Irrespective of the debate over their role as liquidity providers or liquidity removers, high frequency trading firms (HFT) are appealing as employers. Firstly, they pay well. Secondly, they pay well in cash. And thirdly, they’re usually small and nimble outfits with none of the regulatory and political baggage that comes with a big bank. It’s fortuitous, then, that US high frequency trading firms are hiring in London.

Recruiters claim that XR Trading, DRW Trading and Sun Trading are all looking for staff in the city. Interestingly, XR Trading – which only registered with the FCA in May 2014, is looking for traders without any prior experience. Its only requirement is a GPA in excess of 3.75 and a degree in electrical engineering, computer science, chemistry, mathematics and physics.

The man to talk to at DRW is Dimitrios Maurides, head of the European trading operation. A former director in sales at Bank of America, Maurides joined DRW in August and is understood to be spearheading the company’s expansion in London. He wasn’t available to comment for this article, but recruiters say DRW is offering some generous salaries: “I’ve seen them offering £130k in base pay to people with four years’ experience,” says one recruiter. This is a lot for high frequency trading, where base pay is often held below £100k and the upside is in the bonus.

Away from DRW, more experienced traders may want to send their CVs to the likes of Headlands Technologies, a US-based high frequency trading firm which spun out of Citadel in 2010 and also gained registration for its London office in May 2014. So far Headlands only has three registered employees in London: Neil Fitzpatrick, Headland’s founder, COO and CFO, Jonathan Tullett, a senior trader with a background in risk technology, and Krisan Haria, a former ETF trader and quantitative strategist at Unicredit in London.

Sun Trading, which is well established in London, is also said to be hiring traders – although publicly it’s only looking for systems professionals, compliance professionals and quant developers.

Natalie Basiratpour, a senior quant recruiter at search firm Selby Jennings, says there are two routes into high frequency trading jobs now. “You either need to go in out of university – usually at PhD level, in which case you need incredible grades. Or you need an immaculate track record from another firm.”

Recruiters caution against joining newly registered HFT firms without asking a lot of questions about their infrastructure. “It’s quite common for firms to start hiring when they don’t have the low latency infrastructure in place,” says one. “They’ll say that it will all be ready in a few months, but time frames can easily slip and in the meantime it will be a lot more difficult to make money.”

You want to work for Goldman Sachs when you leave school. Specifically, you want to work in Goldman Sachs’ markets division, where you are given to understand that thousands of top fixed income and equities salespeople and traders are making millions of dollars in one of the most successful banks on ‘The Street’.

Do you, realistically, have any hope of achieving this aim? Fortunately, Goldman Sachs has just registered a whole load of its new graduate hires (AKA ‘analysts’) into its markets business with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), so we can see who it likes to recruit. What makes Goldman's sales and trading juniors so special? Share on twitter We’ve listed ten of them below so that you can benchmark yourself against their achievements.

1. Joel Adaah

An equity sales analyst at Goldman in London, Adaah is a graduate of the London School of Economics, where he achieved a first class degree in accounting and finance. Adaah was the vice president of the LSE’s Law and Financial Markets Society. He interned with Goldman before joining full time, and before he interned with Goldman he also interned with RBC Capital Markets and Accenture. In other words, Adaah is a top student with multiple top internships…

2. Amy Armour

Armour is an an analyst on Goldman’s London equity derivatives sales desk. She has an MA in Economics from the University of Edinburgh (where she was chairman of the economics society) and a list of internships and work placements as long as a ten year old’s Christmas list (one month at McKinsey & Co, four months at Citi, one month at Simmons & Co, one month at EY, three months at ‘Eagle Orchid Management Services’). She too completed a summer internship at Goldman before joining full time.

3. Natsumi Bolton

Natsumi is an equity sales analyst at Goldman in London. A graduate of Durham University, she has a masters in engineering. She also has four A Levels (maths, further maths, physics and Japanese) all at grades A*. She too was part of the university finance society (a ‘gender representative’ on the Durham University Investment and Finance Group). She was also the Goldman Sachs campus ambassador for Durham. She interned at Goldman Sachs the summer prior to joining and has a small mountain of other internships too (Citi, Procter & Gamble and Trucost, an environmental data firm.)

4. Mark Jones

Mark Jones is an analyst on Goldman Sachs’ stock-loan/synthetic trading desk. A graduate in statistics with finance from the London School of Economics, he has A Levels in maths, further maths, economics and physics, of which two are A*s and two of which are As. Jones once spent eight months working in the menswear department of John Lewis. He was a spring intern at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. He interned at Goldman Sachs the summer before joining. Interestingly, he also spent nine months as an analyst (while studying) for ‘Global Platinum Securities’, a $200k long only fund run by elite students.

5. Camron Joseph

Joseph is an equity derivatives analyst at Goldman Sachs. A physics graduate from University College London, he completed one-month internships at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Vestra Wealth, Rochdale Securities (in NY), Bank of America and the Loews Corporation (also in NY, two months). This was before he even turned up at Goldman Sachs as a three month summer intern in 2013.

6. Maximillian Kaupp-Roberts

Kaupp Roberts also studied at UCL (Master of Engineering, Civil Engineering). He’s joined Goldman’s equity macro trading team after an internship last summer. Unusually, his only previous banking internship (for one month) was in RBS’s operations division. He speaks German and English fluently.

7. Alyssa Lew GuiQi

Lew GuiQi just joined Goldman’s emerging markets FX trading team. She’s a graduate of the London School of Economics, where she achieved a first class degree (in economics). Educated in Singapore, she achieved an award for excellence in her A Levels. Before interning with Goldman in summer 2013, she completed a spring internship with Nomura and three eclectic internships in Singapore (eg. Dream Academy Productions).

8. Lucrezia Rebecchini

Rebecchini has joined Goldman’s securities division, although we don’t know what she does there exactly. She’s got a masters and a bachelors degree from Bocconi (she scored 110/110 in her bachelors) and she speaks Italian and French fluently and English proficiently.

9. Stanley Sheriff

Sheriff is an equities trader at Goldman in London. Before completing a summer internship at Goldman in 2013, he interned at…. GLG (a hedge fund), Toscafund Asset Management, Libertas Capital, Holland Park Capital, ICAP and Citi. He has a first class degree in economics from the London School of Economics.

