How McKinsey & Co. can help your finance career. Work all day, study all night and at weekends

There are good reasons to work for consulting firms instead of banks: the work is more interesting and the lifestyle is better, even if you do earn less than bankers to begin with. 

Now another reason can be added to the list in favour of consulting firms: you get to boss bankers around. At least you do if you work for McKinsey & Co.

The Financial Times reports that HSBC has been descended upon by a 'plague' of McKinsey consultants and McKinsey alumni who are arriving to 'shake things up.' Among them is said to be Richard Dobbs, a McKinsey director with a first class degree from Oxford University and a specialty in corporate finance. Dobbs has reportedly spent some of his time at HSBC reading aloud from his book, 'Ordinary Disruption: The Four Forces Breaking All the Trends.'

It foretells a future in which the cost of capital is rising, commodity prices are more volatile, technological change has an exponential impact on competition, and half of the world's economic growth comes from 440 cities, many of which you won't yet have heard of. The message at HSBC seems to be that banks and bankers who want to survive need to adapt to Dobbs' new world.

Although the FT notes that HSBC's new generation of managers is already equipped with, 'lots and lots of grey hair' and may be lacking the impetus for change.

Separately, if you want take time out of banking and do an MBA, you'll need work hard in the office by day and work hard on GMAT revision by night. This is the message from Reema Arya, an MBA student at HEC in Paris and former associate director in debt origination at Barclays in London. "As a working professional, I would come home by 8 p.m. and study for 2.5 to 3 hours every weekday," Arya tells Poets & Quants. "I would do one full practice test at the weekend," she adds.

HEC accepts fewer than 17% of MBA applicants, making Arya one of the fortunate few. She claims she's doing the MBA partly to broaden her, 'perspective on innovations in financial technology.' Dobbs would undoubtedly approve.

Strategy Buddy At Credit Suisse (Business Insider)

Tidjane Thiam has hired himself a strategist from boutique M&A firm Ondra Partners.

From State-Side to Europe (Bloomberg) 

Deutsche Bank is moving a US chemicals banker to Europe with a mandate to build its European chemicals team.

UBS Commits To Russia (Bloomberg) 

It's ok, UBS will not be pulling out of Russia and might hire any Russian bankers who find themselves unexpectedly available.

Expansion at Cantor Fitzgerald (Business Insider)

Cantor Fitzgerald just hired some top traders from Macquarie.

Big Hire At RBC (Bloomberg) 

RBC just hired a head of London-based FX strategy from BNP Paribas.

Opportunity in Fixed Income (Financial News)

Panmure Gordon is feeling the urge to expand in fixed income.

From Insurance to Private Equity (Financial News)

Private equity fund Apollo Global Management has a new investment chief with absolutely no investment banking experience. - He previously worked for Brit insurance, an Apollo portfolio company.

ETF Slump (Bloomberg) 

It's not a good time to be working in ETFs.

Quote of the Day:

"If I can play a song and touch someone, that makes me happy...I needed to find a real job because writing music for rhythmic gymnasts was not going to pay the bills,” quant now on to third (self-released) music album.