You’re working in Hong Kong or China but want to launch a career on Wall Street.
You need not wait until you’re a senior banker or even until you have a Masters degree. We’ve searched through online public profiles to find a sample of young Hong Kong and mainland finance professionals who are now making their mark in New York.
Tian Jing
Jing started his career with a four-year stint at McKinsey, but he specialised in consumer, TMT and energy rather than financial services. He broke into banking via HSBC’s summer associate programme in Hong Kong and in 2011 he made an even more impressive move: he got a job at Goldman Sachs in New York. He’s now an associate in the firm’s healthcare team, covering the Chinese market from Wall Street, according to his public profile.
Louise Zhang
A west-to-east relocation may be a more traditional move in investment banking, but firms are increasingly encouraging internal mobility the other way. University of Hong Kong graduate Zhang worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong for more than five years. Having proved herself in that city she was able to secure a transfer to the firm’s New York office in 2013. She’s now reached VP rank.
Jessica Li
Li’s profile proves that it’s possible to get a job at a US firm on Wall Street after working for a Chinese bank. She did two stints at China Minsheng Bank, most recently in its planning group in 2013, and then secured a summer associate role at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. This was her springboard into a full-time associate job at the US firm, and she now works in its healthcare team.
Matthew Yau
Wall Street is also home to a sprinkling of Hong Kong and mainland middle-office professionals. Yau worked in financial fraud investigation for Deloitte and KPMG in Hong Kong before moving to the investigations unit of Deutsche Bank, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked for the bank in Singapore and Hong Kong but is now a VP in New York, handling global internal investigations.
Ying Zhou
You can also get a job in the US if you have a career in…risk. Zhou was working as a credit risk analyst at Hua Rong Xiang Jiang Bank in China before moving to MZ Capital Management in Washington in 2014. She’s now in New York and at a large bank, Credit Suisse, specialising in portfolio-market and liquidity risk, according to her profile.
Kyle Lo
As Chinese banks expand their global reach, their high-performing staff are being earmarked for global assignments. Trader Lo started his career at Wing Hang Bank and China Construction Bank in Hong Kong. Last year he moved to New York to work in the treasury team at China Citic Bank International.
Yudi Lu
Elite Asian students can sometimes step straight into American graduate jobs. Lu is a case in point. Armed with a Masters in Financial Engineering from Cornell University and an internship as a quant at S&P Capital IQ, Lu secured an analyst job in the financial modelling group at BlackRock in New York in 2014.
Yujia Zhai
Zhai, who got an analyst job at Credit Suisse in New York three months ago following her internship at the same firm, is a top mathematician like Lu. She’s also a graduate teaching assistant on Columbia University’s ‘introduction to the mathematics of finance’ course.
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