The majority of
the articles which were covered for this blog post make specific references to
the tech industry and employment issues therein. Since I’m not going into tech,
my experience will be a bit different from many others in the class. The standard
investment banking career path—the one I’ll be following—is much more flowchart-based
than that of the tech industry. By this, I mean that bankers do not simply
change from one job to a similar one every few years. Rather, they typically
work for two or three years right after college as an analyst. Analysts are the
lowest rank and consequently are the most numerous (usually) and expected to
learn, rather than lead. After two years, well-performing analysts are usually
offered a third year as an analyst. During this period, analysts begin to hone
their leadership skills in preparation for a possible promotion the next year.
Analysts who do not perform particularly well are typically not offered another
position within the bank. These people often go into another financial job or
return to school to further hone their skills.
Analysts who have
been given a third year and perform well are then promoted to associate for
their fourth, fifth, and sixth years. Again, those who are not promoted find
other work or return to school. Associates are now expected to become leaders.
It is the job of the associate to support the bankers above him or her by
quarterbacking the operations of the analysts within the associate’s group. To
use a military analogy, first- and second-year analysts are the privates in the
squad, third-year analysts are the corporals, and associates are the sergeants
in charge of the squad. Associates spend three or four years in their position,
taking on more leadership responsibility as necessary. The top associates are
then considered for promotion to vice president. Vice presidents exist largely
in a transitional role as they occupy the space between junior staff and senior
management. Consequently, VPs must keep their hands in two buckets: the daily
operations of the junior staff and the client-facing operations of senior
management. Furthermore, good VPs will begin to develop their own portfolios of
clients whom they will call on for the rest of their careers in banking. Once
vice presidents have built a portfolio and demonstrated their leadership
ability and social skills, they are considered for promotion to director.
Directors are the second-highest mainline rank in most investment banks. They
carry out all the typical client-facing duties and interactions, including
cultivating new business, leading deals, and maintaining current client
relationships. The best directors are promoted to managing director. Managing
directors are not only responsible for their own performance, but for that of
their entire group, including all the analysts, associates, VPs, and directors
under them. Finally, some MDs seek positions within the corporate leadership of
the bank as a whole—think C-level-type positions.
A nice feature of
the i-banking career path is that upward mobility is all but guaranteed for
those who perform their jobs well. My 5-year plan is to work hard and do as
well as I can as an analyst. If I’m promoted, I’ll likely continue on the
career path outlined above. If I’m not promoted, I’d like to go to business
school and get an MBA. An MBA would enable me to switch to a wide variety of
career paths, or even re-enter banking. Like I mentioned earlier, the decision
to stay with my current company long-term would follow a “am I going to be promoted”
sort of flowchart. Additionally, the career path outlined above has a job
change every three years built in, as Vivian Giang and her sources for the
article suggest. Although the issue of job-fluidity and consistently increasing
pay is not a big deal in the banking industry, company loyalty is more of a
problem. Often a bank will only be loyal to its employees if they are loyal to
it or are very good at their jobs. For example, if a bank hears that one of
their third-year analysts would rather pursue business school than a promotion,
the bank would likely not even offer the promotion in the first place. Additionally,
unlike the conflict between tech workers and Apple, Google, etc., the banking
industry often faces and quietly deals with talent-poaching at all levels. Non-compete
agreements are unusual among the lower ranks, especially because junior people
often switch from bank to bank. However, non-disclosure agreements are very
common and they are used to protect proprietary models, information, and
financial data. Since the banking career path is very segmented into three-year
blocks and is very flowchart-based, job-hopping is an inevitable aspect of the
process.
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