Around the World: Middle East MBAs gain value; Nordic CV tips
How beneficial is an MBA to your career prospects in the Middle East?
Until recently, an MBA gained in the Middle East was barely worth the paper it was written on. However, a proliferation of courses taught on-the-ground by top business schools over the last five years has helped salvage the qualification's reputation in the region.
Four CV no-nos for the Nordic market
If you're looking for a new role in the Nordic market, it's arguably just as important to know what will get your CV binned as it is to be aware of what will get recruiters' attention. Here are four things guaranteed to get your resume rubbished. 1) Don't exaggerate your language abilities or local knowledge. [Nordics]
Don't panic: UBS is cutting just 8.9% of its investment banking headcount (for now), but only 300 of these are likely to hit London
This has, of course, been coming, but UBS has quietly announced this morning that it's planning on making 3,500 redundancies. This number is smaller than the 5,000 that was bandied about before the bank's Q2 results, but unfortunately - as predicted - the investment bank is set to feel the majority of pain. [UK]
Forget the freeze: Here's a job function in which three Asian banks are still hiring
Earlier this week, we highlighted M&A as an area which will potentially see more recruitment growth in Asia amid the dismal news of redundancies and headcount freezes in financial firms. And here's more proof of life: the Singaporean banks DBS, UOB and OCBC are on a hiring drive in finance tech. Although there aren't hundreds of jobs on offer, these firms want to recruit nonetheless. [Singapore]
More junior bankers are moving to private equity firms, but there's still a shortage
Maybe, just maybe, it's not such a bad time to be working in an investment bank with a couple of years' experience under your belt. Bonuses are slightly up this year, firms are said to be choosing expensive senior bankers rather than hard-working juniors for cuts and, should you wish to take the oft-trod path of switching to a private equity firm, there are plenty of options available to you. [UK]
It's OK: be open about your age when applying for jobs in the Nordics
Despite strict age discrimination laws in places like the UK and US, most financial services professionals are still reticent to reveal their age on their CV. After all, if you're over 40 in investment banking, a few grey hairs usually means that you're too long in the tooth rather than brimming with valuable experience. [Denmark]
Asia's lasting (but small) love affair with M&A bankers
M&A activity is looking upbeat of late which seems to indicate that M&A bankers are still pretty desirable, never mind the global market turmoil. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Asia Pacific M&A activity has reached US$566.2bn so far this year compared with US$463.6bn in the same period last year. In particular, South East Asia has been very active, with at least three major deals pending. [Hong Kong]
Are Canadian Banks No Longer A Safe Haven-Even for Employees?
Can it really be that Canada is finally succumbing to some of the U.S. propensity for work slowdowns, layoffs, and erring on the side not hiring in order to hang onto cash or at least get their bearings until things stabilize? Not just yet, but Canadian careers guru Alan Kearns observes banks have clearly been spooked by the latest intenense gyrations in U.S. stocks.
[Canada]
Goldman's City staff don't have to take new salary reductions lying down (but maybe they should)
Back in July we said that Goldman Sachs had added a clause in its contracts to UK-based bankers saying that any pay rises would be subject to review after 24 months. Now, according to Financial News, this clause has been invoked and salaries are going to be slashed. Goldman's City employees would have been aware of the clause, even if they didn't anticipate it being so quickly enforced. [UK]