10. Dominik Storhas

Storhas is a cross-asset derivatives salesman at Goldman Sachs. He studied at TU Munich & University of Augsburg, where he specialised in  ‘Finance and Information Management.’ Storhas spent four months as a visiting fellow at the Macquarie Applied Finance Centre in Sydney in summer 2013. He then joined Goldman as a ‘summer analyst’ in January 2014 and was awarded a full-time job with the firm in September. 

The headlines have generally not been kind to ANZ this week. The Australian newspaper reports that ANZ’s former global head of fixed income, Rob O’Callaghan, is one of those embroiled in a regulatory probe into the manipulation of the Australian interbank interest rate. And the firm has been fined NZ$19m after admitting to misleading behaviour in the sale of interest rate swaps to farmers in New Zealand.

There’s better news from ANZ in Asia, however. In yet another example of ANZ’s ability to poach heavy-hitters from large firms, it has recruited Tracy Ong as chief representative, ANZ Malaysia. She joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Malaysia, where she was most recently managing director, head of corporate banking.

As we’ve pointed to in the past, ANZ has been hiring aggressively at the senior level in Asia this year Share on twitter, especially in corporate banking, as part of its reinvigorated “super regional” strategy to take market share from the likes of Citi and HSBC. It swooped on BAML only last month, hiring Huang Xiaoguang, co-head of global corporate and investment banking in China for the US bank, as its China CEO. Farhan Faruqui, the former head of global banking in Asia Pacific at Citi, provides another recent example – he joined ANZ in August as chief executive of international banking, based in Hong Kong.

“It says something about the franchise we have that we are continuing to attract some people of strong experience and strong reputation in the marketplace,” Andrew Geczy, ANZ’s CEO for international and institutional banking, said in November. Back in July, Geczy, who joined ANZ himself from Lloyds last year, told analysts in Hong Kong that ANZ was aiming to poach staff from Citi, Standard Chartered and HSBC. He should have added BAML to the list.

Meanwhile:

Audacious last-minute pitch wins Morgan Stanley sole share placement rights for $4.8bn Ping An deal.  (Reuters)

Would bringing back a lunch break help SGX avoid more software problems? (Straits Times)

An employee of the People’s Bank of China has shot dead two bank officials and injured two others following a dispute over money. (International Business Times)

Why China’s deposit guarantee scheme is, in fact, hugely risky. (Quartz)

UOB Kay Hian makes prediction for Straits Times Index by end-2015. (Business Times)

UOB appoints new advertising agency after “long-fought pitch”. (Mumbrella)

Indian bank employees launch one-day strike. (Economic Times)

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Private bankers in Asia may eventually find that their careers are focused more on providing financial advice and less on flogging financial products – and this may make it easier for them to move firms.

Some senior private bankers in Asia are now supporting an industry-wide move towards a European-style “advisory model” –  where clients are charged, typically once a quarter, an up-front fixed percentage of their total assets under management (AUM) at the bank, as opposed to paying fees on individual financial transactions.

“If you go back five, seven years, the accepted model was that as a client, you didn’t have to pay for advice. And as a provider of advice, you got paid through the producers of the products,” said global CEO of Barclays Wealth Akshaya Bhargava in a recent interview with Singapore’s Business Times. “I think that is fundamentally wrong. It creates a conflict of interest. Any retrocession fees should go back to the client, and any services provided, such as advice, are best explicitly stated.”

“The advisory model has been widely accepted in Europe – it’s the traditional approach there,” says Clarence Law, a Singapore-based business advisor in private banking. But while smaller European private banks such as Pictet, LGT and Lombard Odier also insist that many of their Asian clients pay advisory-based fees, larger firms like Barclays, UBS and Credit Suisse tend to use transaction charges in Asia.

“In contrast to Europeans, Asian private clients haven’t traditionally liked paying for advice, so the big private banks ‘Asianized’ their model when they first move here,” explains Rahul Sen, a former private banker who now works as a headhunter in Singapore. “But this is slowly changing at the large banks in Asia –  if the amount of their AUM under the advisory model was almost zero just five years ago, now it’s about 5% – and expanding.”

As we’ve reported throughout this year, hiring new private bankers in Asia is difficult because of the widespread reluctance of their clients to transfer to a new firm. Bankers working primarily under an advisory model, however, may find it slightly easier to change companies.

“On the one hand, there’s even more need to shift your clients to the new platform because you rely on a steady cash-flow paid up-front by these clients,” says Sen. “But on the other, the advisory model actually makes it more straight-forward to move clients because it’s a simpler model. It doesn’t depend on the new bank being able to offer the same complex products as the old one – that can be a deal breaker.”

The advisory model brings both advantages and disadvantage for the careers of Asian private bankers Share on twitter. While revenue streams are in theory more certain, clients typically become more demanding when they have paid money in advance. “They put more pressure on relationship managers (RMs) to prove they are good for the dollar,” says Sen.

Banks in Asia tend to offer advisory services mainly to ultra-high-net-worth clients, those with at least US$30m in AUM. “Revenue-wise at this level the model works better for the bank and these type of people often don’t mind paying if they are getting a better service,” says Sen. “And if they’ve already been paid upfront, they know the RM won’t be going hell for leather on structured products and the like.”

“It takes a lot of the sales aspect out of the job, and the pushiness to invest in certain products,” says another Singapore-based headhunter, who asked not to be named. “But fundamentally, the advisory model only works when the client has an extremely strong and long-term relationship with the RM and is happy to pay for advice based on trust.”

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Sue Dean, head of transaction banking for EMEA at J.P. Morgan, has been at the bank in the UK for over two and a half decades and has held senior positions in what most would describe as the less exciting side of banking. Starting out in retail banking, moving to custody, operations and now transaction services, she’s been at the helm of the functions that keep the wheels in the front office turning.

Dean demonstrates the need for moving around the business in order to progress your banking career and, in an industry known for excessive staff churn, is an example of how to succeed without switching employers too often. She gives us the low down on her career and what it takes to make it in transaction services.

Can you tell us how you got your first banking job?

