Blog

It’s St. Patrick’s Day this Sunday and at a time of the year where half the world seems to celebrate together, we thought why not be this enthusiastic about your job? You will spend so much time in work, happiness in your career is an absolute necessity! So, to mark Paddy’s Day, we’re going to help you stop feeling green with career envy at other people who are in their dream jobs and instead, help you find a role with charm so you can enjoy your work along with the festivities. A great way to weigh up whether or not to take that next step in your career is to consider many different aspects of a potential new job. The first is stress, “3 in 5 UK office workers consider their workloads to be excessive, often with daily struggles to meet deadlines” (read more). Consider the role but also the working environment of the company, when you visit their workplace and read through their company mantra, does it suggest that they are a deadline-oriented firm and if so, would this be a good fit for you? Second, what does their interview process look like? 53% of leavers said they exited because the job did not suit them (read more). If soft skills (networking, teamwork, decision making, problem-solving, and critical thinking) are assessed, the employer may well be the right fit for you. Soft skills are often essential these days. Employers are looking for more than just the right qualifications, they are looking to see whether an individual aligns with their company culture. Third, consider what is essential to you in your new job, for example, many people operating within the Technology sector value flexible working hours due to the nature of their occupation and the fact that the majority of these employees can conduct their work remotely. Fourth, look out for red flags associated with the company who you are applying for, specifically: Poor communication – how professional and frequent are their correspondence with you over email or the telephone? Interview experience – was the interview process a fair and proper assessment of your hard and soft skills? Other candidates – do they keep referring to others who have applied for the same role as you as this is an unprofessional approach to take? Misleading information – does the job description match what they are talking through during the interview stage? Office atmosphere – does this appear a friendly and productive place of work? Fifth, if not alluded to on the job description or within their company culture which should be outlined on their website, ask the employer about their performance management practices. Do they stick with the annual review or do they continuously assess performance? Which one would you work best with? Finally, research the firm’s CSR practices, especially if the company culture is important as this would likely go hand-in-hand with how a business engages with, for example, community outreach programmes. Studies have shown that an organisation’s corporate social responsibility really matters! 74% of 18-24-year-olds and 66% of over 35-year-olds would be happier in a company with a positive focus on CSR (read more). This is a lot to take in and if you are looking for a new challenge when it comes to your career, get in touch with Hamlyn Williams. We work with clients who continuously innovate and re-define within their industries and we can guide you through each step of the recruiting process, ensuring that your next career move is the perfect fit for you. To apply for a role, visit our Job Search page or for more information, email info@hamlynwilliams.com or call 0203 675 2920. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

Today is International Women’s Day, a day where we look to celebrate female professionals setting the standard within their respective industries. You may have seen our blog article from a few days ago where we highlighted some incredible business women disrupting the Banking industry. We’re continuing with the theme of Women in Banking. We have asked our very own Katherine Ibbotson, Head of our Banking & Front Office function to talk us through her career and in particular, her path to management. Here’s what Katherine had to say: “Well, where do I begin? I suppose we’ll start with my 9 years at a London-based recruitment firm! We operated from within a small room in a tiny office. The firm was just starting up back then, so we didn’t have the swanky offices you see today. I started as a junior in an Associate Consultant role, just learning on the job. My first year was tough, I used to come in early and finish late most days, even with the long hours you associate with recruitment. Doing this for my first year, training as a Sales/Trading Recruiter, definitely helped me in the long-run. My next step was a big one, to build a division of my own within my first recruitment firm. After my first year, I was able to develop a