Employment Advice (Finance)

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jun 2012
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    1

    Employment Advice (Finance)

    Hi All,

    I just wanted to get some advice from you guys around my current scenario, my job prospects in HK and perhaps things I should focus on during the next two years.

    To give you all a detailed background, I am currently 26 and am an ex-honkie who moved to Australia when I was young. As such, I am fairly fluent in both Mandarian and Cantonese (unfortunately though, I am unable to write chinese - which is probably an area of focus for me in the next two years). In terms of education, I studied Accounting & Finance at a fairly average university in Australia but managed to score very high marks. On top of that, I have also finished my Chartered Accounting course (again with fairly high marks - a couple of merits in subjects) and have passed two levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst Program (still awaiting my results for level three - fingers crossed!!).

    I currently work in Corporate Finance at an international mid-tier accounting firm. Whilst I am a manager in that division, I have only really 2 years of true Corporate Finance experience as I worked as some research analyst in a tax division beforehand.

    So... I am currently looking to move to Hong Kong in the next two years as I find Australia a bit dull.. and, as such, am hoping to continue working in the financial field. Specifically, I am currently considering getting into an investment bank, which gets to the crux of my question. I know that most investment banks target top US schools... and hence I was hoping to get some feedback as to my employment prospects (per my current situation) and whether I should start focusing on getting an MBA from a top school locally to improve my prospects or will I just be wasting my time? I guess my second question is what level should I be targeting at an investment bank - If I was to presume that I move to HK in two years time and at the track I am going now, end up as a senior manager, would I be targeting a Senior Associate level (please forgive my ignorance)? Or, do you have any other recommendation as what you think I should do in my current situation??

    Thank you in advance for your recommendations!


  2. #2

    Here is some feedback just from my perspective:

    1) You won't stand out. Yes ibanking requires top uni's and if you consider just the top 10 schools every year, contraction in employment in finance in New York and London, the amount of Asian/Chinese in those colleges, you will come to the same conclusion as me. Just my humble opinion, get a job at ANZ/CBA/Mac and ask for a transfer. They have been relocating guys off to Sing and HK for the past 2-3 years because they cannot compete with the salaries of international houses.

    2) If you think spending 40k a year for a MBA is worth it then by all means do so. MBA is about networking, not about improved credentials but that again is just me. I actually find it a waste because most MBAs I ran into mostly went to do a MBA because they couldn't get promoted from analyst to associate level and jumped to the MBA route so they can come in as associate (sort of similar to your situation). Honestly, I never hired anyone because they had an MBA or didn't look at a CV of someone because they didn't. It is rather unimpressive to me to say the least because you spend the first year of work unlearning the MBA. (Yes I work in the industry)

    3) Accounting firm experience and your prior work in the tax division already pigeon-holed you into what I would consider accounting/consulting firm work. So again, I wouldn't be optimistic on that front thinking you can jump to ibanking even if you can get to top local MBA. If you can get into top MBA program in US, that is another story.

    4) Even if you have a chance of getting into ibanking, you will most likely enter as an associate.

    5) Again, I think your best chance is top MBA locally in OZ and get a job from the local banks as there are probably more alumnus from those school at those banks. You might even get a direct employment from them in HK. If you are good at what you do, those australian centric banks will be a platform to jumping to the likes of a big international house if that is what you want after.