The Finance Professionals' Post

Three Critical Steps for Extracting Great Insights (Step 3: Entice a Thorough Response)

Have you ever found yourself going into a store or making a call for something you need only to be disappointed by the salesperson? As soon as the experience began to deteriorate, you probably had little interest in sharing your needs because you thought “let me just end this pain and find a better option.”

The problem here is the salesperson hadn’t developed good influencing skills which are required to entice the customer to share his or her needs.  As analysts, we’re “salespeople” because we need to sell the person we’re interviewing on the idea they will benefit by giving us the information we need. This post continues a 3-part series covering our ICE™ framework for effective questioning. Step 3 focuses on the “E” of the ICE™ framework, “entice a response.”

Warning! Don’t make these interview mistakes

So you landed a fantastic interview opportunity, and now you need to seal the deal to get the job offer. Whether you are interviewing at a bank, asset manager, hedge fund or any other type of financial institution, it’s hard to predict the type of interview you will have. 

As an executive and career coach, I work with many clients on preparing them for high-stakes interviews. Having interviewed several hundreds of finance professionals throughout my career either as a coach or, formerly, as a fixed income sales professional at investment banks, I have started to notice the following patterns. These three behaviors are surprisingly common and detrimental to your success:

Thinking that if it’s on your resume you don’t need to mention it

I can’t tell you how frequently I hear, “It’s on my resume, so I figured I don’t need to say it again.” Your resume on average will have about 400 words. I can guarantee that even if your interviewer was thorough when reviewing your resume, they paid attention to no more than 100 of those words. Don’t let your resume jewels fade into the background. Make sure you have a method for bringing them to the forefront during your interview. Preparing and practicing your stories with a mock interview is a great idea! 

Not engaging in casual banter with your interviewer

What is it about interviews that make people throw their awesome personality out the window? Think about it. If you were interviewing someone, would you prefer to hire a robot with no personality or a charismatic and engaging person with whom you share common interests? We spend more time with our colleagues than we do with our family and friends. Your interviewer is trying to figure out if you would fit the culture of the firm and if you would be fun to sit next to on a plane for six hours. Next time you are asked “What do you like to do for fun?” don’t over think the answer and let your personality shine through. Also, if at the mention of tennis, your interviewer starts to talk about his high school tennis years, indulge him. Don’t worry that your interviewer isn’t peppering you with technical questions, instead see this as a bonding opportunity. The more shared interests you and your interviewer have, the greater your chances of getting hired!

Not asking the interviewer about themselves

Most people are quite selfish in their interviews.

“I did this…”

“My background is this...”

“My weaknesses/strengths are these…” 

Yes, the interview is a meeting where the sole agenda is for you to talk about yourself. However, if you want to land this job, you will make your interviewer feel that he/she is the interesting one.  Most interviews end with the dreaded question of “Do you have any questions for me?” This question is the interviewer’s chance to shine after having to listen to you for 30-60 minutes. Don’t disappoint them with generic questions such as,

“What are the next steps?”

“What is the culture here?” or

“Tell me about the needs of role for which I am interviewing.”

Instead, I encourage you to ask a question directed at the interviewer and about the interviewer. Here are some examples: 

“What are some of your favorite projects you have worked on here?”

“What has been your path at the firm and prior?”

People love to talk about themselves. As Dale Carnegie teaches us, by encouraging others to talk about themselves, we are ultimately getting them to like us more. And isn’t that the point of your interview?

-Helen Dayen is the founder and CEO of Dayen Group. She is a career development & communication coach.

NYSSA is proud to announce that we are launching a new interview prep coaching package in collaboration with the Dayen Group - an executive coaching company focused on the financial services industry. Please click here to explore our coaching packages and schedule a mock interview appointment.

Shocker! When you self-promote you actually help others

As a career coach, I work with clients who are top professionals in their fields. Despite their accomplishments and the desire to have more visibility in their careers, many struggle with self-promotion and self-advocacy. They come to me hoping to learn to articulate their value proposition and accomplishments to key stakeholders (i.e. managers, prospective employers, clients) without being perceived as boastful or bragging. 