I started out working in a retail branch of a bank. At the time I was unsure what I wanted to do, but consider myself fortunate to have landed the job and still be in banking 25 years later, a career which has covered a broad range of functions. Retail banking is often viewed as the less complex side of the industry, but it provides the perfect start, exposing you to the fundamentals of banking Share on twitter, connecting with customers and providing you with the human side of the industry while learning all the products.

So, how did you move across to transaction banking?

I spent six years in retail banking, covering many disciplines including managing clients’ share portfolios. I wasn’t trading, but was helping clients service their securities and developed a real interest in that side of the business. What was then Chase (now J.P. Morgan) were building out their custody arm and I seized the opportunity to join. I’ve now been here for 26 years.

Throughout that time I’ve worked in client services, custody, operations and treasury services operations based in Bournemouth, focused on EMEA, Asia and Latin America. I worked closely with our product development and was able to gain the skills to move to my current role.

What does your job involve?

A basic description would be to say that we manage the bank accounts for wholesale clients, which are generally large corporations. We offer new products, manage their cash flow and help them maximise their cash efficiency. This could range from paying their employees, providing options to manage excess cash and providing FX. We support all of their banking needs, but when it comes to large corporate clients these needs are complex.

My job involves managing our team of around 130 people and taking responsibility for the strategy and product development for the EMEA region. In recent years, we’ve had to respond to a lot of regulatory change.

What’s the best thing about the job?  

There’s a real diversity to the job and you’re incredibly connected to what’s happening in the real economy. Any change in interest rates, every sanction, will affect the way we and our clients do business and we have to be at the forefront.

And the worst thing?

The best thing is also the worst – on the one hand it’s very stimulating, but on the other having another complex challenge to work through can be trying every day.

What is the most challenging thing you have worked on this week?

The everyday challenges of the job are not the real stresses; it’s the significant macro events that prove the most challenging. Share on twitter An obvious example is the Eurozone crisis, which has caused some significant complexities.

What elements of your character make you ideally suited for the job?

I’m extremely detailed, which is incredibly important when you have to apply complex regulations and be able to explain the impact to clients. It’s also necessary when creating new products because you need to consider development from multiple angles. Listening is also important and key when dealing with clients, their feedback and requirements help you to develop the products they need.

What should every student stepping into an interview with you know?

They should understand what a bank does. There will be varying levels of complexity within the different product areas, but they should understand the fundamentals.

What’s your favourite interview question for students?

What do you know about banking? You get a broad level of responses ranging from people who are a little stumped at how to answer the questions through to people who have really considered it. Some people talk in technical terms, others focus on particular transactions in areas like M&A. There’s no right or wrong answer – I just want to know that they’ve considered what it is to work for a large multinational bank.

Yesterday, RBC became one of the first North American banks to report full year results for 2014. They were good. RBC’s investment bankers can be forgiven for thinking they might get paid when the bank announces its bonuses in two weeks’ time.

Net profits for the full year increased by 21% in RBC’s Capital Markets business. Corporate and investment banking revenues rose 14%. Sales and trading revenues rose 13%. Return on equity was stable, but in double digits, at 14.1%.

The increase in profitability could be a sign that RBC’s bankers will be rewarded for all their hard work. Then again, it could be a sign that pay is being squeezed to hike profits.

Unfortunately there are several indicators that the latter might be the case. Ominously, RBC has trimmed the proportion of capital markets revenues it pays out in compensation from 39.8% in 2012 to 37.7% for the year just passed. Ominously too, in a presentation accompanying its fourth quarter results, the bank said variable compensation (bonuses) fell in the three months to October.

Less portentously, RBC’s results show that it’s increasing the amount of variable compensation it’s paying across the bank. RBC-wide, bonuses rose by 11% in 2014. However, this increase may have gone to the bank’s wealth managers or tellers rather than to its investment bankers.

RBC has been building out its capital markets business in London. In May, it announced plans to build out its European advisory business, with a focus on healthcare, telecoms and media and technology. It’s also been opportunistically picking up people let go from Barclays Investment Bank (whilst refusing to pay recruiters a fee for punting any ex-Barclays staff). The Financial Conduct Authority Register shows that RBC Capital Markets upped the number of registered staff it has in London from 490 in January to 534 at the end of October.

However, there are signs that RBC’s European build may not be going to plan. During yesterday’s call, CEO Dave McKay said Europe is a “challenging market” and that RBC is being “cautious” with the build-out, but that he was “encouraged by the teams we’ve added and some of the mandates we’ve won.” Reading between the lines, this doesn’t sound like a bank that’s enthused about paying its people well for 2014. It sounds like a bank that’s already spent a lot of money hiring in new staff and is still waiting for them to reward its investment. RBC bankers are advised against holding their collective breath.

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Unsurprisingly, FX traders aren’t feeling enthusiastic about their pay. With banks paying $4.3bn in fines and regulators demanding that traders feel the wrath of those fines in their pockets, trading bonuses should really be negative this year. In reality, they’ll probably be zero. And yet… one senior FX trader has managed to rise escape 2014 pay death. He is Ardalan Gharagozlou, the former head of FX trading at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt.

For those unfamiliar with Gharagozlou’s case, he was named head of FX at Deutsche Bank in 2010. In 2011 he earned a bonus of  €2.7m and a salary of around €265k. And in February 2013 (seemingly before being paid a bonus for 2012), he was fired for the alleged manipulation of Euribor rates.

Gharagozlou and three colleagues challenged their dismissal. In April this year a Frankfurt court ruled that Deutsche should give them their jobs back. However, while two junior traders were reinstated, Deutsche was seemingly unable to find equivalent positions for Gharagozlou and his colleague Jörg Vogt, a senior trader. Last month, Reuters reported that the two men received an out of court settlement.

The word among FX traders and headhunters in London is that Gharagozlou's settlement was very handsome indeed Share on twitter. “They’ve paid him to compensate for his lost bonus in 2012 and for the loss of future earnings,” alleges one headhunter. Deutsche declined to comment. Other FX traders can but look on in envy.   

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It seems these days that nearly every trader in investment banking has their eye on a hedge fund job. Unfortunately, there are only so many seats available at hedge funds. Networking is key, but you’ll also need the ideal resume to get your foot in the door and earn an interview.

