The ability to listen, prior work experience, a host of extra-curricular activities and good grades can open doors in banking and finance
Graduates from this year's crop of university students seeking to begin a career in banking and finance are likely to be among those who are the most sought after, as they head into one of the most competitive job markets for employers in recent years, student job placement co-ordinators and headhunters said.
The most successful candidates will be those who can demonstrate a grasp of the soft skills such as listening, prior work experience in the form of summer internships, extra-curricular activities showing a well-rounded individual, and good grades. For those who studied finance, a good grasp of technical knowledge will be a boost.
As a sign of the unprecedented demand from the banking and finance field for fresh university graduates, more than one out of every seven vacancies advertised on a student job placement website at the Chinese University of Hong Kong were finance related, according to the Tom Fong Wing-ho, head of the university's Career Planning and Development Centre. This is makes it the No1 sector in terms of the number of vacancies at the university, he said.
Last year, one in 10 graduates from the class of 2006 signed up for a job in the finance sector
'It is a very big sector where there are literally hundreds of vacancies. A number of global investment banks have recruited via our centre in the past academic year. These include large global investment banks offering frontline positions, meaning that successful candidates will have ample opportunity to deal with clients, both individual and institutional,' Mr Fong said.
