Global investment banks in Hong Kong are stepping up their hiring of students from local universities, but competition for graduate traineeships is stronger than ever and banks are increasingly selective about who they hire.

Mandarin fluency is fast becoming a perquisite for most Hong Kong-based analyst jobs and you won’t ace an interview without an in-depth knowledge of Chinese economic trends, says Alex Wong, a former banker and Bain consultant who for the past six years has worked as a graduate careers coach.

Wong, who himself once clinched graduate offers from Bain, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank on the same day, talks to us about how to get a front-office traineeships in Hong Kong.

What made you want to coach students and graduates to get banking jobs in Hong Kong?

I was offering career coaching to students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong while I was still at Bain, but doing this part-time and pro bono is only going to get you so far – I’d always wanted to run my own business. The working environment at Bain was open and encouraged entrepreneurship – I could discuss my ideas with colleagues and they were supportive when I went it alone.

What type of graduates make the best candidates for banking jobs in Hong Kong?

Decent GPA is required, experience in the sector is highly preferred and not uncommon among top candidates The supply of potential applicants in Hong Kong is huge, so I work almost exclusively with students from finance and business courses – they have relevant skills and experience and are usually more employable than science and engineering students, given all the business communication courses and projects presentations they do.

By sector experience, do you mean an internship?

Yes, an internship is almost a must to secure a graduate analyst offer, but these days in Hong Kong even the CV you use to get an internship as a second-year student should include some type of working experience. Perhaps that’s taking part in an M&A pitching competition or using industry contacts to get some ad hoc unpaid work – one student I know flew to New York and worked at a bank there for a while for free. You need to plan your banking career as early on as possible. Don’t leave it until your final year – your competitors won’t.

What’s your key piece of advice for success in graduate job interviews?

You have to define how best to sell yourself during an interview – banks often reject people because the stories they tell about themselves just aren’t relevant enough. I take people through a long list of competency-based interview questions – for example, tell me about a time when you used your initiative. But students often don’t give the right type of answer, so we have to brainstorm until we get it right. If you’re selling how good a leader you are, give examples – talk about how the finance society you were involved in was actually newly formed so you played a leadership role to build it up.

How do you coach someone to answer technical questions?

It’s challenging for students to realise that professionals from different business areas actually have very different point of views on the financial market. For example, if you want a sales and trading job in Hong Kong, you need to know about what’s driving the Chinese economy and thus stock prices. And if you were interviewing for an IBD role right now, you’d probably be asked a question around the Alibaba IPO.

Do you tailor your coaching from bank to bank?

What department you want to work in is actually more important than which bank – if it’s in sales, for example, you’ll have to demonstrate your people skills throughout your answers. But there are also tips for different banks – Jamie Dimon is key to the culture at JPMorgan so if you’re interviewing with that bank, read up all you can about him.

We reported last week that banks in Asia were targetting local universities. Would you agree?

Definitely. At graduate and summer-analyst level, the HK offices of global investment banks are all now focusing on local universities – it’s one of the most fundamental changes I’ve seen over the past five years. This is partly because the IPO market in HK is now dominated by mainland companies, so banks want to employ more Chinese nationals, native Mandarin speakers, to interact with Chinese clients. The talent supply is increasing at the same time because more mainland Chinese students are studying at universities like HKU and CUHK. The concentration of Chinese nationals is higher in Hong Kong than in US or European campuses – the recruitment effort is much less. A lot of HK courses incorporate a one-year stint overseas, so these students also come with some international experience.

Can you give examples of this local hiring focus?

A leading US investment bank used to give offers for its Hong Kong summer internships to overseas-based students in December, before it even offered any to local students. But last year it reversed this and is now giving Hong Kong students their offers first. Spring weeks, like those in London – where local students spend a few days participating in banks’ competitions and workshops – are also becoming more common here. UBS started this about four years ago and now five or so other banks have done this.

Have you noticed any other important trends in graduate hiring in Hong Kong?

Associate-level programmes for MBA student have traditionally been a focus of banks in Hong Kong, but I think they’re now emphasising analyst recruitment. When Goldman Sachs visited campuses in HK recently, they said ‘we’re here to hire analysts, not associates’. Banks can go all across the world to get their MBAs, but as I’ve mentioned, they like hiring analysts locally.

Do you need to be bilingual in Mandarin and English to get a graduate job in Hong Kong?

Yes, the majority of roles are bilingual. You need Mandarin because of the client base but you still need good English as these are global banks – in sales and trading English is actually more important than Mandarin as you’re interacting more with colleagues who might come from London or New York. The top mainland Chinese students have good English these days, while their Mandarin is obviously better than Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong locals, so they often have the edge when it comes to language.

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With markets puking over the prospects for low global growth, the resurrection of the eurozone crisis and Ebola, things don’t look fortuitous for the bumper crop of new analysts and associates just starting their careers in finance. Long term, however, this year’s juniors may be thankful that they cut their teeth during the turmoil of late 2014. At least so says Patrick O’Shaughnessy, a portfolio manager and blogger at Millennial Invest, who got his first job in summer 2007 – just ahead of the global financial crisis.

“Between July 2007 and the summer of 2008. I was learning fast and enjoying myself,” says O’Shaughnessy who shamelessly admits that as a philosophy graduate he only went into financial research because he got an internship at O’Shaugnessy asset management – his father’s firm. – “Then disaster struck..right away we were in crisis mode.” O’Shaughnessy was upbraided by a stressed client who accused him of being an impotent adolescent. He says: “Those were terrifying times.. I was yelled at a lot. I questioned my career choice.”

Ultimately, however, O’Shaughnessy says the crash taught him a lot of invaluable lessons: “I learned more about markets in those 12-months in front of clients than I did across all three levels of the CFA program. Markets are, at their core, about emotions and how you handle them. It is so easy to be brave from a safe distance, to say that you will be cool when the tough times come. During 2008-09, I learned that that is naïve bullsh*t.

“It is hard to act rationally as markets spiral downwards,” O’Shaughnessy adds. But learning to act rationally in the face of chaos is a key lesson for markets professionals: “This may be one of those rare chances to take advantage of volatility,” he concludes. Analysts and associates on the trading floor may want to remember those words in weeks to come.

Separately, somewhere is building out a whole new fixed income team. Bloomberg reports that Liquidnet just hired Jonathan Grey, a former Morgan Stanley MD, as head of fixed income sales in London. It plans to hire more fixed income staff, “in the coming months.”