We asked a few recruiters who place candidates at hedge funds what they look for on sell-side resumes. Here are a few of the key elements.

Quantifiable results

The STAR method (situation, task, analysis and result) is often used as a job interview technique, but the concept is easily transferable to resume writing. Hedge fund recruiters want to see quantifiable personal results, not bullet-pointed responsibilities, said John Breault, president & CEO of Breault & Smith LLC., an alternative investment recruiting and consulting firm.

Break down difficult situations you’ve encountered and detail how you personally overcame them to generate compelling results, whether financially or otherwise.

“The last thing a hedge fund recruiter wants to see is a generic resume that could easily have been written by someone who is either amazing or terrible,” Breault said.

Specialization

One of the biggest issues facing investment bankers who want to jump to the buy-side is the very nature of their work, particularly at the analyst and associate levels. They have strong analytical skills, but their experience is often rather general.

“People coming out of investment banks have a broad array of skills that aren’t specific to one niche,” said Evan Lerman, principle at IJC Partners, a Wall Street search firm. “That’s a big sticking point for buy-side firms that want specialization. They want people who are the best of the best in covering one sector.”

Avoid being a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none, Lerman said.

Indeed, most hedge funds want rather unorthodox, niche technical skills that fit their particular focus, said Chris Apostolou, a former analyst and economist who’s now the managing director at London-based Arbitrage Search and Selection.

“For example, rather than an analyst just having analyzed the banks to assess their debt or credit rating, it’s better to have technical knowledge of different tiers of bank debt such as tier2, illiquid loans or CoCos,” he said. “These products could be trading far from fair value and people who understand how to trade these parts rather than just the equities can pick up the more interesting trades that mainstream funds can’t or won’t touch.”

Entrepreneurialism and creativity

While investment banks are built like machines, hedge funds are similar to startups. They demand more ownership and personal accountability. Highlight any examples of entrepreneurialism and breaking outside the box of the traditional trader at an investment bank, said Breault.

Some funds are known to hire chess, bridge and poker players. Other great examples include completing your day job while also starting an Internet firm, Breault said, or growing your language and cultural skills outside of work and applying them to your role.

Discovering and applying alternative investment approaches takes a creative mind. Prove that on your resume wherever possible.

Being a winner

It’s a bit obvious, but worth mentioning. Hedge funds have the luxury of being highly selective, so they’ll look at your GPA and standardized scores as well as your work and personal experience, said Breault.

“Having examples of being the best at both quantitative items and liberal arts items,” like being great at math and also an opera singer, he said.

Be passionate

At the end of the day, hedge funds want just one thing. Someone who eats, breathes and sleeps investments. “They want guys who would work a 14-hour day at a bank and then spend their free time coming up to speed on the market because they love it” Lerman said. “For 99% of the people, it’s just a job. Hedge funds want the other 1%.”

While this is hard to “prove” on a resume, make an effort to explain your passion for the business.

Banks in Hong Kong and Singapore may be trying to localise their junior and mid-level ranks, but Western expats are still often in favour for top financial services jobs Share on twitter. There’s generally less need for senior managers to speak Mandarin if their role is strategic rather than client-focused, and the local-advertising requirement in Singapore’s Fair Consideration Framework doesn’t apply to jobs paying over S$144k.

BNP Paribas has, for example, recently promoted Australian Wayne Green, currently head of loan syndications for Australia at the bank, to head of loan syndication and loan sales for Asia Pacific. He will be based in Hong Kong from January and replaces Didier Leblanc, who is leaving the industry after 18 years to move to the US. His appointment comes as BNP continues “its push from Australia into Asian markets”, reports Banking Day. The French firm announced in February 2013 that it wanted to hire 1,300 people in Asia by early 2016. Rival Societe Generale is also expanding its Asian headcount.

In another recent expat appointment in Hong Kong, Roy Gori, Citi’s head of consumer banking for North Asia and Australia, and its regional head of retail banking for Asia Pacific, is joining Manulife Financial Corporation to lead its Asia operations.

Meanwhile:

Westpac becomes latest bank to open in Shanghai Free Trade Zone. (South China Morning Post)

Prominent businessman Koh Boon Hwee appointed independent director of Pictet’s private bank in Singapore. (Straits Times)

Why Deloitte thinks next year will be a “turning point” for the Malaysian banking sector. (Asia One)

HSBC appoints first local chief executive officer for Vietnam. (Tuoitre News)

Hong Kong shares in dual-listed mainland firms are trading at deep discounts to their onshore versions. (South China Morning Post)

Fintech start-ups pitch their ideas to bankers in Hong Kong. (Finance Asia)

China starts making the food beloved by Western bankers. (WSJ)

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The year is drawing to a close and if you’re sprucing up your CV in preparation of post-bonus job applications in Asia, it pays to know what to avoid writing as well as what to write.

Some resume phrases have become so overused by banking professionals in Singapore and Hong Kong that recruiters are now repulsed by the very sight of them.

With Asian recruiters expecting to be deluged with applications in the coming months, this is worst time to send them a CV that is cluttered with the same old catch-phrases as all the others. Here are some words to avoid:

1) “I’m bilingual”

There’s a growing trend for candidates in Singapore to include “bilingual” on their CV when in reality they are only fluent in English. “They use this word as most banks these days are looking for fluent Cantonese, Mandarin or Japanese speakers and they believe it adds weight to their application,” says Komal Mehta, a partner at recruiters KS Consulting. “My advice is to always mention your level of fluency in the second language – for example, mention any courses you have done – otherwise it’s misleading for recruiters and HR managers if you’re not genuinely bilingual.”

2) “I’m creative and hardworking”            

This phrase is so overused, especially by junior banking professionals in Asia, that it actually suggests a lack of creativity in the drafting of your CV. “I think candidates just overlook phrases like this – they don’t reflect on whether these clichéd words add value or have any relevance,” says Chris Mead, regional director of recruitment company Hays in Singapore. “Only express the factual and measurable aspects of your experience. ‘Managed 150 full-time employees across five teams, with five direct vice-president reports’ is much better than writing that you’re a ‘seasoned’ or ‘hardworking’ leader,” adds Mead.

