Latest articles
Career stasis: when thousands and thousands of people want your job and you have few alternative options
Banking pays less than it used to. Bonuses are reputedly down 30% at Credit Suisse, down 25% at Bank of America, and down similarly elsewhere. This doesn’t mean people don’t want to be bankers. Bob Diamond clarified the extent to which university students still do yesterday, when he said: “Last year, we had applications from 107,000 [...]
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GUEST COMMENT: How to survive investment banking without ageing twice as fast as the average human being
Doctor: “Hello ___ .” Investment banker: “Hi.” Doctor: “I understand that you’ve been having stomach problems, correct?” Investment banker: “Something has happened. Yes. Whenever I drink water or…any liquid for that matter…I feel a strange sensation when the liquid reaches the point before it enters the stomach. Doctor: “How long has this been going on?” [...]
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The pass rate is down, the cheating is up, is the CFA worth the work?
Results to the December 2011 Level 1 CFA exam are out: 38% of people passed. This is a significant minority and a little depressing in light of the fact that as recently as 2009, 46% of December Level 1 candidates got through. Why do so few people pass? Maybe they’re just not good enough. Ed [...]
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Five sectors that are heating up in the first quarter
Generally speaking, the picture for financial sector recruitment in the Gulf is still relatively opaque. With uncertainty reining both globally and regionally, hiring plans – usually formulated in Q4 – have been slow to come into fruition and recruiters we contacted spoke of a sense of frustration about the lack of clarity. Nonetheless, it’s clear [...]
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GUEST COMMENT: How to start safeguarding your bonus now if you work at a European bank
It’s too late to make any difference to your 2011 bonus if you work at a US bank, but if you’re at a European bank you might still be in with a chance of favourably influencing its size. Contrary to what HR or line managers will tell you, your year-end bonus number is not at [...]
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Why investment bankers in the Gulf should be eyeing a move to VTB Capital
In the current climate, few firms are talking up expansion plans, which is why Russian investment bank VTB Capital’s international recruitment drive – including big plans for the Middle East – is garnering a lot of attention. Last year, VTB Capital hired 25 front office investment bankers for its overseas operation and has plans to [...]
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GUEST COMMENT: How you can work at Goldman Sachs for 8 years without living a Playboy lifestyle and still end up broke
There is a persistent City fairy tale which goes something like this: work hard enough, for long enough, and you’ll retire rich and live happily ever after. In this heart-warming fable, “hard enough” equals a minimum 90-hour week. And, “long enough” means somewhere between five and ten years… To have reached thirty five and not [...]
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THE ADVISER: Bankers are losing the art of caring for the client
Ask anyone working in the Middle East banking sector what’s key to success in the region and they’ll tell you the same thing; relationships. Whether that’s wealth management, investment banking or retail banking, knowing your clients and keeping them sweet is integral to getting ahead in the region. However, on the retail banking side, it [...]
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The sharks are starting to circle key RBS MENA staff
RBS is radically downsizing its investment bank globally, so it’s inevitable that its Middle East operation will be affected. While the actual job losses will be minimal, headhunters are looking to prise out key staff unsettled by the shake-up. Last Thursday, RBS revealed that it was making 3,500 redundancies globally as it shrinks its investment [...]
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£4m at Goldman Sachs, £3.1m at Citigroup, £2.4m at JPMorgan, £2.4m at BarCap, £1.1m at RBS and new constraints on cash bonuses at Morgan Stanley
It is a morning of bonus news; some retrospective and some contemporary. In retrospective bonus news, various banks have been obliged to make regulatory filings clarifying how much they paid their code staff. These filings clarify to the extent to which some banks not only pay more than others, but pay a lot more cash [...]
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