I'm a 2nd-yr analyst at a BB in New York and I'm considering working in Hong Kong for my 3rd year. My New York experience has provided me a solid finance foundation and I think this could be the right time to try out Asia before I move further down my career path. I've been to the region (mainland China,Sing,HK,Korea,Japan) several times and have wanted to work in Asia for some time now. However, in thinking about doing banking in Hong Kong, I have some questions/concerns I would appreciate people's opinion on.
Language: How important is having a mastery of an Asian language (i.e. Mandarin) in addition to English? I'm concerned I may not be as effective and precluded on projects given that I only speak English. I've had some initial conversations with buyside shops and it seems all of them are looking for native Mandarin speakers.
Work Culture/Quality: I've heard that the work culture in Asia, both from the perspective of the clients and internal team members that its a lot more intense/demanding than NY/London. I've been told that analysts usually work longer hours than their counterparts overseas and the content is not as analytical/modeling heavy. Also, is it true that junior people tend to have more client exposure than in the US?
Deal-Flow: How is the deal-flow in Asia compared to the US/Europe? I've been fortunate to be part of a good number of deals across different products during my time as an analyst and my main concern is that a lot of my time will be spent on client-service/pitch books rather than actually structuring and executing transactions. I'm sure some of this is a function of the bank's market position in the region.
Any other things I should be considering in making my decision?
Thanks to all!
For HK, they usually look for native Mandarin speakers. Singapore is a lot more forgiving with respect to languages, with English being the most commonly used language in the office. If you don't speak Mandarin, you will struggle to get a spot in HK (not impossible mind you, but the odds are not with you).
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