3) “I efficiently and effectively….”

These seemingly handy adverbs can be applied to just about every task in the banking sector – therein lies the problem. “This phrase is too generic, especially if the candidate doesn’t back it up with some actual examples that these words describe,” says Orelia Chan, manager, financial services and compliance at recruiters Robert Walters in Singapore. “And it doesn’t really catch the hiring manager’s attention because a lot of candidates use the same phrase without any differentiation.”

4) “I am an ambitious and goal-oriented young professional”

“This is usually the first line on a CV from a job seeker who’s early on in their career search – but it’s throwaway line, it adds no value and if anything may seem a little too exuberant,” says Stuart Jones, divisional manager of banking and finance at recruiters Peoplebank in Singapore. “I would always imagine that the professional sending me their profile is genuinely looking to develop their career and is working towards goals – there’s no need to state it. Instead let the reviewer know that you’re a consistent achiever in your tasks and responsibilities and have been active in the development of your current role.”

5) “I was involved in…”

“This is a term that immediately makes the reviewer second guess the content of the candidate’s profile,” says Jones. “While I can appreciate that you may not want to take ownership or credit for the overall project, opening a sentence where the word ‘involved’ casts a shadow of doubt on the achievements mentioned. My suggestion is to reference your responsibilities within the described project and the achievements made from fulfilling, or overachieving, your obligations.”

6) “I’m skilled in Microsoft Office, Word, Excel and Outlook”

Listing generic computer skills is a sure-fire way to repel a banking recruiter. “Why even bother to include such a phrase? Everyone is expected to have those skills,” bemoans Adrian Choo, a principal at search firm CTPartners in Singapore. “It makes me think you have run out of ideas to put into your CV. It’s better to use that space to put in ‘special hobbies’ like antique map collecting, or ‘special achievements’ like ‘climbed Mt Everest twice’.”

7) “I managed 100 staffs”

Pluralisation problems often plague English-language resumes in Hong Kong. This is one of the chief offenders: candidates who’ve managed more than one person sometimes incorrectly refer to their employees as their “staffs”. “The word is always staff – whether it was one person you supervised, or 100,” says Tracy Tam, manager of the Hong Kong banking team at recruitment agency Ambition.

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For investment banks’ traders looking to make the switch into a hedge fund, there have only been two really voluminous recruiters in the past couple of years – Millennium Management or Bluecrest Capital Management. Both have been hiring heavily from the bulge bracket banks, but a sink-or-swim mentality – and intolerance to underperformance – means that not everyone who comes on board lasts very long.

Both hedge funds make no secret of the fact that job security is shaky for portfolio managers who don’t make the grade Share on twitter. Andrew Dodd, CFO at Bluecrest, admitted that trader departures can be “slightly abrupt” if performance starts to wane. Meanwhile, Millennium money managers are given a small amount of capital to invest across multiple strategies set by a centralised senior management committee – if you’re successful, you get more capital, but if you’re not, departures can be swift.

So it is with some investment banking big hitters who made the buy-side switch recently. Zaki Dhabalia, who joined Millennium in March last year after a decade at Goldman Sachs where he was latterly chief gold trader, has now left the firm. Bobby Dziedziech, a former Lehman Brothers executive director who was a portfolio manager at Millennium’s Meadow Lake Capital Management, has also departed after just 11 months, according to filings on the FCA register.

Meanwhile, at Bluecrest, Nicholas Tuite, who was formerly at Barclays but worked at Omni Partners for a couple of months before moving to Bluecrest in March last year, has now left the firm.

There’s no indication that any of these were forced out, but previous form of these employers suggests that performance could have been an issue. They could have also been following an increasingly common career path of moving back from the buy-side into investment banking.

While investment banks are far from a stable option, the prospect of working for a hedge fund is now arguably shakier. Despite suggestions of hedge funds hiking pay to compete for talent from private equity firms and investment banks – as well as speeding up the recruitment process – it’s been a difficult year for the industry.

This year has been the worst since the 2008 financial crisis for hedge fund closures and larger firms have been shuttering unsuccessful funds after a period of underperformance. Brevan Howard pulled the plug on its $630m commodities hedge fund last week.

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If you want to work for an investment bank that dominates in the vast majority of business areas, try J.P. Morgan. Failing that, Goldman Sachs is a good bet. And then Deutsche Bank.  These banks have once again made the top three in the global investment banking rankings by data provider Coalition.

J.P. Morgan is top by virtue of leading across FICC and investment banking, and it’s renewed focus on equities has also paid off – it’s moved up the league tables to second. Goldman’s FICC division ranks outside the top three, suggests the data, but second places in equities and investment banking have ensured it comes up behind J.P. Morgan overall.

Deutsche Bank, which is one of the few banks to wholeheartedly persist with its focus on fixed income, is in third place largely thanks to its top three place in FICC. Elsewhere, it ranks between forth to sixth. Deutsche has, however, slid down the rankings in FICC – at the end of Q1 it was equal first in this business area, but has since fallen to third. J.P. Morgan and Citigroup are the top FICC investment banks.

But in an era of swift and deep headcount cuts, perhaps it’s worth also worth looking at banks where performance is on the up – here, according the analysis, the two firms to work for are Morgan Stanley and BNP Paribas.

Morgan Stanley in particular has moved up the rankings across all business areas – FICC, equities and investment banking division, as well as improving its overall position relative to its peers, according to the new global investment bank league table by data provider Coalition. However, equities is where it’s taken the lead.

The US bank is now the number one in equities and has moved up within its advisory business, even if it’s only the 6^th ranked investment bank overall. This is likely to be down to its top three position in both equity capital markets and M&A during the first half, rather than revenues in debt capital markets.

Morgan Stanley’s dominance in equities is likely to be down to its performance in cash equities and prime services – rather than derivative products – as the bank held the number one slot for these business areas in the first half of 2014, according to Coalition data.

BNP Paribas, meanwhile, which has just shaken up its investment bank and signalled a move away from fixed income, has improved across both FICC and equities. Overall, though, BNP is still an outsider – ranking tenth overall and between 7-10 in all business lines.

