Barclays hiring 22 year-olds irrespective of qualifications

Are you a talented trader? Do you have mediocre academic qualifications from a non-elite university? - Maybe you’ve been pursuing a degree in new media, or old media, or applied marketing? Fear not: if you can trade exceptionally well, Barclays will hire you.

The British bank is experimenting with a new method of recruiting revenue generators for its front office.Finextra reports that Barclays is running a trading game (‘The Barclays Market Insight Game’) which is open to university students in EMEA, APAC and the Americas (everywhere, in other words). The top two performers from each region will reportedly be given the chance to come to Barclays, meet up with markets professionals and ‘discuss career opportunities.’

There’s no guarantee the two top regional traders will be hired by Barclays, but this is the intention. "One of our core missions is to make financial services recruitment more meritocratic and more accessible, helping students realise their ambitions regardless of their backgrounds," says Stockfuse, which is running the trading game on Barclays’ behalf.

Other banks are using Stockfuse and rival gaming system Trading Hub to train their interns, as we reported last month.

Separately, if you’re a trader who’s lost your job and you’re thinking of trading from your spare room or kitchen table in a pair of shorts, reconsider. The Wall Street Journal reports that Tom Hayes did almost exactly this after losing his job at Citigroup, and it didn’t go well.

Initially, it was fine. Hayes used the $1.5m he had left from his Citi signing bonus to open a brokerage account, with which he traded currencies and stocks. He made $1,480m in profit, and he used this to renovate his house.

Rattled by his arrest, however, Hayes’ trading performance deteriorated. He subsequently lost $150k, and then hundreds of thousands of dollars more. Eventually, he was left with nothing. Which explains how he came to be claiming legal aid.

Still Big Bucks (eFinancialCareers)

If you work in banking, why will you be paid so much more than anyone else?

Tech Trimming (eFinancialCareers)

Is Deutsche Bank about to make 27% of its technology staff redundant?

Hayes Appeals (Financial Times) 

Tom Hayes is appealing against his prison sentence.

Talk Like A Trader (WSJ) 

Test your knowledge of common meanings for trader terms.

Banker Prime Minister (Telegraph) 

Eminently wealthy ex-Goldman Sachs partner is now Prime Minister of Australia.

Deutsche Adds To Board (Bloomberg)

Deutsche Bank hires Standard Chartered's ex-finance director to succeed John Cryan on its board.

Guggenheim Hires (Bloomberg)

Guggenheim just poached two MD-level high yield debt salesmen from Jefferies. 

Bad Bankers (The Times) 

U.K. bankers have had $1,389m of bonuses clawed back for bad behaviour.

Goldman Gives (Evening Standard) 

Goldman Sachs is donating to Syrian refugees.

Quote Of The Day:

“…it wasn’t that Jeb was oozing an arching intellect or compelling profundity as he grew up. It was just that, in juxtaposition with his more careening brother George Walker Bush – the one who drank, who ran into problems with the police, whose fraternity was accused of hazing and branding pledges – Jeb appeared more stable.”

Bush family biographer on why Jeb is seen as ‘smarter’ than George.