The shocking thing is that most of my clients are confident individuals yet they get stuck when it comes to talking about themselves. Shying away from self-promotion prevents them from getting assigned to desirable projects, obtaining greater responsibility, and earning more money.

Interviewing Tips

Ok, your resume and cover letter have gotten your foot into the door – exactly what they are supposed to be used for. As for getting the job – well that's entirely up to what happens during the interview.

Do your research! And be prepared.

Prior to the interview, you need to do research on the organization and the position your are interviewing for. Only by doing your research can you ask and respond to questions in an intelligent and informed manner. The research will also allow you to assess how you “fit” with your potential employer.

Cover Letter Tips

The cover letter is probably the most underrated component of the job search. If written well, it can pique the curiosity of the employer and motivate him/her to carefully read your resume. If written poorly, the resume may never get read.

Basic Tips

1. Write to a specific individual - never Dear Sir or Madam.
2. Tailor your letters - don't mass produce them.
3. Keep it brief - 3 or 4 SHORT paragraphs will suffice.
4. Make sure to use terminology that is not too technical - this might come off as arrogant and demonstrates insensitivity to the audience.
5. Use paper and print which match your resume. Use the same header.

Struggling to Find Good Stock Calls? 10 Tips to Find More Time

“I have trouble coming up with good stock calls,” is one of the most common concerns I hear when starting a new one-on-one coaching assignment with an analyst.

There are dozens of skills required for great stock picking, but only one that burdens almost all analysts, regardless of experience level or geographic location: time management. To some, the concept of “time management” isn't worthy of being "learned" because they assume it's just a matter of using common sense…and that’s probably why time management is too often overlooked as a source of individual career advancement. If my hypothesis is right, we should coin a new buzzword to make this critically-important skill sound sexier; perhaps one of these:

• “Efficiency Re-engineering”
• “Prioritization Intensification”
• “Accelerated Productivity”

Résumé Tips

This page is intended to serve as a reference for corporate related information, stressing the necessary preparations before the job hunt. This page is NOT intended to teach you how to find a job or where to look for a job. This page has been built with two assumptions in mind. Please keep them in mind as you read this page:

1. The audience has a clear idea of the type of job they want
2. The audience is aware of the skills that they possess, but would like tips on how to communicate this across in the job search.

Resume Rule: Never Lie

That's right – never lie on your resume. This cannot be stressed enough. It's the easiest way to lose an interview and is sufficient grounds for dismissal once on the job.

11 Things Ultra-Productive People Do Differently

When it comes to productivity, we all face the same challenge—there are only 24 hours in a day. Yet some people seem to have twice the time; they have an uncanny ability to get things done. Even when juggling multiple projects, they reach their goals without fail.

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose. —Thomas Edison

It feels incredible when you leave the office after an ultra-productive day. With the right approach, you can make this happen every day. You don’t need to work longer or even do more—you just need to work smarter. Try these 11 productivity hacks that ultra-productive people rely on:

Beware! These Toxic Thoughts are Success Killers

No matter who you are or what you do I am willing to bet that if you are having any of these thoughts below, then you are holding yourself back from achieving great success. As an executive coach, I am fortunate to work with and get into the brilliant minds of the brightest and most successful executives on Wall Street and beyond. Like the rest of us, my clients have insecurities that we work on recognizing and banishing from their minds. Here is the list of thoughts that are surprisingly common and are the greatest offenders to our success.

Beware of these toxic thoughts.

Four Ways to Follow up without Being a Nag!

No matter who you are and what you do, your success relies on your ability to effectively follow up with people. Do you dread having to follow up and make up excuses to avoid doing it? It’s time to stop!

If you are a salesperson in the midst of a deal – you have to follow up in order to close the deal. 

If you are looking for a new job you have to follow up to stay relevant and top of mind to the potential employers.

If your work requires you to collaborate with others in or outside your team – follow up is just part of the game.