UBS, which has a traditional strength in equities and announced plans to exit certain fixed income business as it slimmed down its investment bank, has lost ground in this area. At the beginning of 2013, UBS was ranked first in equities, and was still in third spot after the first quarter of 2014. Now, it’s ranked between 4-6 and is outside of the top seven in all other business lines.

UBS’s propensity for hiring senior investment bankers has paid off a little, however, with the Swiss bank moving up the rankings slightly in its investment banking division.

You’re looking for a new finance job and you’re not finding one. What’s going wrong? It may be the time of year. It may be market conditions. Or it may be…your technique.

Research into job search techniques is big business on university campuses, where it’s an academic discipline in its own right. Reams of academic literature suggest there’s a right and wrong way to go about looking for a job. If you want to get hired, the following traits and features should work in your favor.

1. Psychological capital 

Successful job searchers are psychologically healthy  Share on twitter- they have ‘psychological capital’ to use the vernacular. A 2012 study in the Journal of Organizational Behaviour found that job searchers who were hopeful, optimistic and resilient were more likely to see themselves as employable. And that employees who perceived themselves as employable were, unsurprisingly, better at looking for jobs.

2.  Intensity 

The ‘intensity’ of your job search will also determine its success. A study of university graduates found (also unsurprisingly) that an intense active job search (ie. applying for a lot of jobs) predicts job interviews, that job interviews predict job offers and that job offers predict new jobs.

3. Timeliness

A separate study found that people who procrastinate before sending in job applications are less likely to be successful – no matter how intense their job search. Getting a new job is all about timeliness – if you delay applying for a job that’s appropriate to you, it’s possible that an employer will have filled the position by the time you send in your resume. This is particularly the case for analyst and associate positions in investment banks, which are often filled on a first come first serve basis.

3. A long term goal

Self-control has also been found to be highly correlated to job search success. A study just published in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour suggests that self-control is more more important than mere motivation in finding a new job. Self control is defined as, ‘ the ability to control one’s thoughts, actions, and response tendencies in view of a long-term goal.’

4. Focus and exploration 

Unsurprisingly, finding a new job is positively correlated to flexibility – the more flexible you are, the more jobs you will consider and the more likely you are to be successful in finding one. However, flexibility alone is a bad idea. A 2010 study into career adaptability found that candidates who only have an ‘exploratory’ job search strategy have a lower quality of employment eight months later than those who pursue a strategy that is both exploratory and focused. In other words, know what you want to do, but be prepared to think around that.

5. Channel maximization

The more channels you use to look for a new job, the more successful you’re likely to be. Don’t just respond to job advertisements, network. Don’t just network online – network in person. Don’t just network with former colleagues, network with acquaintances. Don’t just apply through agencies, apply direct. Don’t just wait for recruiters to come to you – upload your CV or update your profile on LinkedIn. A 2010 study found that the greater the number of channels you use to apply for a job, the more successful you’re likely to be.  However, the study also found that some ‘low value’ channels can be detrimental to job search success.  In the sample used, those channels were ‘public employment agencies’. If you work in banking, they may be recruitment firms with bad reputations in the industry, for example.

6. Correct use of search firms 

Finally, if you’re looking for a high level finance job and you’re using a search firm, you need to know what search firms are good for and what they’re not. A study published earlier this year in the International Journal of Human Resource Management found that if you’re an executive whose move is mediated by a search firm, you’re more likely to obtain a promotion or to move to a larger and more reputable employer. However, you’re less likely to get a ‘developmental assignment’ or to move to a new function or industry. Remember that before jumping to attention each time a headhunter calls.

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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. Share on twitter

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.

Beware the holiday social inspection

Increasingly, recruiters and hiring managers will look for job seekers on social channels… not just LinkedIn. They’ll see what you’re tweeting and look at your Facebook profile for to see what you’re interested in, so don’t let them see any unsavory posts and comments. Take ownership of it. Lock it down by clicking on the padlock (top right), audit posts and photos you’re tagged in, and take care when commenting on public posts.

Make sure your social pictures work for, not against you

It’s the time of the year when we’re in lots of photos but that doesn’t mean you should use that drunken snap as your profile or banner picture. I’ve personally seen a high level professional lose a contract to work in an investment bank because she looked drunk in her profile picture. Don’t let that be you. Be objective, does your photo show you in the best light? Would you hire you?

Network beyond LinkedIn

Ever had that feeling of connecting with someone on LinkedIn and thinking, “now what?” The trouble is, it’s not social. Everyday your news feed is reset to the top (from recent) and therefore your organic posts have little visibility, which makes networking very hard! Instead, try using a Chrome extension like Discoverly or Connect6 to see where else recruiters are interacting, avoiding Facebook, go and network with them on other sites like Twitter, Google+, and more.

Don’t broadcast “give me a job” 

Whether you’re on LinkedIn, Twitter or another, avoid updates that basically say, “give me a job!” They reek of desperation and that’s not the impression you want to make. Have a tactic. Find people to follow or connect with who are in your target company or industry and gain their trust through positive social media etiquette before you ask about opportunities. Find valid reasons to keep in touch, like sharing an article you saw that would be of interest to them. Remember, all they’re thinking is, “what’s in it for me?”

Katrina Collier is founder of Winning Impression. Since 2009 she’s been showing companies how to add social recruiting to their hiring methods and job seekers how to use social media to land their dream job. When not out walking her dogs in London UK, or indulging in her Instagram addiction, she can be found speaking at recruitment events and HR conferences and writing about the use of social media for recruiting. Follow her @WinningImpress

When it comes to Chinese financial services, the landmark regulatory decisions are made in Beijing and the new jobs tend to be created in Shanghai. Recent weeks have seen the launch of Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect as well as new proposals to reform the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and introduce deposit insurance for banks.

The latest news of deregulation and job creation, however, comes from Qianhai, a special economic zone in western Shenzhen, only an hour’s drive from Hong Kong. Since 2012 Qianhai has been a test bed for China’s yuan liberalisation and financial reforms – Hong Kong banks are already allowed to lend offshore yuan to companies based in the zone.

