Here's one role in which Aussies can still find work in Asia
There aren’t many Asian roles that welcome Australian-based candidates with open arms these days: operational risk is an exception, all be it a niche one.
The position has the four vital ingredients needed for banks in Singapore and Hong Kong to contemplate hiring from Australia and other Western countries: real growth; tough recruitment requirements; a local talent shortage; and internationally transferrable product skills.
Craig Brewer, director, Hudson, Singapore, says: “Although opportunities are limited due to specialised nature of the function, it remains one of the more challenging roles to recruit for because experienced candidates remain in short supply,”
As banks continue to come under intense scrutiny from shareholders and regulators, the function is broadening in scope and job specifications are becoming more vigorous.
“Now more than ever, organisations are taking no chances when building out their ops risk teams. This is resulting in searches for highly experienced candidates who in many cases may be currently working overseas,” says Brewer.
Richard Farmer, director, professionals, Randstad, says operational risk is maturing to become an advisory role, based within business units. “You need strong product knowledge; Asian experience is not as important. Banks will consider overseas candidates if they have product knowledge that can be transferred to an Asian office.”
Brewer adds: “It’s is a global function that exists within every bank and financial institution in some form. In many cases, ops risk will sit in the organisation’s global or regional head office, with Singapore being the home to a small yet well-established community.”
Aside from looking offshore, training existing back-office operations employees to work in operational risk is another potential way to help tackle the skill shortage, says Farmer. “No one bank organises its products in exactly the same way, so an internal candidate will understand how things work at that particular firm. An external person wanting to move from the back office won’t know the products as well.”
