Careers in Banking Session Guides Finance Students

The event is presented by industry veteran turned head hunter cum executive coach Mr Patrick Fearon. Patrick spent 16 years with JP Morgan before making a career shift to executive head hunting and executive coaching. The video telecast of the presentation is available to EDHEC students review on the School's on-line learning platform.



EXPLORING NEW ALTERNATIVES

There are various avenues outside hard-core Investment Banking one can look at while making a career choice in the Financial Services Industry but Commercial and Retail Banking/Private Banking, and Asset and Wealth Management offer equally glamerous careers to choose from. Patrick Fearon, who is also a personal career coach to the Theseus-EDHEC MBA students conducted a series of two seminars to explain the possible careers in and outside of I-Banks.

The presentation began with defining the job profile and roles in a commercial Bank, the desired skills and career path in the industry. Patrick also enlisted few areas of Banking  where commercial Banks have a stronger hold, like forex trading, treasury products etc. Following this he led the students through roles in Credit Risk Management as Commercial Banks have a way larger loan book that investment banks, and therefore offer more opportunities in credit risk management.

Swiftly he changed gears to discuss careers in Asset and Wealth Management and how the career path in this area is different from rest of the Bank. The entry-level positions are usually in research which is normally the route to Asset Management. After doing research for 2-3 years analysts are promoted to Assistant Fund Managers and Fund Managers depending upon their capability and talent after about a decade. Asset management industry is typically distributed in three segments. First  is the Pension funds and Insurance companies like Allianz Dresdner, ING etc. Second in the line come the mutual funds, and thirdly the institutional investors, hedge funds, private equity et al.

He shortly spoke about careers in Private Banking, discussing the major players and the route to this tough and tight industry. Its always said that anyone wanting to make a career/entry in this industry needs to bring along a black book of clients that would do business with them, which Patrick said was only partially true but only at senior levels.

In the last session Patrick Spoke at length on the jobs and profiles in Investment Banking; he also shed light upon the challenges faced by these professionals and what students could expect from careers in this field.

Taking the students through the current Financial Market scenario and the expected campus recruitment intake in the industry this year, he took time out to explain the very famous, or rather infamous financial crises that the world is undergoing at this point. Starting with the Sub-Prime crisis and how it made its way to the Liquidity crunch in the financial markets, he did a very good job of decoding the complex crisis that has shaken the industry like never before.

In view of the current market situation, he also gave wise advice to students on how they should tackle the tightened recruitment season this year and which companies they ought to target.


The - Careers in Banking - series is one of the many events organised by the EDHEC Career Centre that aims to guide students in their career choices. Providing valuable information by inviting professionals and offering simulations and workshops gives students a personal kickstart to their future careers.