Starting Career in Asia
Gents,
What are your thoughts of starting a career in Asia (Hong Kong) vs. New York?
From what I've seen here's how I would summarize it:
Asia:
Heavy deal flow
Very hands-on deal exposure
Less sophisticated clients (especially Chinese ones)
Virtually no PE deals going on
Politics play a large part
Long-ass working hours
NY:
Much larger deal teams
Hierarchy more rigidly observed (?- i.e. analyst does analyst work)
Very sophisticated clients
Networking with PE/HF
More of a meritocracy (I realize this can be completely wrong)
Slightly better hours?
It's apparent that China is going to be a large finance market in the next few decades... question is, if my eventual goal is to do China deals, is it better to start career in US or Hong Kong? A lot of the seniors in Hong Kong are directly from the US.
Also, in terms of exit opps... if i start in Hong Kong, I'm pretty much kissing the NY-based PE/HF firms goodbye, amirite?
Thoughts? Thx.
Starting in NY is better. Your experience is very highly-respected when transferring to Asia because of the more sophisticated clientele and deals you'll see in the US. Long-term, I expect this balance to shift as Asian markets mature, but from a "next 5 years perspective", you'll do better to have 2-3 years of experience in NY and then transition to Asia where you'll be viewed with more respect because of your US work experience than comparatively-experienced peers who've worked in Asia from the start.
I would state however, that this really applies to IBD the most. Although Sales & Trading jobs have a similar dynamic, my personal view is that the nature of the jobs make the advantages of starting in Asia (if that's your long-term goal) much more important than in IBD.
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IBD in China is a joke, for now at least. It is hard enough to build trust if you are a party member, let alone an "outsider". In China, your deals will not be as sophisticated, but I guarantee you that your clients' background will be very sohpisticated. Why do I say that? Because every corporations in China, private or public, big or small, will have an extremely intertwined family network with someone in the government.
Although it is a single party, there are many branches and big political factions within the communist party and many of them command a considerable interest and controls over the financial sector -- which translates to if you can please certain politicians, you will get the deal. But you can't please everyone, can you? If you trip and fall and fail to maintain the delicate balances among these factions, you are in trouble, simple as that.
I am a native Chinese and I know too well how deals gets done in China. If you really want to work in Asia, go for HK or Singapore.
I'm Chinese too, and I was referring to Hong Kong. fwiw, all lot of the rainmakers in HK are the next generations of current and former CCP leaders. This is just life, no biggie.
With that said, the model is changing. Increasing transparency in transactions is drastically reducing the role background plays. Do relationships matter? Sure. But they matter as well anywhere you do IBD.
Its funny how the China coverage bankers (vp down) think they are the sh%t when all they do is translate books into Chinese
I think the dynamics are shifting a bit though--- I'm reasonably sure the person from New York has more sophisticated deals, BUT those deals are fundamentally different than the ones from Asia.
One of the main concerns I'm worried about is that as Hong Kong/Asia grows hotter... it will be increasingly difficult to transfer to Hong Kong. I am reasonably sure that within 10 years, Hong Kong will be as big of a financial center as New York is, following the general global trend.
You clearly have never worked in HK - HK will never be as big as New York for many obvious reasons, a lot of them have been stated above. No lev fin market to speak of (hence no active participation from financial sponsors or the hedge fund community), bond/debt markets in general are virtually non-existent. Cap structures are primarily equity and bank loans/credit facilities; it will take a long time for the complexity of the securitization markets in the US to translate over to Asia. It has nothing to do with HK catching up to New York -- business is fundamentally done differently in Asia.
^ Exactly. Since it's done fundamentally differently in Asia, shouldn't someone looking to be in Asia long term start there?
What if starting in Asia is your only option? Will it be possible to find a PE/VC/investment management or consulting job in the US after working in Asia IBD (2nd tier bank) for a year? I'm thinking of applying to jobs in the US while working in HK, just wondering if that's a crazy idea...
bump
i'm thinking about this too, but i believe that in asia, u're mostly doing IPOs, or ECM... meaning that more comparable companies analysis and less merger modeling, etc. too one sided and one dimensional...
i would suggest starting out in US, since u get more exposure, and M&A in asia is almost non existent
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