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So kiddo, you fancy your chances as a trader? Maybe you’re a fresh faced grad with an analytical mind, straight out of your PhD in Astrophysics? Perhaps you’re a mathematically inclined accountant who trades CFD’s in her spare time or places the odd spread bet on the FTSE 100? Almost every week the Evening Standard runs a story about how a group of traders just dropped £50k on bottles of champagne... Read more

Standard Chartered may have lost out to Hsbc in the battle to acquire Nedbank, but the emerging-markets specialist is unlikely to lick its wounds for very long. Rumour has it that StanChart is already considering another acquisition to strengthen its presence in South Africa, and this time it is looking beyond the country’s “big four” banks. The most likely candidate is Capitec, a small but fast-growing and innovative Western Cape-based bank,... Read more

The absolutely perfect CV for any front office job in an investment bank, WILL…. 1) Have impeccable academics- Top grades from a top school are a totally necessary but absolutely non-sufficient condition for front office occupations. “Good academics are taken for granted,” reflects Andrew Pullman, former head of HR at Dresdner, turned managing consultant at People Risk Solutions. 2) Make a big deal out of the impeccable academics- “Most other candidates will... Read more

The Rand strengthened. The JSE rallied. The country’s registrar of banks described it as “a vote of confidence in South Africa”. Nedbank’s Ceo Mike Brown said he would be pleased to have such a “strong international banking partner”. HSBC's announcement that it has entered into exclusive talks to buy a 70% stake in Nedbank, the smallest of the country’s “big four” banks, has been welcomed. So far everyone seems to... Read more

Jean-Rene Bourlot is back. According to the Financial Times, he’s joining UBS as head of commodities. This is because, after closing its commodities team a year ago, UBS is….rebuilding it again. But who is Jean? And why is he so, ‘colourful’? 1) He’s a graduate of the European business school in Paris Jean Boulot is French. As such, he appears to have gone to this Parisian business school. Surprisingly, it is not... Read more

South Africa’s chartered accountants are rising through the ranks: 90% of chief financial officers and 25% of directors of the top 200 companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange are CAs, according to new research by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica). The 12% rise since five years ago, when the last research was conducted, shows that CA is “the qualification of choice in business”, according to Matsobane Matlwa, Saica... Read more

South Africa’s employment situation is a tale of two countries. Official figures make grim reading, showing a constant decline in the number of people employed in the formal sector. In the first quarter of the year there was a further 2.9% year-on-year fall, according to Stats SA, bringing the total number of unemployed to 8.1m people, a rate of 25.2%, due in part to the end of the massive construction... Read more

An MBA is a question of timing: get it wrong and you’ll find yourself spending £40k+ on two years out of the market when pay is peaking; even worse you may then find it impossible to get back in due to a glut of recently redundant experienced analysts. Equally, however, if you’re determined to do an MBA and you put it off for too long waiting for optimal market conditions, you’ll... Read more

A CFA can only be good for your career – right? After all, it’s not easy: only 20% of people make it through all three levels, and as few as 34% of people pass the CFA Level 1. However, even though a CFA is often a good career move, in some situations it simply isn’t. Which situations? Well… 1) When you really want to work in trading The CFA is particularly... Read more

In case you’re wondering how keen you have to be to work at Goldman Sachs, Alison Mass, an MD and co-head of financial sponsors at Goldman in the US, is here to elucidate. Mass gave the inaugural speech to new arrivals at NYU Stern this year, and divulged just how much she loves her job. First let me state the obvious: I truly love my work. I wake up excited to... Read more

After 20+ years of full time employment (largely with rating agencies), the start-up agency I was working for was suddenly closed in Jan. 2008. Since then, I have gotten some contract work but offers are getting less frequent now. I believe some of the CV issues I have are 1) too much time worked at rating agencies (unfortunately not seen as having relevant commercial experience in many financial services sectors)... Read more

Following the warm reception to yesterday’s suggestion that HSBC might have Goldmanite qualities due to its ability to turn a global markets profit in a down market, it seems only reasonable to apply the same logic to Standard Chartered. In common with HSBC, Stan Chart is a British bank which has most of activities overseas. And in common with HSBC its wholesale banking group pulled a profit in 2008. According to its... Read more

I’m a recent graduate. I have stellar academic qualifications and am passionate about becoming a trader. Unfortunately, however, I currently reside in the darkest shadows of the middle office. Even worse, I am located in a non-front office building, making it extremely difficult to network, and almost impossible to meet anyone not doing something very similar to me. It was cause for excitement, therefore, when four months into this role, I... Read more

When you’re applying for a job, the temptation is focus all your energy on your CV and to leave the cover letter as an afterthought. Don’t! The three stages of recruitment Your CV is definitely the more important of the two documents, but let’s consider the first three stages in the recruitment process, when employers look at your CV and cover letter. First comes the quick scan through, where you are one... Read more

Firstly, a brief health warning: there are almost no circumstances in which you can benefit from alienating recruitment firms. They do have long memories, you will get blacklisted; that particular recruitment firm and many of its friends will never ever help you to find a job again. That said there may be some situations in which it makes sense to maltreat a recruiter. They are listed below. Proceed with extreme caution.... Read more