Canadian Commercial Banker Looking to Move to Tampa, FL. Looking for Advice About Roles I Would be Suited for.
I'm 34yo (white male but could maybe say I'm native lol) with a BCom in Finance from a top Canadian University (top 100 in world) with a CFA and FRM. I have Commercial Banking (relationship manager) Experience and Commercial Credit Risk experience with RBC Royal Bank. Average deal size I worked on was 1-5MM which I realize is Small Business in the USA. I recently (7 months ago) took a job at a credit union in a small town because I was bored and thought it might be fun but I decided it was a mistake.
Recently, I was thinking of getting out of Canada. I don't really like it here very much. For years I tried getting into ER or Corporate Banking in Canada or the USA but that failed. I'm just an overqualified small business lender at this point. I'm kind of tired of sending in 100s of resumes, doing case studies and getting rejected over and over again so if I'm just a Small Business lender, then that's what I am. Please don't suggest doing something that is going to require more torture to get unless you're just going to offer me the job. I just want to live my life at this point and I'm tired of the constant emotional rollercoaster of trying to break-in a more high-finance job. I'm over it. Specifically, my skills are in credit writing, credit risk and in relationship management. Industry is mainly diversified commercial, healthcare (dentists, doctors and vets), oilfield services and some real estate, ag and franchises.
I am wondering what sort of positions I could maybe have a decent chance of getting down in the Tampa area? I have no work visa or anything so I'd have to be sponsored. I currently make $95,000/yr CAD as a salary and with my bonus + retirement savings/benefits matching I make about $125,000/yr. I was hoping to find something comparable in the USA but I don't really know what would be comparable in the USA for living nor do I know what I can get for jobs if I can even get anything. Optimally, I'm mostly looking for able to rent a 1-bedroom apartment in a decent location, eat-out pretty much everyday for almost all meals (my food bill is like 3-4x what people who cook spend), go out with friends during the week/on weekends and spend on fun things without being too frugal, save for retirement and go traveling once a year. I can do all that right now and still save $1000-2000 CAD/month. If I lost the savings, that would be fine.
What sort of roles should I be targeting? Do I really have a realistic chance of getting anything decent in the Tampa, FL area?
With your deal experience and background I would say any type of RM within a Business Banking group or maybe you get lucky and can spin that into MM banker. Shouldn’t be a problem in Tampa should be plenty of opportunities. I cannot speak about moving from Canada to US.
You will be fine. especially with that skill set. Assuming you can self source your own business as that’s the bread and butter of RM life.
again, not high finance but you already know that. plenty of commercial lenders on the forum it seems so I hopefully gave you some good and quick advice.
Good luck.
Thanks. Yeah, I figured the exact target is what you say. I'm more curious about specific job titles. Banks call roles so many different things.
For example, in Canada the role I would be targetting for my next role is a Senior Account Manager (Commercial) more or less and I'd be able to probably get 105-115k base salary with a 15-25k bonus.
What kind of salary should I be looking for? I don't want to undersell myself due to a lack of knowledge.
I looked at Commercial Banking or Business Banking roles in Tampa already but I'm really unfamiliar with all the different job titles. It's hard for me to figure out if the role is a Senior RM in the Small Business space that would command a high salary or an entry-level RM that would command a low salary.
I'm hoping someone can helpe navigate the role titles a little or give me an idea of things to watch for in the descriptions etc... US Market is much less streamlined than the Canadian market for roles it seems. It just looks pretty daunting. I'll probably just start applying to everything and see what happens obviously but if someone here is in Commercial and can give me a good overview of the industry in the USA, that would help.
Should I be looking at big banks, regional, small, credit unions? Or all? What's generally the differences?
If I was going to target MM, what type of role would I go for? Usually most people at least in Canada don't go straight into MM RM role but take a credit writing role. Those roles are usually called Financing Associate or something to that effect. What's it like in the USA? Same titles? Is that the right route to take?
Sponsorship is always a tricky one. One route you might consider is whether RBC would sponsor you, say for an L1A visa if you're managing people? I'm not sure where RBC has a presence in the U.S. but this would be one way you could streamline the process, apply for a green card, and then look for...greener pastures? I was based in Toronto and I used this route to relocate to the Midwest doing Corporate Finance.
I'm not at RBC anymore. I left for a local credit union that has no international presence. Even when I was at RBC, I tried barking up the move to the USA tree but it was no use there. RBC's only real US presence is in Capital Markets.
I just spoke to a guy I know who is friends with someone who works at Freddie Mac in the USA. He said there's probably no chance to get sponsorship in the USA unless it's through a company you work for in Canada and get moved. His advice was to find American banks with a big presence in Tampa and Toronto then look for a job with them in Toronto and try to transfer to Tampa.
Sounds like solid advice and I'll definitely approach that angle. Would be nice to find a route that's possible sooner rather than later obviously.
Also Canadian currently weighing my options to move to the US. Your best bet is to get hired by someone who is willing to sponsor you TN1.
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