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Banking job hopefuls face disappointment
Human Resources offices in banks and investment firms all over the Asia Pacific are being overwhelmed by a huge surge in job applications from all over the world.
Following upbeat stories in the UK Financial Times and the New York Times that suggested Asian banks were resurging from the recession and were short of experienced staff; CVs have been flooding in by post and email.
Unfortunately, the truth is that although the banking sector is recovering in the Asia Pacific region, it’s not staff from overseas that are wanted but experienced local workers.
In this case, these prestigious global titles have skewed their stories away from reality and more towards what their target markets want to hear.
Hiring is still way below the 2006-2007 banking boom time levels. Banks and investment firms already have a slew of adequately qualified and experienced local candidates to choose from and don’t need to look to put together pay and benefits packages for more expensive staff from the US and Europe.
In fact, the tables may be turning as Chinese banks are beginning to take up the slack left by banks in crisis in the west.
Banks like Standard Chartered and ANZ want relationship managers skilled in their own region, not expats looking to jump ship from London or New York, where thousands have lost their jobs in the banking crisis and many companies look like they will shed more staff as companies consolidate their balance sheets.
In the past, plenty of US and European high-flyers looked to the east to build their skills and reputations, but now the door is firmly shut against them as human resources departments weed prospective expats out of the application ‘possibles’ lists.
This will cheer south east Asian employees – but the foreigners who might find a job in the Asia Pacific are more likely to be support staff product controllers and IT professionals.
The Royal Bank of Scotland is recruiting operational employees for its global banking and markets division in Singapore and looking to transfer or axe staff in London.
Barclays Bank is also constructing an IT hub in Singapore.
Banks who have front-office jobs demand candidates with local industry knowledge and already have a contacts book for local relationships
The message from banking recruiters is if you fit this bill, then send in a CV – but if you are an unemployed hopeful from outside the region, don’t call us, we’ll call you…
