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Bankers would be about as racist as the rest of population if that’s what you’re getting at
I don’t mean strong racism. But, I’ve heard that IB in the UK is predominantly Caucasian and I wondered if that affected opportunity and experience.
That's because they are the majority of people that go into it. Be the change you want to see.
Might have something to do with the population of the UK being predominantly Caucasian.
Big banks will be have people from all over Europe and occasionally it can get cliquey among nationalities. Would definitely not worry about being a minority. Well off people tend to be very tolerant and I’ve personally never seen any bias towards Caucasians.
Youre always going to have a few bad apples, but I've heard things arent that bad
delete
Its easy to enter without networking if thats what you mean
Stop worrying about identity and focus on the quality of your work. No one cares about your color or the country you're from.
Again, I don’t necessarily mean strong racism as in discrimination. I don’t believe in modern major industries this is going to be a common occurrence.
But typically outside of work social groups, especially amongst close friends, tend to be racially divided. This is not necessarily down to racism, but rather common interest and experience.
My question was more related to this fact affected your ability to feel ‘fully’ included by the team and not just a token member. And how does it affect experience during progression and interaction with various stakeholders.
Also - I have friends quite senior in progressive large tech companies have had issues with feeling like they need to ‘white-wash’ their personalities to fit in and prejudices on the quality of their work.
You can't complain about a lack of diversity of whatever kind, choose to not apply, and then continue to complain about diversity. A pretty silly way of thinking. Until many more qualified people pursue the field, it will not be "diverse" by whatever metric because the inputs aren't diverse.
Again, no one cares about your color or the country you're from. If you're a chill dude people will hang out with you that is it.
It seems to me that by saying that it might affect your "ability to feel 'fully' included by the team and not just a token member," you are implying that when you are the majority group, you treat others as token members. Maybe the question is not if others are prejudiced or if you are.
Depends on the bank but people tend to stay a bit to their own nationality. I didn't have many friends that weren't Scandinavian or British. The Germans/Italians/Spanish will stick to their own most of the time, simply because a lot of them move back to where they came from. As far as diversity goes, I don't think there is any special bias against or for minorities. Btw, how can you be a minority if you're from the inner city?
I would say that the real minorities are Italian guys not coming from Bocconi, they do have some walls between them and other Italian bankers as there is some sense of superiority. Have seen some offensive jokes during my analyst stint.
There are a lot of Indian and East Asian (Chinese, Singaporean, Korean, Malaysian) bankers in London. Don't worry about it, the reason you see less BME candidates, is that they make up an extremely small portion of the application pool.
OP - you may notice some things early on in your career. Like odd jokes or whatever that people will get away with that they never would in public. That's kind of sad/annoying but par for the course in finance. It is as you move up that you may really get to notice stuff.
It is tougher to get promoted. Sometimes you just won't be included in discussions or social activities because you are not part of the group. It's not always openly malicious or anything. Like if a bunch of lads go to watch rugby and you haven't established that you love rugby and follow it and talk about it a lot, you may not be invited. The random white dude may be even though he's maybe mentioned rugby once or twice. When asked you may get the "I didn't know you liked rugby mate, my mistake! I thought you liked (insert activity/sport your minority group is known for).
Once again, not really overtly malicious, but it is at things like that where people build bonds, get to know each other outside of work and really build alliances. Guess what? If your work and the other guy's work is anywhere near similar, guess who is getting a promotion? Guess who is getting counsel on how to play politics or how to get paid or the inside track to better things? That's happening to the dude who the boss knows, trusts and likes and can hang with outside of work. Once again, you may not get fired or dinged, but you may not move up as fast either or see your career plateau.
Mind you this is not exclusive to finance but the workplace in general. Usually the boss is not a minority (and there are lots of reasons for that and that's beyond the scope of my post).
In other words, like some have said to be the change you desire (and that carries a fair bit of validity). Remember though, that by sticking out, that you can also become a target for said politicians and easy pickings and will need a lot of boss support. At the same time you are at a SELL SIDE job in which not only is the competition tough externally (other banks), but also internally (politics). The number of people in this industry is literally shrinking every day. This means, yeah, you will probably have to "white-wash" or change some ways about how you act or behave. Because in the end as someone more senior, most places, especially in this industry, are going to want people like them that they feel they can trust (rather than someone actually innovative or creative) and can put in front of their clients to, I dunno, SELL stuff for the bank and generate revenue.
TLDR: Make friends with your boss/team, try to find common interests to be a part of the group and liked. Work hard and let it be known that you are doing so. Build relationships. This may require whitewashing. If you want to be unique, do it. But it will carry a fair bit of risks so keep your expectations modest.
Good Luck
You're in a country with a BAME population of 10%. Of course your going to have to go out of your way to integrate. The UK is the most tolerant country in Europe.
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