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!