Meanwhile:

The EU’s bonus caps are stupid. “Let me be blunt, the bonus cap is the wrong policy, the debate around it is misguided, and the best thing I can say about allowances is that they are a response to a bad policy. They are not a good solution,” says Andrew Bailey, head of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority. (Financial Times) 

Steve Cohen’s family office is doing just fine. It’s generated a gross year to date profit of $1.8bn and trading profits of $800m since the summer, despite losing $400m on stock positions when the S&P plunged this month. (DealBook)

Never mind that Goldman’s net profits were up 50% from a year ago. Its stock was down 3% on Thursday. (Financial Times) 

Goldman’s trading business performed worse than JPMorgan’s and Citigroup’s when compared with the second quarter. – Its trading revenue fell 11% from Q2, versus a gains of 2% at Citi and JPM. (Bloomberg) 

Goldman Sachs has hired a lot of tech staff, says CFO Harvey Schwartz. – “Back in 1999, we had approximately 3,000 people in our technology division. Now we have nearly 8,000. They represent close to a quarter of the firm.” (Seeking Alpha) 

Blackstone has $42bn of ‘dry powder’ and thinks all this volatility is creating investment opportunities. (DealBook)

If you work in FX trading, you should probably be at Barclays. Citi, Deutsche, JPMorgan or UBS. (Bloomberg) 

Exane just hired a team of bank researchers from Credit Suisse. (Financial News) 

London metals trader is sitting out of the market and playing at being Simon Cowell while he waits for the right job. (Bloomberg) 

Ex-Sberbanker accused of being a ‘cokehead’ and mentally unstable has won an employment tribunal ruling and is demanding £14m in compensation. (Evening Standard) 

Working more than 40 hours a week is useless. (Inc) 

Would you pass the work life balance test? (Undercover Recruiter) 

Morgan Stanley man offers advice on how to dress. (Businessweek) 

If anyone should be paranoid about Ebola on planes, it’s the average senior M&A banker who spends months each year in the sky – especially the average M&A banker focused on clients in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, banks appear sanguine about the chances of their rainmakers catching the disease.

Of 12 banks we contacted in London, only one said definitively that it had issued guidance to staff about Ebola – and this took the form of a Q&A on the disease itself, rather than advice on measures to mitigate the risk of exposure to it whilst travelling. UBS and Barclays said they had not issued any guidance to staff. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Bank of America and JPMorgan were unable to confirm either way.

The head of HR at one Africa-based investment bank said Ebola contingency planning is simply something that he would not be involved in. And one senior M&A banker who is busy doing deals to develop Africa’s power and energy franchise said the disease isn’t an issue for him – partly because he doesn’t travel to the worst affected countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Banks have been busy issuing client-focused research notes on Ebola, however. Deutsche Bank’s travel and leisure team issued a note last week warning that hospitality stocks were falling as the crisis spreads out of West Africa. In a separate client note, Dr. Schaffnit-Chatterjee a senior analyst at Deutsche, warned that ‘behavioural effects’ like reduced flying and reduced commercial activity (shopping) could be among the biggest effects of the epidemic, but that they are unlikely to be felt outside Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa has been a hot market for financial services firms in recent years. Barclays, Blackstone and Carlyle have all been building their presence in the region and ex-Barclays CEO Bob Diamond has set up Atlas Mara, an investment company to buy banks on the continent.

Investment banks have been swift to respond to employee threats in the past. Goldman Sachs and Citi both vaccinated their employees against swine flu back in 2009 and Goldman encouraged visitors to its offices to sterlize their hands with alcohol gel placed on its reception desks.

In the build up to the UK elections next year, curbing EU immigration is a hot topic. David Cameron, no doubt stung by the election of the first UKIP MP earlier this month, has said that he will have “one last go” at curbing immigration from the 28 EU countries into the UK including, according to The Times, potentially applying the “emergency brake” on immigration from some – unnamed – EU countries.

Add this to the rhetoric being spouted by Boris Johnson on the Andrew Marr show last weekend when he suggested some “some sort of points-based system” similar to that of US or Australia to curb the number of EU immigrants into the UK and immigration is clearly at the forefront of right-leaning politicians’ thoughts.

Official figures for the number of EU migrants living in the UK still suggest a relatively low number. The Office for National Statistics released numbers earlier this year that said 2m EU migrants – or 4% of the UK population – are currently in the country. These stats, however, go back to 2010 and the current figure could be substantially higher than this.

Within London’s financial services sector, however, any restriction on the free movement of EU nationals has the potential to be much more damaging. Our own figures, illustrated below, suggest that 17% of the 156,000 people registered on our database working in the City of London, are from EU nations. Clearly, a disproportionate number of people from the EU are moving to the UK for high-paid financial services positions. A number of investment banks – notably Goldman Sachs – have already stated that a full-fledged move out of the EU would force them to relocate, but one of the key reasons for this would be a new inability to freely attract talent.

France is by far the largest provider of EU financial services talent to the UK, according to our figures, but the countries most hit by the Eurozone crisis  – Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal – also feature highly on the list and Poland is the source of the largest number of financial services professionals from Eastern European countries.

So, where are they working? As the table below shows (click for big), front office investment banking roles – whether that’s the advisory or the markets businesses – still provide the bulk of opportunities for EU nationals working in the UK.

Polish financial services professionals in the UK are most likely to working in accounting – with 30% of people in this sector – followed by technology positions. Accounting also houses the highest proportion of Greeks than any other individual sector, with 21% of the total.

Germans in the City appear to gravitate towards higher paying positions – the highest proportion (30%) work in investment banking advisory roles, and a larger section work in private equity than any other country.

Predictably, and a little depressingly, an investment banks’ country of origin can have an effect on the nationalities they hire. 54% of French candidates in the UK work for either BNP Paribas or Societe Generale, suggest our figures, while 27% of Germans work for Deutsche Bank.

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Markets have been crazy lately, if you haven’t noticed. Yesterday and Wednesday in particular were just plain nuts, with the Dow dropping as much as 460 points before nearly fully recovering a day later. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield moved more than it has in five years. In short, volatility is back, and in a big way.

While investors are getting jittery, volatility in markets can be a good thing for nimble sell-side traders who have been sitting on their hands with nothing to do for much of the first half of the year. In May, for example, trading volume fell to its lowest since the financial crisis.

September was a different animal though, as inflation fears in Europe and other macro trends percolated trading floors and helped save the third quarter for many banks.

Citi, J.P. Morgan, Banks of America and Goldman Sachs all saw increases in fixed income trading revenue during Q3, due mainly to the final month of the quarter, as investors began fleeing equities. And activity appears to have spilled into September. Trading units don’t necessarily need a great market to make money, just an active one.

Another interesting spot to be in during current market conditions is private equity. Yes, the IPO market may become depressed, but many in the industry have been frustrated with what most see as an inflated equities market in need of a correction. Private equity firms have been selling, but there’s been no room to buy. The shoe may soon be on the other foot.

Blackstone, while announcing strong third quarter profit on Thursday, seemed to welcome a slightly beleaguered equities markets. “These types of investment environments end up becoming some of our best vintages,” Blackstone Chief Executive Stephen A. Schwarzman told analysts.

Sitting on $42.3 billion in capital, Blackstone is indeed ready to start buying. Rival PE firms are in similar positions. They’ve been loading up on capital, just waiting for the right time to spend. That time may be near.

Interview Questions Designed to Stump Bankers, Consultants (eFinancialCareers)

Some questions, at least for those who are inquisitive or mathematically inclined, can spark interest and curiosity, especially if you get to think about them at home rather than in front of a panel of suits.

A Deeper Analysis of Goldman’s Results (eFinancialCareers)

Goldman Sachs posted strong third quarter results, but the numbers are not quite as promising as they appear. However, if you’re a junior banker looking for a job at Goldman, now is a good time to knock on the door.

Hedge Funds Falling Flat (Financial Times)

The hedge fund industry is having a rough year. Several popular bets among hedge funds, including technology and biotech stocks, have had a miserable few months, putting the industry on pace for its worst year since 2011. The old SAC Capital is still killing it though.

Poor European Bankers (Bloomberg)

European bank stocks have taken a notable bashing as of late, falling to their lowest point in more than a year. Getting paid in equity was cool there for a while, but not anymore.

Details People! (Matt Levine)

A former Wells Fargo compliance officer who conducted an internal investigation into whether a broker was trading on inside information closed the case with no findings. Two years later, said broker was arrested for insider trading. The compliance officer then altered the document to make it look like she had given the case a more thorough review. She was found out because she used the current year while “updating” the file.

