Ex-J.P. Morgan analyst is helping young bankers find homes

Three years ago, Denzel Matsaudza was an intern at J.P. Morgan in London. As part of the middle office team in investor operations services, he worked on client fund accounting. When the internship ended,  Matsaudza was offered a full time job. His parents were overjoyed: they thought he'd be at J.P.M. forever and ever.

"My parents are African," says Matsaudza. "They think that you have a job and you stay there for 20, 30 or 40 years. It was their encouragement that got me into J.P Morgan in the first place- my mum would call it J.P. Morgan Stanley - but when I got there, I realized it wasn't for me."

After 15 months as a full-time employee in J.P. Morgan's back office, Matsaudza decided that jobs in banking don't always match the hype. "JP Morgan hire plenty of talented analysts across the country, but not everyone is suitable to every role," he says.

Matsaudza is coy as to what he did exactly at J.P. Morgan, saying only that it's confidential and that he was working on the bank's implementation of Blackrock's Aladdin risk management system. Although he also had an opportunity to work on internal networking events and Business Resource Groups (BRGs) he decided that the work he was doing was not fundamentally what he was interested in.

"It didn't feel to me that what I was doing would have a real life impact," says Matsaudza. "- That it would change someone's life. I opted instead, to start something meaningful that would have an impact. I decided to try and help millennial find the right place to live with the right people”.

Matsaudza quit J.P. Morgan in October 2017, but only after hitting on a way of making money helping young people like himself when he first joined. While still at J.P. Morgan he set up the website likemindedliving, which matches young professionals with similarly-thinking people in affordable rooms in Central London. His target market includes junior finance professionals who have just moved to London. He currently rents rooms to 60 people and has plans to rent out more. "We help people find like-minded individuals," says Matsaudza. "By taking this personal approach, we've managed to smash yields."

He doesn't dismiss banking jobs altogether. "There were definitely some graduates with amazing roles at J.P. Morgan," says Matsaudza, adding that one of his friends is working on the bank's Brexit preparations. "But you don't have to follow the norms of banking to make it."

Even his parents have come to terms with his new venture.

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