Do Not Do This in Banking Interviews

Now that internal promotions are all the rage, investment banks are slower to invite people to interviews. Why hire externally when you can promote a junior with far less hassle? When you’re invited to a finance interview, it’s therefore become all the more important that you don’t mess up.

Below, we have a selection of real life interview disasters provided to us anonymously by finance recruiters who work inside and outside investment banks. Read and learn. On no account commit the same mistakes yourself.

Should Your Investment Commentary Be Different?

“Should your investment commentary present a distinctive point of view?” That’s the great question posed by a participant in one of my presentations on “How To Write Investment Commentary People Will Read.”

My answer? It depends.

Book Review: A Risk Professional’s Survival Guide

This highly readable and informative book can serve the needs of a variety of individuals. The end-of-chapter problems make the book suitable for a classroom setting for those who plan to become practicing risk managers. Readers interested in gaining a general overview of risk management will also find the book valuable.

World events and new financial products have shown the importance of risk management to the finance industry. The numerous mathematical models customarily invoked in addressing risk management can make it difficult for students of the subject to learn to put into practice the tools of the trade. In many traditional texts on risk management and finance, theory and application are taught separately. The theory is usually presented first, and then the concepts are reinforced by examining a case involving a real or fictional firm, either in the main body of a chapter or as an end-of-chapter homework assignment. In most instances, different firms are used throughout the book to illustrate the various concepts.

Continue reading "Book Review: A Risk Professional’s Survival Guide" »

From Fired to Hired

Losing Your Job Can Be Less Painful—and More Productive

While it’s true that the 21^st century job market is loaded with opportunities—think of 60 million Baby Boomers retiring—it’s also fraught with peril.  Globalization, technology, and competition are impelling companies to do more with less money and fewer people.  Those powerful forces can propel you into unemployment, no matter how smart, hard working, or effective you are. 

Wall Street Bonuses Are Climbing, but Not Everyone Is Smiling

Here’s a crazy fact, one that likely won’t sit well with Elizabeth Warren and other Wall Street detractors. The average bonus for employees in New York City’s securities industry actually increased in 2014 despite the fact that profit was down 4.5% from a year earlier, mostly due to embarrassing litigation costs. Though the narrative is a bit more complicated than what appears on the surface.

25 Real Life Questions Asked in Corporate Finance Interviews

MBAs have a variety of opportunities after graduating. The most common career paths are consulting, investment banking, and tech. But many others go the corporate route, working in an accounting or strategy role at a company outside of financial services.

As one would imagine, the questions that are asked in corporate finance interviews are rather different than those that take place at investment banks or consulting firms. Below is a list of 25 real-life interview questions asked of MBAs by corporations in need of finance talent. How would you do?

Eight Leading Indicators That Your Banking Job Is Killing You

Is your banking job doing you in?

Your banking job may be boring. It may be exhausting, stressful, all-consuming, and fraught with the sort of political machinations better suited to an episode of Question Time, but does it have serious implications for your mortality? Researchers at Stanford Business School and Harvard University have come up with a helpful checklist of workplace stressors which suggest that it might.

10 Phrases which Subtly Suggest You’re Powerless at Work

You have the job title, you have the Ferragamo loafers. You like to stand with your hands on your hips and your legs apart. You often invade other people’s personal space and you talk in the sort of high pitched voice with tonal modulations which is said to convey authority at work. But what you say also matters. However powerful your general demeanor, it will all be to no avail if you say things like, “He really did very well at this task.”

In a new article published in the International Journal of English Studies, Academics at the University of Murcia have helpfully assembled a list of phrases that indicate workplace powerlessness.

The Body Language That’s Making You Unemployable

Why have you been to multiple job interviews and had no job offers? Why do your interviewers look at you as if you're Nigel Farage? Why do they stare out the window while you explain your motivation for working there?

If you’re interviewing for a job in an investment bank, your lack of success may be because banks are conducting purely "informational interviews" —namely interviews with the sole intention of extracting market intelligence from unsuspecting candidates. Then again, it may also be because your body language during job interviews is a big turn-off.