New Fixed Income Team in Europe (Financial News)

Liquidnet, a U.S.-based dark pool operator, is expanding into electronic bond trading. As part of the growth, they’re building a fixed income team in Europe.

It’s Poaching Season (Reuters)

Within the last three months, Deutsche Bank has poached four of J.P. Morgan’s private bankers in the U.S. alone.

Buzz Around the Office

This Is How You Recruit (Lost Letterman)

Come fall, websites tend to issue plenty of rankings to help students prepare to apply to college. Stanford’s football team put their own list together to send to recruits: how much more money the average grad makes compared to alumni at two dozen other schools. Those schools just happened to be the others ranked in the top 25 college football poll.

Quote of the Day: “Would I ever leave this company? Look, I’m all about loyalty. In fact, I feel like part of what I’m being paid for here is my loyalty. But if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly… I’m going wherever they value loyalty the most.” – Dwight Schrute

When Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman revealed plans to allocate more resources to asset and wealth management and deemphasize the firm’s once powerful trading business, many in the industry rolled their eyes. His decision is looking better and better each quarter, not only because of the gains made in money management but also through the efficiencies seen in the bank’s other businesses. Those who remain at Morgan Stanley’s pared down investment bank are enjoying the spoils of an impressive quarter.

Happy days for traders (who remain)

Total trading revenue for Morgan Stanley didn’t touch that of rivals, but no one expected it to considering wealth and asset management now make up roughly half the firm’s business. But traders who remain at Morgan Stanley had a banner quarter.

Overall trading revenue increase 13% year-over-year to $2.7 billion on an adjusted basis. Fixed income traders fared particularly well, with revenue topping out at $997 million, up 19% from a year earlier.

That of course pales in comparison to the likes of Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, which booked FICC revenues of $1.98 billion and $2.98 billion, respectively, but it’s a positive sign that the bank saw a sizable percentage increase after several quarters of declines. Fixed income revenue was up just 2% at J.P. Morgan and 5% at Citigroup, for example.

Equities traders also did work, notching a 4.3% uptick in revenue to $1.78 billion, which beat out the likes of Bank of America ($1.03 billion) and Goldman Sachs ($1.46 billion).

And it appears Morgan Stanley took care of its traders this quarter. Compensation within the bank’s institutional securities group, which includes trading and investment banking, increased 10% year-over-year and 3% compared to last quarter.

Compensation across the entire bank was up more than 6%, in line with increases in revenue.

Investment bankers, too

Advisory revenue came in at $392 million, up from $275 million a year ago, while equity underwriting nearly doubled to $464 million, aided substantially by the Alibaba IPO.

Bloomberg analysts estimated earlier in the week that Morgan Stanley investment bankers were in line for the biggest bonus increases across Wall Street, and it appears that may be true. Through nine months, Morgan Stanley ranks second in M&A.

Wealth managers still getting paid

There’s been a lot of talk about Morgan Stanley cutting pay for its thriving wealth management unit. So far, there’s no sign of that. The average annualized revenue per broker was $932,000 during the quarter, up 10% year-over year. Compensation expenses for the quarter were $2.2 billion, up exactly 10%. Brokers are still getting the same size piece of the pie, at least for now.

Layoffs look to be subsiding

Morgan Stanley appears to have put the finishing touches on its downsizing plans. The firm employed 55,977 people at the end of the quarter, down just around 150 people and 200 on the year. And that’s with its wealth management staff decreasing by more than 300 over the past year – something the bank likely didn’t plan on. Poaching of financial advisors has been rampant this year.

So the big takeaway is that Morgan Stanley actually added staffers across its other units, albeit a very small number.

Do you want to work for a dyslexic, dyspraxic, easily-frustrated boss who doesn’t want you to have many opinions of your own, and requires that you’re available early in the morning, late at night and sometimes at weekends? If so, Guy Hands’ vacancy for a head of corporate communications is for you.

The Financial Times reports that Hands is hiring a new chief communicator for Terra Firm, his private equity firm. The job spec is ‘unusual’, Among other things, Hands suggests that he’s searching for someone who can tolerate him and match his demanding schedule. He sometimes makes “21 edits” of a piece of communications material. He works all week “pretty well solidly. Evenings, days – all the time.” Sometimes he works weekends too. He doesn’t want someone who’s got their own agenda. He does want someone who can ‘get’ his voice and write it down without making him seem boorish. The ideal hire will take risks, seize opportunities and pay attention to detail. They will also appreciate Hands’, “humorous side.” Pay for the position isn’t divulged, but it ought to be generous – according to its last available accounts, Terra Firma paid its 91 employees an average of £390k each for the year ending March 31st 2013.

Separately, what about Morgan Stanley? Following last Friday’s results release, the U.S. bank has earned wide-ranging plaudits. The FT points out that Morgan Stanley’s stock was the best performer during earnings week. Bloomberg points out that Morgan Stanley’s equities business beat Goldman Sachs’ by the widest margin for three years. Reuters highlights that having already cut its risk weighted assets close to its 2015 target of $180bn, Morgan Stanley is in a position to invest in fixed income all over again and wants to push into municipal bonds, credit and securitisation in 2015.

Is Morgan Stanley now a good bet, therefore? Maybe, but it’s not all good news. The Financial Times also notes that Morgan Stanley’s return on equity remains below that of both JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. And while Goldman Sachs is busy hiring (lots of juniors), Marketwatch emphasizes that Morgan Stanley’s headcount dipped yet again in the past quarter.

Meanwhile:

Banks in London will take no notice of the EBA’s attempt to restrict role-related allowances. The Bank of England is ok with that. (Telegraph) 

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has taken to issuing ‘private warnings’ to UK bankers it takes issue with. These stay on bankers’ regulatory records and render them virtually unemployable. (Financial Times) 

SocGen might build a big new London office in Canary Wharf. (Sunday Times)

JPMorgan is spending $6bn on a new office on the far west side of Manhattan. (Bloomberg)

Goldman Sachs probably won’t join the UK’s new Banking Standards Review Council. There are fears that joining the council and then failing to meet its standards could expose banks to legal action. (Wall Street Journal) 

Credit Suisse’s investment bank now has three co-heads, which seems excessive. It also means that the ratio of investment bankers to private bankers on the bank’s main board is now 2:1, which is good news for anyone hoping Credit Suisse won’t heavily cut its investment bank. (Financial Times) 

UBS banker highlights how things may now go wrong for banks in the fourth quarter. (The Australian) 

Questions you will be asked if you want to be a java developer for an investment bank in India. (GoogleBooks)  

Excessive smiling in a job interview can be detrimental. (Journal of Social Psychology) 

People who brag about themselves both underestimate how much it bugs people, while overestimating how interested people are in the stories they’re telling. (NYMag) 

Related articles:

The worst time to start a finance career? Look who’s hiring

James Gorman tells ingratiating intern how to get job at Morgan Stanley. What HFT trading jobs involve really

The truth about pay at JPMorgan. The interview no trader wants to attend

Despite recent wobbles among computer-driven hedge funds, a good quant remains a valuable commodity. Man Group has its own quant talent incubation centre through its Institute of Quantitative Finance at Oxford University, a strategy employed less formally through Cantab Capital Partner’s links to Cambridge University. Top quants in hedge funds can easily earn six-figures after a few years in the industry.