sub-team where we were recruiting within the Structuring/Quants space. It was a huge challenge, but all my hard work and the intuition I showed paid off as I had my own business unit, my team! I was able to hire and subsequently train a junior, then grow my team to three. We were smashing our targets and that was an amazing feeling for us. Don’t get me wrong, my determination was really paying off, but every career has its setbacks. Mine was in 2008 when the credit crunch hit and I can tell you, it hit me and my sub-team very hard. The Structuring/Quants market relied heavily on exotic derivatives that were high risk, and therefore far too difficult to find roles for after the global recession. We realised that this market was flooded with candidates and there were barely any jobs. I never let knockbacks like this get me down. I knew I could find a way for me and the business to excel again and I did by diversifying the business through building new units. These included new product areas with far less risk involved. We realised that we needed to evolve, so we did. This led me to be the first to build capital markets within the company, recruiting within the DCM, ECM, and Investment Banking sectors, more specifically alongside private equity and M&A clients. It was difficult juggling my job as a Recruiter and my responsibilities as a Team Lead, that’s why the sacrifice was necessary as I made the decision to spread my best clients out between my team members so they could work with some really great partners and succeed. This also meant I was heavily involved in mentoring, training and developing each of my people. I eventually found my stride in maintaining the ‘balancing act’ as I called it and was effective for the business and definitely for my team. This allowed me to progress to Principal Consultant, followed by Managing Principal, Sales Manager, then Division Manager. The reason behind my success was sheer dedication, we were all committed to the cause and I happened to be one of four successful female leaders who progressed together at my old firm because we encouraged one another to strive for success. The women I worked alongside were empowering and we all had to build our own business units, organically growing the business alongside each other. I would say we were role models to one another and that has shaped the type of leader I am today. After rising through the ranks, so to speak, I knew it was time for me to move on, to take on a whole new challenge and really be responsible for something big such as building a division from scratch. I wanted an ambitious recruitment start-up that aligned with my vision - that’s why I chose to work for Hamlyn Williams. The ambitious and entrepreneurial nature of the business, along with that of the hard-working CEO convinced me that playing a more significant role in a fast-paced start-up was my true calling. I know I am an integral part of the journal that Hamlyn Williams is going on and the fact that the company didn’t have strong female leadership at the time, motivated me to kick start this. Hamlyn Williams just stuck out to me as an ambitious firm with a real entrepreneurial mindset, it seemed as though it was dedicated to becoming bigger and better in everything they took on, I wanted a piece of that! They gave me full autonomy to start-up the Banking & Front Office function over the space of 2 years where we are expanding our offering exponentially, covering most of EMEA. My team is now six strong and continuing to grow. The opportunity for each of my team members to grow and succeed, building out their own recruitment portfolio is as good an opportunity as I’ve seen! I would say the most important aspect of my job is fostering the growth of my people. Success should be encouraged by me and not an instant expectation of my team. How effective you are as a Business Lead is mostly dependant on the quality of each team member which is why we hire highly ambitious hard-workers and then subsequently nurture their growth and development within the firm through dedicating a good amount of time to motivating, coaching, mentoring, empowering, and up-skilling each and every person. To anyone aspiring for something in their career, I would say that gender is irrelevant, recruitment especially is a meritocratic environment where performance, initiative and hard work is rewarded incredibly. There’s no getting away from the fact that in my area, there are far fewer women than men in senior leadership roles within Banking recruitment. But to all female grads – this is changing! Let the performance do the talking and you’ll never let your gender be restrictive.” Feeling inspired? Why not get in touch with either Katherine at k.ibbotson@hamlynwilliams.com or with us at info@hamlynwilliams.com or by calling 0203 675 2920 to explore the latest opportunities we are offering within recruitment.

