Project Lead, Technology - Chris Peake
Investment Banks have the most extraordinary number of jobs within them, it can be completely mind-boggling. Every time we went near one we found a whole new department or group of people that do something we’d never heard of. This seems to be due to the immense specialisation within banks where it can be quite possible to sit next to someone but have no idea about what they do.
There are a couple of major distinctions worth highlighting. Investment Banking or ‘IBD’ tends to be the department which most people imagine when thinking about an investment bank. They are the one’s doing huge M&A deals, putting in incredibly long hours (14 hours+ each day including weekends for months at a time is not uncommon) and schmoozing with business leaders. Work/life balance is not easily found but on the flip side the work you do will likely be high profile and give you an enormous breadth of business and finance experience. This means that if you want to leave London or Investment Banking at some point you shouldn’t have a problem as the skills gained are very transferable. We met ex bankers in companies ranging from renewable energy start-ups to large pharmaceuticals.
Capital Markets is where you’ll find the traders, salespeople and research analysts. They’re market based and are the one’s you see on TV shouting down phones, sat in front of 5 of computer screens. They’re monitoring market activity and reacting immediately to any changes. It’s noisier and a bit more adrenalin fuelled than IBD. One of the big perks of Capital Markets (other than the actual job), is that the hours tend to reflect those of the market. That means early starts with most people in the office by 6.30 but it also means you tend to be out by 6.00 in the evening. And there is almost never weekend work. So if you’re an early riser the work/life balance is pretty good especially compared to IBD. One limiting factor though is that you’re in a highly specialized role usually in a very specific market area, so there’s not much in the way of transferable skills. If you’re an FX institutional salesperson it’s not that easy to move into another product area and you’re going to be tied to working in London (or another major financial centre).
Beyond these two areas you have a massive range of middle and back office functions. There’s technology, operations, legal, finance, marketing and HR for a start. So if finance interests you then it’s definitely worth looking at the breadth of what’s on offer. The other thing that struck us about banks was just how diverse they were. Without doubt they had the most mixed workforces we saw, with every member of a team often from a different country. What that means is when you’re applying for a job you’re not just up against your peers in this country but across the world.