And yet one new hedge fund, launched last week by quant ‘community’ Quantopian, aims to bypass this laborious recruitment process and any bias towards candidates based on their experience in the industry. Any quants within its user-base who produce top-performing algorithms will be given the chance to invest capital through its hedge fund, Quantopian Managers Program, which secured $15m in funding from a number of alternative investors including Bessemer Venture Partners last week.

John Fawcett, CEO of Quantopian, tells us that its aim is to “train the world’s best algorithmic and financial talent, including talent that hasn’t yet had the opportunity to be a quant”. Elsewhere, it makes money like a normal hedge fund – by charging management and performance fees to investors provided it makes a profit.

The firm is also hiring a team to run the hedge fund, but declined to give any specifics on how many people or for which roles. When it launched last year, Quantopian had a small team of six and encouraged mathematical whizz-kids to become ‘quants in residence’ so that they could earn the respect of their peers on the website.

So, how do you get involved? “We are opening up the world of professional quantitative portfolio management to our entire community – quants, investors, financial professionals,” says Fawcett. “Soon, anyone with a live trading track record on Quantopian will be eligible for inclusion into the program. Participation will be based on an individual’s live trading record.”

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Good news – financial services is back in the City of London! The number of people employed in the sector in the UK now exceeds 2007! The financial crisis is well and truly behind us!

OK, maybe not. In yet another effusive look into employment in the UK financial services sector, the City UK – a body set up to promote the financial sector in Britain – says there are now 703,900 employed in ‘financial and related professional services’ in London. This, for the first time in seven years, exceeds the 2007 figure of 691,700.

So, let’s back up a little and look where the growth really is. Of that headline figure, 390,500 people work outside of either the City of London or Canary Wharf – instead classified as being in ‘other London’. What you’re seeing, therefore, is not a recovery in the jobs that were prevalent during the financial crisis, but a shift in growth across a very broad definition of financial services.

Driving much of the growth were accounting and management consulting firms, which have increased headcount by 5% since last year and by 16% since 2007. Meanwhile, asset management firms, which have been bolstering employee numbers for a few years now, increased overall headcount by 4.5% throughout 2014.

So, who’s ruining the party? The City UK says that investment banks’ continued focus on cost-cutting “supressed overall hiring in the London financial services market”.

It’s a good time to get an entry-level job at Goldman Sachs.As we were first to observe last week, Goldman Sachs seems to have hired an unusually large number of an analysts and associate this year – headcount increased by 1,100 between July and September 2014, net of any more senior staff who were let go.

So, who was in Goldman’s swollen 2014 analyst and associate pool? As ever, it’s possible to track the firm’s recent hires as they’re registered on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Register. Registration typically occurs a couple of months after individuals arrive on the job. According to Goldman Sachs’ recent registrations, these are some of the people it took on this summer. Excellent academics are a given, but we’ve identified some of the other facets that made them appealing.

1. Anne-Lorraine Imbert

Role at Goldman Sachs: As far as we can deduce, Anne-Lorraine is a member of Goldman’s 2014 M&A analyst class,

Selling points: Anne came straight to Goldman Sachs from a five month M&A internship at JPMorgan in Paris. She graduated from Sciences Po, one of France’s top universities, in June 2014. She also spent a year studying abroad at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. As we’ve noted before, Goldman seems to favour students who’ve spent some time studying overseas. 

2. Markus Pops 

Role at Goldman Sachs: Analyst. Division unclear. Joined in January 2014.

Selling points: Although Pops’ precise role at Goldman is unclear, he’s worth highlighting due his sporting prowess. Estonian-born Pops is a top international junior tennis player who has been competing on the international circuit since at least 2006.

3. Milana Shapira

Role at Goldman Sachs:  Analyst. Division unclear.

Selling points: Shapira speaks English, French, German and Bulgarian fluently. She has a first class degree in biology from Imperial College London and spend eight years of her schooling overseas, in Karlsruhe, South-Western Germany.

4. Thomas Sukno

Role at Goldman Sachs: Analyst, IBD

Selling points: Sukno also gained cosmopolitan credentials while he was still a student. He spent one year studying at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a year at the University of Wisconsin and two years at HEC in Paris. Before arriving full time at Goldman, he completed a five month off-cycle internship at Lazard.

5. Jeroen Van Dorp 

Role at Goldman Sachs: Associate. IBD

Selling points: Van Dorp completed his MBA at Columbia Business School, which is one of banks’ favourites. A former professional basket player in the Netherlands, he started out as a corporate lawyer, before becoming a private equity ‘consultant’, before completing his MBA and moving into banking.

6. Vitalii Likhanskyi

Role at Goldman Sachs: Analyst, M&A, specializing in TMT and Industrials

Selling points: Likhanskyi is that thing that all banks want to hire now – an experienced junior M&A analyst. He joined Goldman after just fifteen months on Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s M&A team. He interned at BAML in 2012 and has also completed M&A-related internships at KPMG and Rothschild,

7. Gurneet Chohan

Role at Goldman Sachs: Analyst, fixed income currencies and commodities.

Selling points: Chohan was as a summer analyst in Goldman’s FICC business before she joined full time. She was also a spring intern at Goldman Sachs and a ‘winning spring intern’ at JPMorgan. She spent a gap year working for KPMG (where she won an award for ‘consistently outstanding performance’) and she was president of the women’s football club whilst at Warwick University.

8. Alexander Doell 

Role at Goldman Sachs: Associate, IBD

Selling points: Doell completed his MBA at the London Business School (another of banks’ favourites). Before he embarked upon the MBA, he spent 27 months as an associate at Boston Consulting (another blue chip name). He studied his Bachelor’s degree at the European Business School in Germany, but also spent a year at the Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada (thereby satisfying Goldman’s partiality for a cosmopolitan study-profile).

9. Bart Van Schuppen

Role at Goldman Sachs: Analyst, IBD

Selling points: Van Schuppen also studied internationally. He completed a Bachelors at Tilburg University in the Netherlands (Econometrics & Operations Research) before spending a term at the University of South Carolina and then returning to Tilburg to study a Masters Degree. He was a summer analyst at Goldman before he joined full time and spent three months before that on a trainer-wheels internship with a small Dutch corporate finance boutique.

10. Albert Martienssen 

Role at Goldman Sachs: Associate, IBD

Selling points: Albert completed his MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management, which is also among banks’ favourite MBA schools when it comes to hiring. He was a summer associate at Goldman Sachs before joining full time and like Alexander Doell (number 8), his pre-MBA career involved being an associate at the Boston Consulting Group where he specialised (among other things) in financial services. Interestingly, Martienssen seems once to have toyed with the idea of proprietary trading (he spend three months as a prop trader at DZ Bank) before giving it all up for consulting and advisory banking.

11. Aurelien Benoit

Role at Goldman Sachs: Associate, IBD

Selling points: Benoit completed his MBA at INSEAD. This ranks 12th on our list of top MBA schools for banking, but has a good reputation internationally. Interestingly, Benoit seems to have moved against the tide (which usually flows from banking to private equity) by spending six months working for private equity fund Ardian after his MBA before moving to Goldman.

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Consider this inspiration for all the twenty-somethings toiling away as analysts and associates at big banks, thinking the spreadsheet that they’re working won’t have any real-world meaning. YOU DO MATTER. However, know that you may not be reminded of your own self-worth until something like this happens.

The deal in question was Vista Equity Partners’ $4.2 billion acquisition of Tibco Software. Or at least that’s what Tibco’s board thought they were getting when they originally signed off on the deal.

