Q&A: Career Mobility / Internally Lateral'ed - Moved from back/middle office into a more revenue generating role

Hi! Just wanted to share some personal experiences re my recent move from a back/middle office type role in a BB and had successfully secured an offer into a more revenue generating & client facing role (..esp in this job market) - given WSO had been a great resource & help throughout many years in my early careers days, thought it would be a great idea to give back and help others who might be in a similar situation / looking for a move.

A bit of context: Graduated from a regional top 5 school / national top 3 school, and went straight into a BB summer internship > converted into fulltime in a 2Y rotational grad program in the middle / back office in the same bank. Within those 2Y, rotated across supporting functions like - (broadly speaking) risk, compliance, controls, ops, reporting, projects etc... after graduating the program, stayed within the risk/controls world for a couple more years. Earlier this year - decided that I am done doing this and would definitely want a change, whether it's looking for mobility internally / externally / going for a masters to hopefully pivot to something more aligned with my career interest.

Timeline - started really thinking about change & communicated to my direct line manager around Jan/Feb of this year > more seriously applying roles Mar/Apr > recruitment & interviews process May/Jun/Jul > secured Jul/Aug. These things really do take time - have to be patient and sort of wait for stars to align and to your favor... 

Some Stats... 

[Internal] Job Apps: applied to ~65 open roles > got 9 first rounds > got 5 second rounds > 2-3 final rounds > 1 offer

Networking: met around ~5-10 people for coffee chats outside formal interviews --> would say this is less important (sometimes overrated) esp in the region

[External] Total applied to probably ~50-100 open roles > got 4 first rounds > 2 second rounds > 2 final rounds > ... 0 offer (?) --> probably the only takeaway i got from recruiting externally is that process is slow, HR and hiring manager is slow, and they would let you hang on to a BS verbal offer with no next steps; they are always still "looking" for other candidates but keep you hanging as a backup candidate. Also no visibility on progress.

Total: ~20 interviews (int & ext) for me to get an offer.

Practical tips / takeaways from this experience:

• Be targeted in the types of roles that you are interested in / don't just "blindly" apply - you dont want to be in a position where you're spending time prepping for a first round of something that you dont even want to do or care for; its a waste of your time
• Start early and aggressively applying for those open positions in the portal - at this point its still a volumes and numbers game... apply to as much roles that you're interested in; of course polish your CV to tiptop condition (avoid over-customizing resume to each role and job desc - its a waste of time / hiring manager would immediately smell it from a mile away and call BS). Refresh the job portal multiple times a day if u need to - its a way better chance for your CV to get reviewed if sent within 24h of job being posted.
• Once you get that first round of interview - do a deep prep, research everything about the job, role, team, interviewer, etc. Prep your behaviorals, motivationals (important), technicals, industry/macro/trends, biz performance, product, market, competitors, reg analysis,... everything under the sun you can think of. There's no such thing as overkill in the first round prep because - it's your one and only shot to get through that difficult first door, and once you move on to next one (1) you will be way more confident, (2) spend less time prepping since you studied extensively before / more like review stage. Use everything you can get your hands on - e.g. chatGPT, google, internal materials, training guides / videos, earnings report, investor days, financials, ask your friends for resources, etc
• Sounds real cringe but it's true - recruiting is Preparedness meet Opportunity... there's no secret formula but to get yourself well prepared before the opportunity even comes around (which is the tough part)... practice makes perfect and once you get to your 10th or 15th interview (hope u dont have to..), you'll be in great shape to walk in any interview with better success rate / moving on to next round.
• Timing - as mentioned, always keep an eye of job openings.. whether officially through the system or offline chats with colleagues... always be aware of any potential job opp around the corner, and be prepared to showcase your skills & why youre a good fit. Timeliness is important here bcos ive seen one too many cases where a person simply got the job since they heard about it first / got referred early on / started interviewing before everyone else had the chance to / etc. Be an early candidate. You're more unlikely to be selected if the req has been open for ~1week and you still have not applied. Theyre prob done with CV screening and sent out 1st rounds already.
• Learn "how to interview" - at the end of the day it's a 30-60min self pitch on why you should be the selected candidate, so learn how to speak and position yourself. It's more of an acquired skill as this doesnt really come naturally to me at first - build confidence, authenticity, eloquence, delivery, etc. This definitely comes with real practice (not just mock interviews) - again, it took me 10-15x real ones to actually come to a point where i felt naturally confident and "felt sure" i could proceed to next round.
• Persevere - might seem like an endless sprint with no end goal or light at the end of tunnel while you're keeping at it... but always stay hopeful (find things to latch on your hope to), be positive, keep up a good attitude (even if you dont feel like it), and treat each experience as a learning point / meeting new people and not just "another round".

TLDR ; moved from BO/MO to FO (finally... after 4y out of school) in a BB - ask me anything :)
 

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