What is the financial capital in Asia? Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore?
Also what are the language requirements for an IB job there, and how easy is it to transfer from a London office as an analyst?
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Hong Kong and Singapore are hot spots, from what I understand from recruiters HK is the absolute place for banking. If you don't speak the languages, you'll have a very difficult time finding work there as business is conducted in Cantonese, sometimes Mandarin.
Hong Kong is the capital. For IB jobs, even foreign banks seem to be really focusing on local-born (native Chinese speakers) who were also educated in the U.S. I've heard rumors, for instance, that GS in Hong Kong is now around 99% native Hong Kongers.
As for transferring, my understanding is that going from Asia to NY/London isn't as easy as you might think. Not due to prestige reasons or the job markets necessarily (though these could be factors), but because once you have Asia experience, companies consider you very valuable to have in Asia and won't be eager to send you back. Easier to go from London to Hong Kong if you have background in Asia, and can speak the language.
Do you really need to know Mandarin to work in Singapore? Seems like everything (University, Business, etc.) is in English there.
straight from an MD in HK. They only look at resumes of natives now. The window for westerners to work in HK is now closing. 3 years ago, no one knew recruiting would change so quickly, but with the amount of business coming in from China and the low supply of IB jobs elsewhere in the world, HK is now extremely selective.
I would argue you're almost better off knowing Bahasa (or Thai... or Vietnamese...) than Chinese for banking jobs in Singapore. Most banks will cover Greater China out of HK so Singapore is for ASEAN coverage. I'm sure some employers will ask for Chinese skills regardless but you won't have the door shut in your face nearly as often as in HK.
As for coming back to London (even more so NY), your biggest issue will be difficulty of recruiting over long-distances... it isn't easy.
For IBD, Singapore has no language requirement. HK you need to know at least one asia language (Mandarin, Cantonese, Korea) with business proficiency level. For westerners, most ppl went to HK through transfer these days. Direct recruiting is almost impossible unless you know the language (I know some white guy currently working in HK in a BB and he graduated from a top Ivy with a degree in Chinese... so here you go...)
Business is very localized these days and even the most senior guys (most of whom are still white ppl shipped there from NY and London) are primarily engaged in execution or business management instead of origination.
Just to make clear: I'm thinking about transferring from a BB IBD in London to Asia (analyst). Lots of talk about HK here and it being selective --> What about Mainland China? (Shanghai?)
If you have to know Chinese in HK then you're definitely going to have to know it in Shangai.
Sounds like Singapore is the best option.
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