Vista’s offer was for $24 a share. However, when pitching the deal, Tibco’s adviser, Goldman Sachs, reportedly did an incorrect calculation on the number of outstanding shares, double counting some common stock and equity awards, according to the Wall Street Journal. So while the $24 per share offer was accurate, the final tally of outstanding shares was off. The end result was what they thought was a $4.2 billion offer was really a $4.1 billion offer.

The spreadsheet error also affected Goldman’s fairness opinion, which valued Tibco at 18 times the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. In fact, the offer was 17.6 times Ebitda.

So Goldman had to go back to the board and let them know that the offer was for $100 million less than had originally been pitched – after the deal was announced. Luckily for Goldman and all the employees who handled that spreadsheet, Tibco’s board decided that $100 million wasn’t the end of the world and agreed to the deal all over again.

So be diligent. Look over that spreadsheet one last time before calling it quits.

More Than Just a Wealth Manager (eFinancialCareers)

Morgan Stanley’s investment bank is smaller, but those who remain are enjoying the spoils of an impressive quarter. Pay is up across the board.

Hot Languages (eFinancialCareers)

If you want to work in investment banking technology, these are the skills that banks are demanding currently.

Changing Of The Guard At Credit Suisse (WSJ)

Credit Suisse named Jim Amine and Tim O’Hara co-heads of its investment bank and added both men to its executive committee. The investment bank now has three co-heads, which is a bit different.

Take A Message (Bloomberg)

Just how crazy was the volatility in the markets last week? Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and UBS had to turn some clients away from their dark pools and tell them to come back later – they were a bit too busy. Wednesday was the busiest day for stocks in three years.

When a Resume Gets Stained (Dealbook)

Here’s an interesting article on the fallout for those who worked at Galleon Group following the arrest and conviction of the hedge fund’s founder, Raj Rajaratnam, who was jailed for insider trading. The Galleon name tarnished their resume and hurt their career, despite having no links to insider trading themselves. The same has not happened at SAC Capital, where traders are hot commodities on the market.

Short Seller Mulls Hedge Fund (Reuters)

Research firm Muddy Waters (awesome name) is mulling the idea of starting a hedge fund. The firm, which employs just 10 people currently, creates and distributes short-selling research, so you can guess what kind of fund it’ll be. Think activism and betting on companies to fail.

Not a Bad Living (WSJ)

Goldman Sachs cut pay per head during the third quarter, but it’s still a livable wage. The average paycheck is on pace to hit $427,000 for the year.

Buzz Around the Office

You Know She Has a Middle Seat (Twitchy.com)

If you are not afraid of Ebola, you can at least be afraid of people who are afraid of Ebola. Take this woman, sitting casually at a Texas airport adorned in a homemade hazmat suit.

Quote of the Day: “This is a little bit like the genie in the bottle. You wish, you wish, you wish and now all of the sudden you have an avalanche of volatility.” – Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein on the market last week

Last week, U.S. investment banks lifted their skirts to display what happened beneath during the three months to September. Based upon those third quarter results, this is where we’d suggest they might be hiring in the final three months of this year – or, if not, where their hiring plans will be focused for early 2015.

1. Foreign exchange sales and trading jobs

Banks’ foreign exchange traders are living beneath the long, long shadow of fines related to FX manipulation in their murky pasts. JPMorgan alone set aside another $1bn in legal reserves during the third quarter. UBS has warned that it could face ‘material’ fines for its role in the affair.

This has not prevented FX sales and trading revenues from making a comeback. Ruth Porat, chief financial officer at Morgan Stanley, said last week that, “macro revenues were up significantly this quarter, most notably in foreign exchange which benefited from improved market conditions with higher volatility.”  JPMorgan said its currencies business benefited from, “divergence across global monetary policies.” Mike Corbat, Citi’s CEO, said FX was strong in Q3. And Bank of America attributed its 11% increase in fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) revenues to “the increased volatility that we saw during the month of September.”

2. M&A and equity capital markets jobs 

The sheen has disappeared a little from M&A and equity capital markets (ECM) revenues over the past week. Suddenly the global economy isn’t quite so robust and equities markets aren’t nearly so invincible. While the resultant volatility may be good news for fixed income revenues, it’s less good news for M&A and ECM revenues, which need executives in large companies to feel secure about the future. $573bn of M&A deals have been cancelled so far in 2014 according to Dealogic, the highest level of cancellations since 2008.

Nonetheless, U.S. banks were bullish about deal pipelines during last week’s calls. Harvey Schwartz, CFO of Goldman Sachs, said Goldman’s combined deal backlog is the “highest it’s been since 2007″ and the pipeline is strong across M&A, ECM, and debt capital markets (DCM). Citi too said it’s M&A pipeline is strong. Morgan Stanley said its “investment banking pipeline remains healthy,” but cautioned that it might be affected by “ongoing market volatility” if that volatility persists.

3. Cyber-security jobs 

Finally, following its cyber-security scare, JPMorgan has announced that it’s doubling its annual spending on cyber-security, from $250m to $500m,

No other bank has made so public a commitment to increased spending, but no other bank can afford to ignore JPMorgan’s plight. Cyber-security will almost certainly be one of the hottest non-front office banking jobs of 2015.
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In the latest hiring roundup, Credit Suisse is hiring investment bankers in EMEA and Asia, BlackRock may need more help in fixed income and Deutsche Bank is loading up on US wealth managers.

New fixed income team in Europe

Liquidnet, a U.S.-based dark pool operator, is expanding into electronic bond trading. As part of the growth, they’re building a fixed income team in Europe.

Credit Suisse hiring investment bankers in EMEA

Credit Suisse is reorganizing its investment bank after seeing a “significant pickup in activity” in EMEA. The Swiss bank is hiring junior bankers and “selectively attracting senior talent” from outside the bank. It’s growing in Asia, too.

And private bankers in Spain

Credit Suisse is also hiring private bankers in Spain as assets under management have nearly doubled since the recession. The bank has hired five in the last few months and is thirsty for more.

Former UBS exec to lead new group

Christian Hess, the co-founder of UBS’s private equity group, has been hired by Investec to lead its newly-created financial sponsor transaction group. Expect hiring to follow.

Short-sellers needed

Research firm Muddy Waters is mulling starting a hedge fund. The firm, which employs just 10 people currently, creates and distributes short-selling research, so they’ll likely be looking for people with experience in activist investing.

BlackRock to grow bond unit?

BlackRock may be in need of more fixed income specialists. The asset manager is enjoying massive inflows within its bond unit, and its CEO is bullish on growth.

UK banks require directors but can’t find them

UK banks including HSBC Holdings, Barclays and the British arm of Spain’s Santander are looking for directors to help ring fence their retail and wholesale banking units. They are so far struggling to find them.

Banker poaching in Belfast

US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is hiring in Ireland. The only problem is they seem to be poaching from just one firm: Ulster Bank Belfast.

Deutsche Bank loading up on US wealth managers

Within the last three months, Deutsche Bank has poached four of J.P. Morgan’s private bankers in the U.S. alone.

Citi, HSBC and Standard Chartered have generated their share of negative headlines in Asia of late as they retrench some of their operations across the region. But the trio are still generating plenty of corporate banking jobs in Singapore, Hong Kong and China and remain relatively attractive to candidates despite the growth of Asian-headquartered rivals.