How the CFA Charter Helped Me Find A Job

Most of us took up CFA exams for career advancement and development opportunities - so did I back in 2009, amongst other reasons. 

Upon scraping through the last Level III battle and obtaining the elusive CFA charter, I embarked on a job search, not because I wasn't happy with my current role at that time, but it was in response to my boss' comment during my year-end review and salary negotiation that prompted me to look around to "benchmark my market value." It was an interesting exercise as there wasn't a strong pressure to leave per se (i.e. I didn't hate my job/work environment), but I was also incentivized to secure a real offer that serves as a true measure of my market worth (plus it was always interesting, to me at least, to find out what other roles there are). 

Hot or Not: Predictions for Financial Services Job Prospects in 2015

Will you be shown the door or welcomed with open arms by financial services firms in 2015? Yes, few financial services companies were overly bullish with recruitment in 2014, but for certain areas of investment banking—notably advisory functions—the landscape was much improved. Meanwhile, competition for talent from the buy-side ensured a steady stream of replacement hiring throughout the year.

Telltale Signs Investment Banking Isn’t for You

Investment banking isn’t for everyone. In fact, the industry turns out to not be a fit for the majority of people who enter it. A recent study found that only one-third of investment banking analysts who started in 2012 are still at their current firm.

Why do they leave? A lack of a work-life balance and opportunities elsewhere, particularly on the buy-side, are the two most common responses. But that’s just a shallow dive. We asked several former investment bankers when they could tell that the writing was on the wall—when they knew they’d be leaving the industry in months if not weeks. Here’s what they said. Warning: as they are former bankers, the responses are a bit jaded.

Are You Looking for a New Job for All the Wrong Reasons?

Are you about to make a bad exit?

You want a new job in finance? Fair enough—it’s that time of year. But before you succumb to the urge to switch employers, try running some safety checks on your impetus for quitting. The grass may seem greener across the street, but that could just be because you’re looking through green tinted lenses…

Ask yourself:

Four Social Media Tips to Help You Get (and Keep) a Job on Wall Street

Like it or not, social media is becoming an ever-important job search tool. Used properly, social sites can be highly beneficial in cutting out human resources and connecting with hiring managers and thoughts leaders directly. Used improperly, you can find yourself leaving a permanent online footprint that will keep recruiters from reaching out to you. Increasingly, headhunters and HR managers tell us that they’ll conduct a social search on a candidate before moving forward.

To help navigate the online waters, we spoke to social recruitment specialist Katrina Collier, founder of Winning Impression. Here are her four tips on how to use social media sites to your benefit while avoiding their pitfalls.

NYSSA TV™: Executive Presence

How would you rate your executive presence? You may not think about how others perceive you, but each encounter can make a lasting impact on every individual you meet. 

Your presence is both visual and audible. Eye contact, a firm handshake, and a warm smile are important, but what about your conversation style? For some, their chosen style is overly assertive - which can be inferred as agression; or about being heard - which may be interpreted as interrupting others. Here, Expert Executive Coach Nina Fiddian-Green shares strategies that can help you build and develop executive presence to help you succeed in your career transition or development.

Free Help for Wordy Writers!

Wordiness is a curse. Long-winded writing obscures your meaning and scares off readers. However, many writers don’t realize that their writing drags on endlessly.

A free online tool—the Hemingway App—can help you recognize when your sentences are too long. Hemingway will highlight them, and also suggests some ways to improve your writing. You could identify long sentences using your word processing software, but Hemingway is easier to use.

I’ll walk you through an example of how to use Hemingway.

The Four Killer Mistakes That Could Derail Your Job Search

If you’re searching for a new job, it’s important that you stay confident and upbeat. Making any of these four mistakes can hurt your morale and sap your energy. 

1. Delude yourself into thinking it’s easy to find a job these days. 
   
   True, every day, Baby Boomers are either leaving full-time employment or retiring altogether, so there’s bound to be plenty of room at the top.  However, today’s employers are looking for people with specific skills, credentials, and experience. That’s your challenge: Convincing hiring managers that you can handle the job, even though your resume may not be an exact match with their requirements. To do that, it’s important that they get to know you, trust you and like you, which is why you should not make the next mistake.

