Am I one of you?
I just got an offer from a large international bank. I'm starting in 3 weeks time, but I still don't really know what the job actually is. I'm going to be working in the banks financial institutions group, within global banking and markets. Here's a brief snippet from the description:
"The role will report to the Assoc. Director of Financial Institutions in (city name) and ultimately to the Head of Global Markets and FIG (country manager) . The role will provide full exposure to international banking , both domestic outbound and international companies inbound. The customer focus is banks, public sector , insurance , funds mangers . The key products (bank name) offers to these customers are; payments and cash management , debt capital markets, derivative products , custody and clearing both onshore and offshore and markets."
So apart from that I really have no idea what it's going to entail. I sort of lucked my way through the interview process. They are only hiring masters graduates for this position, and they stressed technical skills, but without any real specifics. Is this even technically investment banking? It's working in the global banking and markets division (usually referred to as the groups investment bank), but payment and cash management sounds more like commercial to me.
That's an OK description of the suite of services an IB provides, but pretty shitty as a job scope indicator as you've got stuff in there that could be IB (debt capital markets access), some which is more FICC (derivatives), through to mundane, unsexy transactional services work.
sounds more like corporate banking because of the product offerings...
Looking at a worst case scenario: What would it be like if I were doing unsexy transactional services work? Is there still much room to move around once I've spent X amount of time in that position? I thought the fact that they were only hiring masters students meant there would be some amount of analysis or technical skills to the role. Then again, we hardly spoke about it during the interview..
Get in there and get a feel for it, then come back to us. It's too difficult to speculate about your options before we know what role you're actually going to be in.
Fair call. It's tempting to overthink these things though!
If this is BAML we're talking about, it could literally be any division.
It's not BAML but similar.
Ah yes, a lot of European firms with International Banking divisions are mainly front-office roles. It's pretty much a coverage role, with pitches to international clients, or domestic clients in the U.S. if the firm is based in Europe, etc.
You're good :)
Didn't you ask anybody who interviewed you what your job was going to be? It kind of blows my mind that you could interview for a job when you don't even know what the job entails.
In OP's defense, if you don't really know what the job does, asking in the interview may not be the best thing to do because it could lead to the interviewer getting annoyed with the fact that you haven't done your research/ are wasting their time. With so many companies doing mostly fit based interviews, it is very easy to BS your way through an interview without knowing much about the company or the job. Also, a lot of companies gloss over the job details even when you ask simply because they want to portray the role as more important than it really is.
@"brooj14" Its completely reasonable in an interview to ask what duties you will be responsible for, who you support, where the role fits into the business as a whole etc.. That's the purpose of the "do you have any questions" part of an interview.
True, but this question is usually after the interview has mostly wrapped up and I can see why a candidate would be reluctant to ask this question. That's like basically saying, "I know I spend the last half hour trying to convince you that I am the best person for this job, but what does this job do?" Yes, asking detailed questions about the job is acceptable, but I think in OP's case he didn't generally know what the job does and that might not be sometime to point out during the interview.
I agree with brooj14. Anecdotal, but I recently had an interview where I asked a little more about the position since the online description seemed a little ambiguous. The interviewer went on to say that they (the desk) had written it and questioned whether or not I even knew what I was applying for. The interview didn't get any better from there and needless to say, I didn't get a call back. In retrospect, I definitely could've been a little more discrete.
(For the record, I'd actually sent the description to a friend at another bank, and even he was a little confused by the description)
Basically, there's probably a right/tactful way of inquiring further about what the actual position is, and a wrong way where you come off sounding like you don't even know what the position is. It's a fine line to walk, so be cautious on how you word your questions.
Agreed. Sounds like the guy you were speaking with was just upset that his writing skills were being called into question.
Why would you even interview for a job, if you don't know what it really is?
If you're talking to the hiring manager or recruiter before the interview happens, why don't you just say something like, "Hey I read the description, but as you know, these job descriptions are usually intentionally generic. Can you please give me the inside scoop on the day to day job responsibilities?". It's not difficult to ask.
Looks like corporate banking to me.
I didn't talk to any HR, recruiting team, anything before I got the job. I've talked to 2 people from this bank so far: the head of global markets (executive level) and an associate director. I met them at a networking event, had one interview, and then an offer. I was put in contact with them from a university professor, and I have been highly referenced from a few important people I happen to have worked with through university, which I think helped in fast tracking the offer. Having said that, I could have asked a lot more specifics, but I didn't.
What brooj said definitely sounds right, as I think the work may not be quite as front office or sexy as theirs is, hence the non-technical nature of the interview. Looking back, I think that is definitely the vibe they were giving. It is a large bank however, and I'm hoping that if worst comes to the worst I'll still be able to work my way into a more front office role in the coming months and years.
.
Whatever it is, it's a better job than 99% of people and probably 98% of people on this site. Grats on the offer let us know what you're actually doing.
Sounds a lot like Global Transaction Services at Citi.
I got a friend who does something similar at Citi. They've explained to me their role about a thousand time, I still don't get it. She is happy with the job though, gets off between 8 to 11PM and doesn't work weekends. I think it has something to do with helping corporates with their loans etc... Anyways - it's a good job, well done. If you don't like it you can always change later on.
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