As banks pay bonuses and assess potential promotions and salary rises this quarter, financial professionals are getting a clearer indication of the current state of their careers. In Asia, skill shortages and a reluctance to plug them with junior talent from abroad mean junior financial services professionals are generally obsessing over moving jobs within the banking sector and making more money.
It’s different for those who’ve reached senior associate or VP level at banks in Singapore and Hong Kong. Headhunters in the two cities say these mid-level professionals are coming to them with a varied set of career concerns – some unique to the current job market in Asia and some more universal.
Here’s what’s on the mind of mid-career staff at banks right now and here’s what recruiters are advising them.
Does my loyalty make me a salary loser?
Last month former veteran HSBC banker Victor Mills bemoaned “excessive” job hopping by young people in Singapore – many senior associates and VPs share his concerns. “The market in Asia promotes job hopping by offering large salary increments every time someone moves Share on twitter,” says James Carss, Hong Kong director of recruiters HFG. “Those who remain loyal often get left behind on pay and by the time they reach mid-career they can end up below market salaries. This eventually causes frustration and they want to move themselves, but I’d advise them to have an open conversation with their boss prior to any job search.”
My sponsor quit – so what now?
“I meet a lot of excellent candidates who’ve been fast tracked and mentored/sponsored early on in their career but have now hit a glass ceiling as they’ve got older,” says Carss. “Often this promotion process goes wrong if their main sponsor leaves the organisation. In this case I always advise them to carefully and realistically compare internal career-progression possibilities with any external roles available on the market.”
Should I transfer out of the back-office before it’s too late?
Back-office professionals who’ve reached senior associate or VP level increasingly face an uncertain career future Share on twitter as banks continue to offshore operations jobs away from Singapore and Hong Kong, says Nick Wells, a director at search firm Webber Chase in Singapore. “But people in product control, trade support and price verification often make excellent internal transferees into the governance world in banking – in particular operational risk where technical product knowledge and an understanding of internal procedures give these controllers an edge,” says Paul Evans, a director at recruiters Astbury Marsden in Singapore.
Should I just quit banking and join the corporate sector?
Expansionist North Asian companies are on the hunt for bankers to guide them through mergers and IPOs – these in-house corporate-development roles are especially hot in Hong Kong. Now mid-level bankers are being proactive and asking recruiters about these jobs in increasing numbers, says Eunice Ng, director of search firm Avanza Consulting in Hong Kong. Interest in the corporate sector in Asia is now roughly equivalent to the traditional mid-career desire for the buy-side. But although these bankers want to share in the success of Chinese corporate expansion, Ng says improving their work-life balance is their main motivation for moving.
But do I have a sufficient safety net?
When weighing up whether to leave the finance sector, Asian bankers tend to be highly risk adverse. A big concern is often whether their savings are large enough to justify removing the iron rice bowl of a banking job. “If candidates have the personal means to allow them to pursue their passions outside of banking, I strongly endorse this choice,” says Amanda Lote, MD of headhunters Lote & Partners in Hong Kong. “I saw an IB candidate recently who halved his pay to join an e-commerce firm, but he was independently wealthy and said money was unimportant – he was attracted to the scalability of the business plan.”
Which of my key skills are becoming obsolete?
Recruiters view a lot of job descriptions and are often quizzed by mid-career candidates about which skills are becoming popular and which are falling out of favour in their field. “The financial landscape is changing – some roles are being offshored or outsourced and are never coming back,” says Adrian Choo, a principal at search firm CTPartners in Singapore. “In five years’ time, even some risk management functions might be replaced by business-analytics or artificial-intelligence software. VPs need to constantly monitor the market to see if their skills are sustainable in the long run. You don’t want to be obsolete by your late 40s.”