuals' - but react negatively when you ask to spend time on the trading floor? Or do they say: 'Great idea, how about next Wednesday?'
Start asking the right questions and you will find it a lot easier to arrive at the right answer.
Next week's question: I am looking for a job in private banking in London or Geneva covering Latin American countries. I have more than 10 years experience in the financial markets, and an excellent profile for customer relationship management. But I have always been based in Latin America. I have had good feedback from phone interviews with recruitment consultants but no interviews with banks yet. Should I come to London and/or Geneva for a while to try and get people to interview me personally?
What would you advise? Send your answer to: expertadmin@efinancialcareers.com.
Look out for the Experts' answer to this dilemma and readers' comments on Ask the Expert next week!
If you want to submit a question to our panel of experts
Our experts include: Roger Steare, a career coach at Roger Steare Consulting, Makbool Javaid, an employment partner at the law firm DLA, and Tony Tucker, a recruitment consultant at ERG, talking to careers journalist Hashi Syedain.
Disclaimer: Ask The Expert is a free service offered through independent experts on eFinancialCareers. The comments and opinions expressed by the independent expert are theirs and are not made as employees of eFinancialCareers.com