Now the banks are moving into Qianhai itself, reports the South China Morning Post. On Sunday HSBC, Standard Chartered and UBS opened offices in Qianhai’s so-called “Enterprise Dream+Park”, which will eventually house more than 40 big companies. It’s unclear exactly how many people the three banks are employing in the zone, but it’s likely that most will be back-office staff. As we noted last year, Qianhai has the potential to develop into a major Asian operations hub Share on twitter because of its low business costs, proximity to Hong Kong and preferential income tax rate.

More significant for front-office jobs is what Qianhai has on its agenda for the future. The district released a plan late last week to deepen financial cooperation with Hong Kong, including a stock connection programme to link the Shenzhen and Hong Kong markets, reports CCTV. It also aims to set up a cross-border trading platform for securities and derivative products. Qianhai’s expected expansion won’t just create banking jobs. The proposals suggest further easing the requirements for Hong Kong-based insurers to open offices in the zone. Hong Kong insurance companies and other non-bank financial firms would also be allowed to lend yuan to Qianhai-based companies.

Meanwhile:

The potential risks of Singapore’s booming trade finance sector. (Business Times)

Could Haitong Securities’ takeover talks with a Portuguese bank mark the start of a Chinese drive into Europe’s banking sector? (South China Morning Post)

Outgoing Westpac boss Gail Kelly in running for world’s best CEO title. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mainland banks’ wealth management products allowed to invest in domestic stocks and bonds. (South China Morning Post)

Bad loans to peak in China next year. (WSJ)

Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC, assess the true size of the Chinese economy. (Financial Times)

And Neumann says the Philippine banking system remains one of the strongest in Asean. (The Philippine Star)

Bank workers in New Zealand protest against “greedy” ANZ (Stuff.co.nz), while accused killer in Australia considers suing ANZ after losing job as bank clerk while on remand. (Herald Sun)

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Application deadlines for 2015 full-time graduate jobs at large banks in Asia have all but closed – with rare exceptions such as Credit Suisse’s private bank in Hong Kong and Singapore. Banks are now either in graduate-assessment season or edging close to it.

If you’re about to enter into an assessment process, you will no doubt be trying to second guess exactly what you’ll be asked during face-to-face interviews. But before you research questions specific to the bank or job function, you are advised to consider, in broad terms, the types of interview questions that are generally in favour with banks in Asia right now. Here are some that you need to know about, according to graduate recruiters and career coaches in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Expect generalist questions that get your talking…

Graduates in Asia are nothing if not well prepared to tackle a check-list of specific interview questions. “Employers here often complain that students are coached to answer what they want to hear, so interviews can be a source of great frustration,” says Henry Chamberlain, a former head of selection at Standard Chartered who’s now a Hong Kong-based careers consultant. “But because they now know more about Gen-Y behaviour, most employers in Hong Kong know to be more interactive in their interviews – asking graduates broad questions about their ideal organisation, their expectations and so on. They want to know if the graduate will stay with them and how well they will fit into their organisational culture.”

…and some of these will be competency-based

It’s almost impossible to escape a graduate interview without being asked a handful of competency-based question. These often begin with “tell me about a time when” and require you to provide specific examples of behaviours related to the job, explains Chamberlain. Common questions are: Tell me about a time when you had to achieve a difficult objective / when you found it hard to collaborate with others / when you showed leadership. “HR at banks in Asia loves these kind of questions. The key when answering is to be specific and detailed when drawing out an example from your past,” says Alex Wong, a former banker and Bain consultant who now works as a graduate careers coach in Hong Kong. “You are trying to tell a convincing story and build up a genuine picture of yourself.”

Get creative with you goal-setting

Graduates in Asia tend to come well prepared to explain how they intend to climb the corporate ladder or how they have already aced all their academic objectives. But unless explicitly stated in the question, you don’t need to confine your answer to the office or classroom when asked a question about your goals. “We want people who are passionate and who are skilled outside the realm of academic work – this translates to the workplace and produces creativity in everything you do,” says Calvin Tay, graduate recruitment lead for APAC at Citi. “Asking about goals is always a clear indicator to see how passionate people are for the targets they set for themselves. You would normally follow up with questions on how they ensured they achieved this and what the outcome was. Being candid in your answer is the most important thing, not whether you have achieved those goals.”

Show you can cope when your values are challenged

Forging a successful banking career in a multi-national business hub like Singapore or Hong Kong partly depends on your ability to interact well with people from diverse backgrounds or with different values from your own – be they clients or colleagues. Debbie Chan, vice president of campus strategy and graduate recruitment at DBS in Singapore, likes to ask the following question: “Tell us about a time when your principles or values were challenged. How did you handle it?” She explains why: “We want to understand how you handle differences in values people have, so we can assess your integrity and hear the manner in which you articulate it.”

Create a clear angle on your internship

You will (obviously) be asked about your most recent internship. Aside from merely describing your team and your tasks – the trick to convincing interviewers that your internship was a stunning success is also to have a clear “angle” than sums up your achievements, says career coach Wong. “Before the interview, think about what the unique selling point of your internship is. It could be the result, the process, the competency you showed. Interviewers want to know that you really understand your professional experience at the bank.”

Yes, your questions do count

Posing your own questions to the recruiter or manager isn’t just a post-interview pleasantry – you will actually be assessed on what you ask. “Turning the tables on the candidate is the most interesting aspect for me,” says Sze Ming Ho, APAC graduate recruitment manager at Deutsche Bank. “I’m always keen to see what questions the candidate has. It shows me that they’re interested and are prepared to engage us in conversation to answer what’s important to them. An interview is a two-way process – it’s about us being the right match for the candidates as well as them for us.”

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2014 has been a good year for junior bankers. Abundant work and tight ‘talent’ have conspired to leave juniors in a strong bargaining position. They’ve had their salaries hiked, they’ve been granted mandatory weekends off, and they’re being given opportunities to start their careers several rungs up the ladder. But while salary hikes and weekends at home might be a good thing, recruiters warn that banking careers that don’t begin at the bottom are more likely to end before the top.

“We’ve started to see firms bringing in newly-qualified accountants as first year associates rather than as second or third year analysts,” says Andy Pringle, director at recruitment firm Circle Square Consulting. “If you’re a candidate this can be a dangerous move to make – it usually happens at the top of the market and next time there’s a crash, those people who came in as associates will find themselves unwanted.”