How to Manage a Tough Job Environment for Equity Research

The job market for equity research in 2014 is highly competitive. What with across-the-board consolidation, tightening regulation, and a slimmed down banking sector, how can a candidate stand out given the crowded, narrow space?

Increasingly, specialization is sought after. Sector focus—rather than a generalist background—is more favorable, be it in biotechnology, insurance, or any niche.  

Video: The Challenges Women Face on Wall Street

Citigroup executive Linda Descano, CFA, and Carla Harris, vice chairman of global wealth management for Morgan Stanley provide concrete, practical career advice on building a network, achieving work-life balance, and why Wall Street is lagging corporate America in hiring/promoting women.

---

Plain Language: Let’s Get Parenthetical

Plain language makes your documents more appealing and easier to understand. But circumstances may require you to use jargon. For example, you may be a financial marketer or professional working for bosses or departments that insist on using technical or unfamiliar terms. You can help reader comprehension by explaining the term in the sentence where it first appears. Parenthetical explanations are useful, whether you literally enclose the explanation in parentheses or set it off using some other technique.

Good Habits of Top Performers

Each career is unique.  But, looking more closely, there are a handful of skills and habits that “successful” people commonly share.  Here are four of them, based on my professional experience.  

Continuing learning 

This will require dedication and discipline—both of which are difficult to fit into a lifestyle of quasi-instant gratification.  Moreover, in an increasingly dynamic learning environment, the quality and cost (where "expensive" might not always equal "good") of materials and instruction can vary enormously.  

That said, continuing education is very important at every stage of one’s career. We tend to disregard it at the beginning when we are fresh out of school, as the steep on-the-job learning curve can give the misleading impression that we are reaching maximum capacity. However, this is not enough. Those who get ahead continue to learn early on, beyond the daily grind. This is even more critical as we progress in our careers, but without getting any easier. The most successful have turned learning into a habit.  

Email Subject Lines: How to Handle Boring Disclosures

What subject line should you use when you send clients a disclosure via email? This question came up came up when I spoke to the Financial Planning Association of Massachusetts in 2013. 

The problem: Losing your clients’ attention

You send some emails because you need to move clients to action. Others, such as disclosures required by regulators, are less compelling.Choose your subject lines carefully, if you don’t want these emails to discourage your clients from reading your emails.

Young, Fabulous and Unemployed: Strategies for Survival, Part II

Early-autumn weather is bracing. Millions of students eagerly gear up for a new school year.  Business leaders fine-tune their strategy for the fourth-quarter push.  It’s a time of optimism, renewed energy, and forward-looking thinking. 

But these times are painful for people who are unemployed. So, if you’re a recent college grad, it’s understandable that you miss the structure, rhythms, and deadlines of the semester. 

Bottom line: Take a job—any job.  As long as it won’t harm our health or violate you ethics, any job is better than no job.  If you hate it, leave it.  But it’s worth a try. 

UBS Hires More Senior Coverage Bankers

UBS has been shifting the senior ranks for its corporate client solutions teams in Europe, following the appointment of William Vereker at the helm of the division last year. The result has been a string of departures at managing director level and the movement of others within the organisation over the past few months.

However, UBS has also been hiring and the bank has brought in some more senior coverage bankers this month. Anthony Iofe, who only switched to Bank of America Merrill Lynch to head up its corporates and special situations group for Russia and CIS from Deutsche Bank in May 2013, joined UBS last week* in a similar position.

Insights from a Career in Risk Management

I’ve been in risk management for almost 20 years, first as a financial risk manager for a multinational company, then as a fixed income manager for a global pension fund.  Next, I worked as portfolio manager for a commodity risk and trading company.  Currently, I serve as a risk officer at a life insurance provider. 