The banks have reduced their operations in countries, both in Asia and globally, where they have failed to achieve sufficient profitability or market penetration. Last week Citi announced its withdrawal from consumer finance in South Korea and retail banking in Japan. And in recent years HSBC has, for example, sold its Japanese private bank to Credit Suisse and exited Korean retail banking, while Standard Chartered is also struggling in Korea and is closing branches there.

However, recruiters in Singapore, Hong Kong and China say that Citi, HSBC and Stan Chart are still regarded as the de facto “big three” foreign corporate banks in terms of their hiring requirements. “They are pretty much in their own peer group for candidates as they are similar in their offerings as well in their structure,” says Farida Charania, Asia Pacific CEO of search firm Nastrac Group in Singapore.

Recruiters also say that the three banks are increasingly inclined to poach staff from each other. “Many senior bankers in Singapore and Hong Kong have been with at least two of the three banks during their careers,” says Charania. She adds that HSBC is expanding its corporate-banking product and cash and trade sales teams in Singapore and Hong Kong, while both it and Stan Chart are hiring “very aggressively” in wholesale banking sales roles.

Standard Chartered is generally seen as having the stronger employer brand in Singapore, where it has about 7,400 staff, while HSBC’s Asia stronghold is Hong Kong – the firm earns as much from Hong Kong as it does from the rest of Asia combined. Citi, which last week announced record fourth quarter Asian results, spreads its revenues more evenly across the region.

“In China, each of the three has its strengths for candidates according to its client base,” adds Alistair Ramsbottom, managing director of Shanghai search firm The Blacklock Group. “For HSBC it’s multi nationals and privately-owned enterprises; for Stan Chart mainly POEs; and for Citi it’s mainly large Chinese corporates.”

Much of the banks’ hiring is, however, focused on middle-office roles. The legal and compliance headcount at Stan Chart – a firm which generates 75% of its revenues from Asia – rose 30% in the year to 30 June, according to its half-year results. HSBC’s results for the same period also reveal the increased cost of bulking up in risk and compliance. “One candidate I spoke to recently mentioned that HSBC’s culture in Asia was more back-office focused, which meant that getting deals approved, especially on time, was very time consuming,” says Ramsbottom.

The big three’s ability to attract candidates in corporate banking has recently come under threat from a variety of smaller, but expanding, Asia Pacific banks, most notably ANZ and DBS. “Many candidates in Asia now spend their early years training at one of the three large banks and then move to a medium-sized bank or a domestic bank,” says Ramsbottom. “But recently I have also come across people who have then moved back to HSBC, SCB or Citi.”

Standard Chartered is currently the most vulnerable to emerging banks poaching its staff. Recent regulatory investigations and profit falls have led to an increase in Singapore-based Stan Chart employees seeking out opportunities elsewhere, according to a recruiter in the city state who asked not to be named.

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While Barclays’ contemporary investment bankers wear hair shirts, its ex-investment bankers are still living in the style to which they became accustomed.

Rich Ricci, the most recently evicted head of Barclays’ investment bank, is, for example, busy nurturing his race horses. “Champagne Fever [a horse belonging to Ricci] is bred to stay, so he will be run over longer distances this season,” Ricci knowledgeably informed the Racing Post this week. He went on to drop in references to his many other steeds. Ricci has an, “embarrassment of riches,” noted the Post.

While Ricci frequents the Cheltenham set, Bob Diamond, the charismatic American architect of Barclays’ investment bank and former chief executive of Barclays Group, has been on the Mediterranean. There. he has been busy marrying off his 25 year-old daughter, Nell, in what the Daily Mail describes as a ‘Three day wedding extravaganza in the South of France complete with two custom gowns and fireworks.” Diamond hired ‘Fait Accompli’, the event firm behind the Royal Wedding evening party to manage his family event. The Mail suggested that Nell Diamond’s two wedding gowns cost around $250k, suggesting the “money obviously hasn’t run out” for ‘Bobtimistic’ Bob.

Barclays’ current investment bankers, who are being made redundant at a rate of 45 people per day, can only look on and weep.

Separately, but on a similar note, Barclays’ remaining bankers are likely to be disappointed with this year’s bonuses, especially if the Bank of England has anything to do with it. The Bank noted yesterday that as banks’ profit margins have fallen, bankers themselves have been benefiting at the expense of shareholders. Bankers always received more than shareholders, said Jon Cunliffe, the deputy governor for financial stability, but now they’re getting more than ever. – Before the financial crisis, shareholders received 60 cents for every dollar that went to staff pay. Now they only get 25 cents. Cunliffe suggests banks rectify this by paying staff less in future. Bob and Rich may be the last of their kind.

Meanwhile:

European banks caused the financial crisis. They borrowed large amounts of US dollars through the money markets and invested them in US asset-backed securities via the US’s shadow banking system. In effect, they acted as if they were US banks, but in Europe and therefore beyond the reach of US bank regulation. (Pieria) 

Banks could end up with $41bn in fines to settle claims that they rigged FX markets. (Bloomberg) 

Troy Rohrbaugh, the co-head of rates, foreign exchange, commodities and emerging markets at JPMorgan, says they are “150% committed” to pushing more fixed income trading onto electronic exchanges. This doesn’t necessarily mean current traders will become obsolete. Some will remain – JPMorgan’s electronic system Q.M.M needs one person to make sure the prices it delivers make sense and another person who takes the Q.M,M prices as a starting point for larger trades. (DealBook) 

Just because the third quarter didn’t go too badly, that doesn’t mean banks aren’t still keeping a strong rein on costs. (Wall Street Journal)

Citigroup just bought some of Deutsche’s commodities book. (Fox)

How to stop people from wasting your time. (HBR)

Direct eye contact during a Chinese meeting is considered disrespectful, and other rules of Chinese business. (LSE Blogs) 

Grumpy people are good at details. (NY Mag) 

From 2016, new commuter trains into London will be standing only. (CityAm)

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If you’re on the look out for new career opportunities in London’s financial services sector, it’s important to know of as yet unheralded companies. Senior bankers at big-name firms are often going it alone. Here’s the pick of the bunch that received Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation throughout August and September.

1. aPriori Capital Partners

The now independent private equity advisory firm that was spun out from Credit Suisse earlier this year, the renamed aPriori Capital Partners is run by Colin Taylor and Susan Schnabel, who headed up the bank’s buyout unit DLJ Merchant Banking Partners. Max Hofert heads up compliance, while Lina Chan and Karoline Partheni, both ex-Credit Suisse employees, are also FCA approved staff.

2. Balliol Capital

As we pointed to earlier this month, Vassilis Paschopoulos, who headed up Deutsche Bank’s European investment grade trading business in Europe, has teamed up with ex-colleague Nikos Kargadouris to launch credit-focused hedge fund Balliol Capital. So far, it’s a boutique operation, but more hires could follow.

3. Dymon Asia (UK) LLP (also known as Port Meadow Capital Management)

Led by Carl Vine, a former portfolio manager at SAC Advisor’s London office, who takes the role of chief investment officer, Dymon Asia (UK) LLP was reportedly supposed to be called Port Meadow, based out of Oxford. Michael Perrett and David Tuthill, who worked with Vine at SAC and UBS, have also signed up. Meanwhile, Krupesh Patel, who was formerly a managing director at JPMorgan’s securities services division, has joined as chief operating officer.