Analysts are at the bottom of the investment banking pile. Recruited straight out of university, they spend three years crunching numbers, building financial models and assembling PowerPoint presentations before being promoted to associate. Associates do some number crunching and PowerPoint assembly, but their real role is to manage the analysts. Associates who haven’t been analysts themselves are at a disadvantage.

“If you haven’t done at least the third year of an analyst program, you won’t have strong modelling skills,” says Pringle. “And if you don’t have the modelling skills, you’re going to be less well-rounded and less useful.” While this isn’t a problem in busy markets, Pringle says poor modelling skills are a red flag when headcount is being cut: “Banks will keep the people who have come up through the ranks and who can do the jobs of analysts, associates and VPs equally well.”

Recruiters say MBA students who skip the analyst program and join banks as associates are vulnerable for the same reason. “Time and time again, we see that the people hired in as MBAs are the first to be let go Share on twitter,” says the head of one investment banking search firm, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Banks need people who can run numbers and do the valuations. MBAs touch on that in their training, but they’re not nearly as good as an analyst who’s spent three years building models day in, day out.”

Heather Katsonga-Woodward, a former Goldman Sachs M&A analyst who’s also turned her hand to helping people get into the industry, agrees that MBA’s modelling skills are often weak:  “The associates are supposed to help you with some of the modelling that’s required to put the presentations together, but when they’ve just done an MBA they can lack confidence and be over-reliant on you,” she told us last summer. 

If you want your M&A or IBD (investment banking division) career to last longer than than the current strong market, therefore, don’t cut corners. Do complete the analyst years and do resist banks’ attempts to seduce you with a generous job title. They’re only doing it out of panic. “The carcasses of most second and third tier banks have already been well picked over for junior staff Share on twitter,” says the headhunter. “If a bank is offering to make you an associate and you don’t have modelling experience, it’s because they’re desperate. But that can change.”

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Hedge fund Marshall Wace increased average pay for its members by nearly five-fold after a year when profits more than doubled. However, despite the stellar performance and a fund-manager hiring spree, employees outside of the partnership were paid less.

Marshall Wace posted profits of £205.1m in the 12 months to February 2014, according to accounts filed this week on Companies House in the UK, compared to £83.2m in 2013. Last year’s profits were a vast improvement on 2012 performance anyway, which came in at £47.3m.

As ever with hedge fund LLPs, profits were divided exclusively between a small number of partners. Marshall Wace has 15 partners, but £71.6m was allocated to another legal body that officially houses the bulk of its employees. This means that £133.6m was shared between the remaining 14 partners, or an average payment of £8.9m. Last year, this figure was £1.85m.

But this generosity does not extend to the rank-and-file employees at Marshall Wace. It allocated £30.1m to staff costs for 2014, or an average of £330k for each of its 91 employees, down from £444k for the prior year.

Headcount in its back office and compliance divisions declined – from 62 people in 2013 to 49 in February – but it’s been hiring fund managers. It now has 42 fund management employees, compared to 30 in 2013 – or a 40% increase.

Founders Ian Wace and Paul Marshall both increased their personal wealth by £25m last year and now have a personal fortune of £300m apiece, according the Sunday Times Rich List.

In the latest hiring roundup, UBS is setting up a new risk unit, high-speed trading firms are loading up on juniors and Fortress preps a new fund.

High-speed trading firms adding talent

High speed trading firms XR Trading, DRW Trading and Sun Trading are all reportedly looking to hire junior staffers in London.

UBS opens new risk unit

UBS is setting up a group asset and liability unit as it seeks to better manage risk under its new structure. ‘

Nomura to launch new US office

Nomura is setting up a new office in Los Angeles. It’ll begin as just a sales office but the hope is to eventually grow it into a fully functioning investment bank.

PE firms hiring juniors

Private equity firms don’t broadcast their hiring plans, but clearly they’re adding talent. A recent survey found that 36% of a recent class of investment banking analysts found their way to the private equity industry after two years.

UK brokerage firm opens new office

Small-cap UK brokerage firm Cenkos is opening up a new office in Liverpool as they build their presence in Northern England.

JPM hiring advisory experts

J.P. Morgan is adding external advisory experts in Europe. The US bank has hired four of them in the last month as the M&A market continues to stay hot.

Fortress launching new fund

US-based Fortress Investment Group is reportedly planning a long-short equity hedge fund unit. Fortress has a history of hiring teams rather than individuals.

In another sign that China-coverage bankers are highly sought after by Western banks, Morgan Stanley has made Richard Chen and Jing Qian co-heads of China investment banking, reports Finance Asia.

Chen has been hauled out of the bank’s APAC natural resources team, which he only joined last June, and moved back to where Morgan Stanley (and its rivals) think the money is: mainland China. As we’ve reported over the past few months, foreign investment banks are looking to expand their ranks with deal makers who can help private Chinese companies across different sectors make overseas acquisitions.

Global banks in China are now demanding “real banking skills and experience” instead of political connections, Jason Tan, a partner at search firm Being & Associates, told us last month. “Chinese conglomerates are going on an international shopping spree, buying landmark real estate, brands and more.”

Jing Qian also perfectly fits the bill of the “China-enabled” banker that banks are prepared battle for – she has deep client networks and 15 years’ experience in a several industries. Morgan Stanley only poached her in August – as head of China origination from Deutsche Bank, where she was co-head of China IBD – so this is rapid promotion.

Several banks have been beefing up their senior China ranks this year. In August, BNP Paribas appointed Paul Yang, a BNP veteran banker who joined the firm in 1988, as its head of Greater China. The previous month JPMorgan poached David Li from UBS as its new China head.

Meanwhile:

DBS primed to join rivals UOB and OCBC by opening a branch in Sydney. (Asia One)

Inflated job titles will keep Gen-Y happy in Asia. (Straits Times)

68 Hong Kong gold-trading firms to set up shop in Qianhai. (South China Morning Post)

Chinese banks want to lend more money. (WSJ)

Foreign investors wary about buying Chinese bad debt. (South China Morning Post)

Major new report highlights strengths and weaknesses of Australia financial system. (Sydney Morning Herald)

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