MIDDLE EAST MOLE: Breaking into the hallowed halls of an international investment bank

You're convinced of your own prowess; you have a top notch education and a healthy track record of revenue generation, yet you're still stuck in a (comparatively tiny) regional investment bank. How do you convince the masters of the universe at the big international firms to let you join the party?

There are many reasons why big international investment banks are so popular. They pay more, stronger units or regions often cross-subsidise underperforming ones, they're meritocratic (an alien concept in the Middle East), look great on your CV and are a powerful way to open doors with prospective clients and employers.

Engineering a move from a regional bank to a bulge bracket bank in the Middle East is no easy task. The teams are relatively small, and right now the job market is pretty chilly.

The most a GCC-based banker could reasonably expect is a switch to the local team of an international bank. It's doubtful these people could cut it in an investment bank in the West - the quality of GCC-based bankers is generally low, mostly due to poor training, a sub-standard work ethic (read: lazy), limited and simplistic deal experience and no accountability.

Now may not be the time to attempt a move

Unless you have a skill set sorely lacking in a specific bank, you will struggle to join their ranks. Several regional heads of investment banks confide that they are not profit centres - their bloated cost base (which includes them, by the way) coupled with the small GCC fee-pot creates a break-even situation at best.

Further, pressure from regulators in the West forces international investment banks, on a global basis, to become ever more stringent with capital allocations and staff control. Consequently peripheral operations - and make no mistake, the Middle East is still a small business for most global banks - are fair game when talk of 'right-sizing' emerges, as has been the case several times of the past two years and will continue to be so through 2011.

So, how can I break in?

Whilst not without their problems, the long-term prospects of GCC oil and gas-based economies are better than the West - the region will continue to grow faster than the West (though slower than the Far East), purely as a function of persistently high oil prices.

The best strategy, therefore, is to develop your name locally, which is often easier to do at regional institutions - they hear of big deals first (insider deals are the norm here), can push their balance sheets further (thanks to political meddling and poor understanding of risk) and more blatant arm-twisting (international banks rarely get mandates without "inviting" local banks) - means that you can become a rising star quickly thanks to these unique regional peculiarities.

Once you can really claim to be a major revenue generator, you become very attractive to bulge brackets, which are unable to nurture their own staff in such ways out here in the GCC.

At this point when, these individuals can command lucrative packages, calm in the knowledge that by the time their employers realise that their ex-employers' brand names (and not actually them) were responsible for the deal flow, they would have collected juicy guarantees and be looking to move on, now with a shiny international investment bank included in their CVs!

And the alternative?

But before jumping remember what regional banks offer: increased stability and better regional client and deal access. If you play you cards right and do your time, with a bit of luck, you can become a big fish in a small pond and enjoy great financial benefits and status in a region where these are more relevant than ability and experience.

Jamal Bahir (a pseudonym) is seasoned senior private equity and investment management industry veteran based in the Middle East and Europe. He is an advisor to several ruling and trading families from the Middle East, as well as select European governments and private equity funds, advising on their investment, financial and regional political strategy. The author may be reached on jamal.bahir@gmail.com.