Risk management in finance is a highly specialized role—even for a highly specialized industry.  But I do think that my experience has taught me some career management principles that are worth keeping in mind:   

Investment Management: Getting Your Foot in the Door

If you are contemplating career in investment management, you should know the winning formula to gain entrance – as well as what you can do if your skills and experiences aren’t exactly on point. I spoke with a number of hiring managers who, not surprisingly, told me that ideal formula is: 

NYSSA Launches New Online Career Center

On August 1, 2014, the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) will launch an interactive job board, the NYSSA Career Center. With its focus on financial industry companies and professionals, the NYSSA Career Center offers members a highly targeted resource for online recruitment. 

Employers can use the NYSSA Job Center to reach qualified candidates. They can post jobs online, search for qualified candidates based on specific job criteria, and create an online resume agent to email qualified candidates daily. They also benefit from online reporting providing job activity statistics to track each job posting's ROI.

For members seeking jobs, the NYSSA Job Center is a free service providing access to employers and jobs in the finance industry. In addition to posting their resumes, members can browse or view jobs based on the criteria they find matches their goals best. Job seekers can also post confidentially with confidence or search anonymously by creating a Job Agent.  Job Agents notify job seekers via email when jobs matching their criteria are posted, eliminating the need to visit their online accounts daily to track new postings. 

More information available at http://www.nyssa.org/CareerCenter.aspx.

Are You Too Paranoid to Report Mistakes on the Trading Floor?

Big blowouts start in small ways. Kweku Adoboli made a $400k loss on a trade in October 2008, which he opted to hide rather than to tell his manager about. Nick Leeson started out hiding his small losses in his error account and ended up taking down Barings. Bruno Iksil (who unlike the others, hasn’t been charged for wrongdoing) made $400m for JPMorgan in 2011 and only started coming unstuck in 2012, when his losses quietly started to inflate.

How To Write A Killer CV That Gets You Hired

I still recall my younger days applying for my first few jobs in finance. It was intense, quite some spraying (of my CV, that is), and learning loads on the way on how the whole recruitment process works. Now, a little older (and wiser), I'm lucky enough to be in a position to hire members for my own team - I certainly remembered the time where I first had the green light to hire an intern to work with me - oooh, such power!

We advertised the job and I received around 5-8 CVs, already pre-filtered by my HR colleague. I reviewed them and narrowed down to 3 for an interview. When I shared my final 3 with my French colleagues (I worked for a French company at that time), they were surprised and doubtful at one of my choices because he wasn't from a "good school" (when translated meant non Ivy-league). I scanned the CVs without any preconception of French schools and chose him based on relevant work experience. I got a sense of his determination and interest in finance through 4 various internships he had, although they were at smaller, less prestigious firms. 

Continue reading "How To Write A Killer CV That Gets You Hired" »

Young, Fabulous, and Unemployed: Strategies for Survival, Part I

The graduation-party balloons are drooping, and so are your spirits. If you are among the thousands of recent college grads who haven’t landed a job yet, take heart. No, you did not waste time going to college. Research shows that, in the long run, more education translates to higher income.

And, yes, today’s job market is merciless and frustrating. Employers require on-the-job experience, but how are you going to get that experience if they won’t hire you? Plus, summer is here. Companies both large and small postpone hiring decisions from about mid-May until after Labor Day. Hiring managers take vacations. And as hard as it is for us Type-A Americans to admit it, business slows down a bit when the weather gets warmer and the days longer.

Is Friday Still the Best Day to Apply for a Job in Banking?

Today’s the day. According to our own figures, Friday is the day of the week when the ratio of resume searches per job application is optimal: there are two searches per application, compared to 1.5 to 1.7 on other days. Recruiters appear to be comparatively busy on Fridays, while candidates appear to be comparatively slack. You therefore have a few more hours to send out your resume.

Career Transition Is the New Normal

These days, given the accelerating rate of change in the world, in the economy, and in the workplace, we’re ALL either in a state of “career transition”—or we will be soon. Whether you are a CEO or executive, a manager, an individual contributor on the front lines, in business for yourself, just beginning your career, a seasoned professional, or re-inventing your career, you will be more effective, successful and happy in your work when you:

Banking CV Clichés You Must Definitely Avoid, by Job Function

While most financial services professionals must now surely be savvy enough to avoid generic CV clichés like “entrepreneurial”, “innovative team-player,” or “dynamic problem-solver”, there’s a chance you could be inadvertently including hackneyed phrases when attempting to demonstrate your prowess for your particular business area.