4. Foveal Research

Capitalising on the trend for senior investment banking equity researchers to launch their own independent boutiques, Andrew Pendrill, until late last year CEO of Oak Lane Inc and former healthcare sales director at Citigroup, and Amit Roy, head of healthcare equity research at Nomura, have teamed up to launch Foveal. It will initially be focused on pharma research

5. Hemley Wynne Furlonge

A new boutique M&A advisory operation named after its three founders, Will Hemley, who has spent the last four years as senior vice president in Marsh’s private equity and M&A division, Rebecca Wynne, who held a similar position at the firm for over nine years, and Adrian Furlonge, who was formerly at AIG. The firm specialises in the insurance sector, and so far these are the only registered employees.

6. Juniper Place

A joint venture between two Citigroup prime services veterans, Juniper Place LLP officially received FCA approval in August. Paul Harvey, who was head of sales and capital introduction at Citigroup, is the firm’s CEO, while Mark Bright, who was prime finance sales and head of emerging markets, is COO. So far, they are the only listed employees of the firm, which will assist hedge funds to raise assets.

7. Mole Valley Asset Management

Craig Harper, the former investment director at Edwards Securities and head of European equity process at Amundi, is managing director of Mole Valley Asset Management, a boutique fund manager based out of Dorking in Surrey, which already has five employees. Among them is Michael Hart, a former director in equity sales at SocGen.

8. Park Street Advisors

Pradeep Pattem, the former head of credit and mortgage markets for Europe and Asia at Royal Bank of Scotland, is a good man to know – particularly if you’re an RBS investment banker looking for work. During his eight years at RBS, around 120 traders reported into him, before he left to join Kildare Partners earlier this year to run its new fund. Park Street Advisors sees him reunited with a number of former RBS employees, including Christian Matthews, Krishna Prasad and Kunal Rajvanshi. Expect more hires to follow.

9. RS Platou Asset Management

Run by prop trading and hedge fund veterans, Alessandro Esposito, who is managing partner and CEO, and Elvis Pellumbi, who is managing parter and chief investment officer, RS Platou will focus on investments in the energy and shipping sectors. Esposito, who was formerly at JPMorgan, was most recently at Sothic Capital Management, while Pellumbi left Lombard Odier late last year. Robin Grant, latterly chief operating officer at Nectar Capital, takes the same role at RS Platou, which received FCA approval last month.

If you want to make it into Morgan Stanley’s graduate scheme you need to be able to compete. In the US alone, with around 1,000 places on offer this year, the US investment bank received over 90,000 applications. Stephanie Ahrens, head of firmwide graduate recruitment and program management at Morgan Stanley, gives her tips on how to get into the bank.

What type of work experience is important to set candidates apart from the competition?

Relevant work experience is not a prerequisite to apply for any of our programs. We will consider candidates who have done internships in other industries or who have worked part time during their studies. Volunteering work is also highly regarded and will often make a candidate stand out. However, candidates need to make sure that they present their work or volunteering experience in a way that makes it relevant to the skills that we look for across our different programs and divisions. They need to speak confidently about how their past experiences have prepared them for a role at Morgan Stanley and have specific examples at hand to demonstrate that.

What advice would you give to third-year students who haven’t completed an internship?

Internships are mainly offered to penultimate year students. Final year students can still apply if they are planning to do a Masters immediately after their undergraduate degree. Certain divisions will also accept applications from final year students who have no further study plans. Final year students who have not completed an internship should look at other ways they can get exposure to the industry, perhaps through attending employer events or doing some work shadowing. They shouldn’t disregard any other work experience they might have had (outside structured internship schemes) and that would have helped them develop the skills we look for in our analysts. They should speak to that experience confidently in both their CV and cover letter and outline how that experience makes them a strong candidate.

How important are excellent academics? Will an MSc help?

A CV needs to demonstrate good academic credentials, including a minimum of 320 UCAS points and an actual or expected 2.1 in your degree. Strong academic results are important because they demonstrate skills and personality traits that we look for in our hires such as drive, commitment, determination, passion and intellectual curiosity. Studying for an MSc can certainly help a candidate develop their knowledge in a particular field, however, having one is not a pre-requisite for our analyst or intern roles and will not necessarily make a candidate stand out.

What extra-curricular activities do you want to see?

Extra-curricular activities are very important as they help us understand more about someone’s personality and see whether they are an all-rounded individual. We want to hire people who are fun to be around and who have a varied range of interests outside work. This can be anything from sports, arts or involvement with voluntary activities and community projects.

What advice can you give to students facing Morgan Stanley’s assessment centre?

Our assessment centres usually consist of a number of one-on-one interviews, written tests, an individual presentation and a group exercise. Students coming to one of our assessment centers need to keep in mind the following:

• Be yourself – don’t try and display behaviours that you ordinarily would not.
• Listen carefully to instructions to ensure you fully understand the task at hand.
• Contribute to the group exercise – it is difficult for an assessor to assess your skills if you are not contributing to a group discussion, for example.
• Think about the quality of your contributions, not quantity.
• Try to relax and stay calm. If you don’t feel an exercise went well, move on. Assessors look at the complete picture, not single exercises.
• Remember it is a two-way process – ask questions.

Any interview tips?

It is a good idea to remind yourself why employers conduct interviews in the first place. This will provide you with the context to prepare effectively, helping you to focus on relevant skills and determine the impression you want to make. With this in mind, remember that we generally use interviews as a tool to find out more about who you are and what motivates you; see if you understand our business and the role for which you are interviewing; and assess your potential to perform the job and explore what you could bring to the organization.

Every interview is different; the content of your discussion will depend on what the job requires and who you are as an individual. You can anticipate the questions you may be asked by reading through your application materials and the job description. If you were meeting yourself for the first time, what would you ask? In anticipating questions, think about the following:

• Your motivation to work in the financial services industry at an investment bank; why are you interested in Morgan Stanley in particular?
• Your academics; why have you chosen to pursue your particular course of study?
• Your involvement in school organizations; what does it entail? What do you get out of it?
• Your hobbies and interests; why are you involved? What skills are you acquiring?

Investment banks talk a lot about the right ‘fit’ among the graduates they hire. What typifies a Morgan Stanley recruit?  

Morgan Stanley’s recruits come from a wide variety of backgrounds, all are high achievers who share integrity, intellectual curiosity and the desire to work in a team atmosphere that thrives on early responsibility and the opportunity to make a difference. Individuality is prized and people are encouraged to be themselves.
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After suffering through more than a year of difficult market conditions, fixed income traders were finally having a good couple of months. Volatility spiked in September, leading to better-than-expected third quarter results, and then there was last week’s equities sell-off that saw more investments being pushed to fixed income vehicles. But then the New York Times had to go and ruin all the fun with an article that would depress any bond trader with a pulse, even if they already knew the truth.

The piece centers on the automating of fixed income desks – something that has been in the works for years but has become a real point of emphasis for big banks, like the automating of equities desks was years ago.

In a bit of a surprise, J.P. Morgan let its executives take part in the piece. They held little back, even lamenting the fact that they didn’t embrace automation – and, therefore, the move away from human traders – sooner.

“Industry and particularly banks are littered with those who held on to what was the existing structure for too long,” Troy Rohrbaugh, J.P. Morgan’s co-head of rates, foreign exchange, commodities and emerging markets, told the Times. “We’ve done it ourselves, and we’ve definitely seen our peers do it. We are 150 percent committed to not letting that happen.”

Now this transition doesn’t necessarily mean fewer jobs. They’ll just be different jobs – ones that likely won’t jive with a bond trader’s resume. J.P. Morgan has built a 150-person team dedicated to pushing more trading toward electronic platforms, according to the report. Barclays, meanwhile, has a new “e-markets team” with similar responsibilities. Likely, you’ll need to be a better coder than relationship-builder to fit in with those crowds.