The key, say exasperated recruiters, is to be as specific as possible. If it’s not tangible, or something that can demonstrate your real achievements, it’s probably bunkum.

Signs That Recruiters Are Not Being Truthful with You

You’re applying for jobs in finance. You’re relying on recruiters to act as intermediaries and to represent you to potential employers. In most cases, recruiters are honest upstanding individuals. But even honest, upstanding individuals can be a little economical with the truth sometimes.

Want to know whether a hiring agent is being duplicitous? According to recruiters, speaking candidly and anonymously, these are the signs.

Book Review: Young Money

Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's Post-Crash Recruits tells the stories of eight young Wall Streeters who were hired after the Crash. Author Kevin Roose, New York magazine business writer, shadowed each subject for more than three years. They started their jobs in 2009- 2010, and most, but not all, are from elite ivy universities. Their identities are not revealed, and understandably so, since they could be fired for unauthorized media contacts. While Roose says some of the personal details and events have been changed; the stories are true, and read as candid and revealing.

Video: Your Executive Presence

In career transition? Trying to keep your capreer options open? Unemployed? Now that the average job search can take up to 35 weeks, it's important to know how others see you - also known as your Executive Presence. In this short clip from a NYSSA Career Coffee™, InsideOut Executive Coaching's Nina Fiddian-Green shares key tips on setting your executive presence.

Taking a Forward-Looking Approach to Your Career

Throughout my early career, I spent a lot of time and effort trying to gain an understanding of my strengths and weaknesses based on past experiences. I probed into how my background had shaped who I was and what I valued. I’m not sure who said it first, but the popular quote goes something like this: “We are the sum total of our experiences.” Perhaps that’s true, but as I’ve progressed through my career, I’ve realized that it is far more productive instead to think of yourself as the sum total of your future experiences. Let me illustrate exactly what I mean by sharing a moment in my career that helped me understand the value of a forward-looking approach.

Continue reading "Taking a Forward-Looking Approach to Your Career" »

The Top Five Best Paid Jobs in Risk Management Globally When You Have Five Years’ Experience

Risk management is in. In the same way that shabby has become the new chic, risk management has become the new sales and trading. Sort of. Ok, you don’t get paid as much in risk. You won’t be eating lobster tails for breakfast, but you will at least have a job.

If you want to maximize your earnings after five years, which branch of risk management should you go into? We’ve scoured risk management salary surveys for the City of London and Wall Street and come up with the league table below. The figures are drawn from the combined salary surveys of Barclay Simpson, Kennedy Pierce, Michael Page, Hudson, Robert Walters, and Robert Half. They don’t include bonuses. They may be a little toppy as we’ve taken the maximum you can earn with five years’ experience in each position. And they may be a little skewed towards London as London-based finance recruiters issue more surveys than most.

How Paranoid Should These Senior BNP Bankers in the U.S. Be Now?

There’s more bad news for BNP Paribas’ U.S. sales and trading business. Only months after laying off some of its U.S. bankers, including senior sales and trading professionals, it’s being widely reported that the French bank will have to pay a $5bn fine in the U.S. for breaking trade sanctions with Iran and Sudan. Worse, it’s being suggested that BNP might be subject to a temporary ban on transfers of money into and out of the U.S. something which could drive many of its corporate clients especially to take their services elsewhere.  Shares at the bank are down 4% this week and may fall more.

VP and Director: The New Worst Job Titles in Investment Banks?

Forget the harsh apprenticeships of junior investment bankers: pity the vice presidents (VPs) and weep for the directors. For, who would be a senior to mid-ranking investment banker now? On one hand, your job’s precarious as banks squeeze costs. On the other, you’re stuck where you are – you’re less likely to get promoted than in the past and there’s not much hiring. In the ‘up or out’ dynamic, ‘out’ is now ascendant.