Oh, and for those who are left, earplugs may be in order. J.P. Morgan’s automated tool apparently spits out the jingling sound of a cash register every time a trade is made. So you’re basically working in an arcade or casino.

As if things weren’t tough enough for fixed income traders. Before the September spike, bond trading was down a massive 22% over the last five years with liquidity plunging 70%. Total headcount is down 30% since 2010.

Hiring Roundup (eFinancialCareers)

In the latest hiring roundup, Credit Suisse is bringing on investment bankers in EMEA and Asia, BlackRock may need more help in fixed income and Deutsche Bank is loading up on U.S. wealth managers.

Where U.S. Banks May Soon Hire (eFinancialCareers)

Based upon those third quarter results, this is where we’d suggest U.S. banks might be hiring in the final three months of this year – or, if not, where their hiring plans will be focused for early 2015.

Goldman Leaning Right (WSJ)

Once a huge backer of the Democratic Party, Goldman Sachs is increasingly a right-leaning firm. It is now the biggest backer of the Republican Party on Wall Street.

Say No To Hedge Funds (WSJ)

Large pension funds that have funneled hundreds of billions of dollars to hedge funds are finally getting a bit perturbed with the lack of recent success. Several are in talks to invest their money elsewhere. The hedge fund industry just suffered its worst week since 2011.

Diamond in the Rough (Business Insider)

Former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond’s daughter (a former Deutsche Bank analyst) got married over the weekend to a current Deutsche Bank MD. Their wedding photos have gone viral. You could land a 747 on her train.

Nazi Art-Gate (NY Times)

Here’s a crazy story involving UBS, a foundation, stolen Nazi art and a whole swarm of lawsuits.

Black Monday (Yahoo)

Yesterday was the 27^th anniversary of Black Monday, when the New York Stock Exchange suffered its largest single day percentage loss in history. Wall Street veteran Art Cashin tells the tale of how everything went down.

Buzz Around the Office

Dewing the Dew (HuffPo)

A New Mexico man who was jailed for DWI had bribery charges added to his rap sheet after offering police his can of Mountain Dew if they let him go.

Quote of the Day: “One of the things you’ll hear from entrepreneurs is it’s better—not necessarily easier—to build companies when there’s a recession because there’s less froth, it’s easier to hire people, there are fewer competitors. Entrepreneurs say in an economic boom it’s actually hard to build a company because everybody’s too excited and there is too much money funding too many marginal companies.” – investor Marc Andreessen

In June, Lloyd Blankfein went on Bloomberg TV and told a dirty little secret: Goldman Sachs is a technology company. What he meant, of course, is that electronic platforms run everything that Goldman – and every other bank – does. And the world of banking is only getting more automated.

As such, Goldman’s employee base is heavily skewed toward tech. The company employs roughly 8,000 people within the division, accounting for around 25% of total headcount.

Late last week, Paul Walker, co-head of technology at Goldman, sat down with a few colleagues to talk about the unit and offer a few suggestions for people who are interested in joining. We took part and put together some notes on what you’ll need to get the job.

You don’t necessarily have to be a computer science major

One of the misconceptions that Walker tried to dispel was that a background in computer science is a must for any role in technology at Goldman. Walker himself was an aerospace engineer with a background in physics. He worked on black holes and hadn’t taken a class in computer science previously to joining Goldman. Another one of the panelists had an engineering degree.

“No, you don’t necessarily need to know software, but you certainly need to be interested in understanding it,” Walker said.

It doesn’t hurt to speak multiple languages

While you can probably say this about any job in banking, speaking multiple languages appears to be particularly useful in technology, where you’ll be working with people from across the globe.

“My cellphone always has an opportunity to ring from anywhere around the world,” Walker said. One of the other panelists said that she speaks five languages.

Be humble

Walker’s top piece of advice for new employees is to remain humble. Technology changes constantly, and thinking you know it all is a recipe for failure.

“You will be surrounded by people who are better than you at many things,” he said. You’ll rely on them just as they’ll rely on you.

Never stop learning

Again, this is something you can say about all roles, whether in banking or not, but the amount of self-education required to work in technology at Goldman is substantial.

Panelists said that they’ll often download open source software that they’re unaware of just to keep they’re tool chest full. They’ll read new and even old code to improve their skillset.

They attend hackathons, judge technology competitions and take part in forums and user groups within Goldman. Goldman’s tech groups are siloed – technology personnel can cover distinct business units like asset management, equity trading technology, investment banking and others – but having a willingness to collaborate and learn from others outside of your immediate colleagues was stressed.

One panelist told a story about being called out for not asking questions in a meeting during her first month, with a colleague assuming she knew everything already as she wasn’t speaking up.

Get ready to be trained

Goldman’s training program for new hires is significant. Walker said that people are brought to New York for a two-month program where rookies refine their tech skills, perform case studies and get to know future peers. Expect plenty of Java training. “We have the best Java experts in the world,” Walker said.

Training in one fashion or another will take place over at least the first three years on the job, he said.

Get to know finance

As software experts, technology workers don’t need to know the markets as well as front office personnel, but being blind of how the industry operates is a mistake. Understanding how the markets work and keeping up on current events in the industry can help you produce better software, Walker said.

Google Ventures has landed. As trailed in July, the investment arm of the world’s second favorite technology firm has manifested in London. Yesterday, Google Ventures set out its strategy for investing $100m in Europe and disclosed who it’s hired to lead the new unit.

The five new partners at Google Ventures’ London office are:

1. Eze Vidra – a former senior product manager at Ask.com, principal product manager for EU search at AOL, tech entrepreneur and head of ‘Google Campus’ (Google’s London start-up hub).

2. Peter Read – an Oxford graduate and INSEAD MBA who (seemingly) went straight into becoming a successful angel investor.

3. Tom Hulme - a Bristol University physics graduate with a Harvard MBA who made his money as a sports car manufacturer and inventor of a new magnetic filtration method before getting into angel investing.

4. Avid Larizadeh - a Stanford University graduate with a Harvard MBA and a history of working as a product manager for eBay and Skype before setting up her own, ‘luxury bazaar of fashion accessories’ (Bottica.com) and becoming an angel investor.

5. MG Siegler – a former film script writer, journalist, columnist and programme director at AOL.

So, none of Google’s investment specialists has ever done anything as conventional as working in a bank. In fact, none of Google’s investment specialists has ever done anything as boring as spending a chunk of their lives working for a large corporate – the closest any of them came to this was Larizadeh’s three years at eBay.

Google’s investment specialists make bankers look boring and unadventurous. While bankers work the corporate treadmill in search of ever-more elusive rewards, Google’s men (and woman) have been starting companies, writing columns, making films and designing sports cars. And they’ve still earned more than bankers. And several of them look like surf bums.

More than anything though, Google’s hires illustrate how tech investing is its own universe in which bankers’ valuation and analysis skills are obsolete. This is somewhat the case with all early-stage investing, but as blogger Felix Salmon remarked recently, it’s especially the case in tech. Even late stage deals in the tech industry aren’t based on product synergies, said Salmon – they’re based on an assessment of whether a product is revolutionary and a leader is visionary. Bankers aren’t equipped to judge that. Product specialists with a strong tech pedigree are. From a banker’s perspective, that might not be so bad – if only the tech sector didn’t seem so much sexier than their own.