It’s International Women’s Day this Friday and we thought what better way to celebrate than showcasing some of the most influential women within the Banking space. Women only hold 14% of senior roles within private equity firms, hedge funds, and financial services companies, growing by just 2% over the previous 5 years (read more here). We have selected 10 inspiring women, a range from across the industry and many great companies are providing initiatives internally to support women in banking: Sallie Krawcheck – CEO & Co-Founder, Ellevest Sallie is not only the CEO & Co-Founder of Ellevest, a digital-first, mission-driven investment platform for women, but also chair’s the Ellevate Network which provides career advice to a large network of professional women across the globe. Sallie’s professional mission is to help women reach their financial and professional goals. On top of these two monumental responsibilities, she also juggles her role as Chair of the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Leadership Fund, which invests in the top-rated companies for advancing women. As if all of that wasn’t enough, she is also a best-selling author of “Own It: The Power of Women at Work.” Andrea Newman – Global Head of Marketing, HSBC Andrea Newman is responsible for the advertising production and media placement of the HSBC Group’s brand communications, throughout the world. On top of this, Andrea headed up HSBC’s advertising within 48 airports across the globe and manages the group’s global agency and marketing services network. This is all from an amazing 21-year stint within one of the world’s leading banks. It isn’t just HSBC where her focus lies, she also happens to be a Non-Executive Director at YouGov, an international data and analytics group, operating within the Market Research space. Catherine Wines – Director & Co-Founder, WorldRemit Ltd Catherine co-founded WordRemit back in 2010, a digital money transfer platform which gives customers the ability to complete online money transfers within 145 countries around the world. Catherine is a keen and regular speaker on industry panels and conferences, with outstanding expertise within business development, finance, project management, M&A, systems integration, and migration & turnaround. Catherine oversees the day-to-day running of the following WorldRemit functions: compliance, customer service, partner integrations, and the launch of new send and receive options. She represents WorldRemit with keynote appearances at major conferences and in the international media, talking around topics such as FinTech, innovation, and women in business. Juliette Souliman – Early Stage VC Investor, Octopus Ventures Juliette Souliman heads up both the FinTech and InsurTech investment teams at Octopus Ventures. Juliette started to gain wanted attention when she set-up an endurance events marketplace firm back in her home country, The Netherlands. She has a plethora of other responsibilities, aside from being the youngest investment professional at Octopus Ventures. These include being a keynote speaker at the cutting-edge technology conference on FinTech and Banking technology, Finovate Europe. She is also an advocate for more diversity in FinTech, especially within FinTech funding. Mary Ellen Iskenderian – President & CEO, Women’s World Banking Mary Ellen Iskenderian heads up a global non-profit organisation, devoted to giving more low-income women access to financial tools that will enable them to achieve security and prosperity. This organisation, Women’s World Banking also boasts a $50m Investment Committee which Mary happens to be a member of. Previously, Mary spent 17 years at the International Finance Corporation and also worked for Lehman Brothers prior to that. She is a prominent member of both the Women’s Forum of New York and the Business and Sustainable Development Commission. Cathy Bessant – Chief Operations & Technology Officer, Bank of America Cathy Bessant has spent the last 9 years heading up Bank of America’s Global Technology & Operations division. Cathy is an outstanding and extremely valuable member of the team for Bank of America, however it’s her additional input into the world of Banking that has gained her the most significant recognition. Cathy is an Executive Sponsor for the firm’s LGBT Pride Executive Board and back in 2018, claimed the Distinguished Service Award for her work in the community from the University of North Carolina. She was also awarded the prestigious Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award from the Charlotte Business Journal. Her accomplishments don’t stop there, incredibly she also led the Council on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence, served on the board of directors for Zurich Insurance Group, and to top it all off, has been ranked No.1 for 2 consecutive years among the 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking list. Marianne Lake – Chief Financial Officer, JP Morgan Chase Marianne Lake currently has the responsibility of holding the position of CFO at JP Morgan Chase. Marianne is widely tipped to succeed their long-running CEO thanks to her overwhelming success in keeping track of $2.5 trillion worth of assets and developing strategies for each of the bank’s business units. Marianne is also responsible for the introduction of innovate automation technology within the bank and has been dubbed by many as the ‘First Lady of Wall Street’ with her incredible achievements and resilience, topped off by her eloquent and sophisticated British accent! Nandita Bakhshi – President & CEO, Bank of the West After more than 25 years of experience, Nandita Bakhshi now oversees over 10,000 employees at Bank of the West, as President & CEO. She previously held positions in Retail banking and Payments and is now among the prestigious list of the 25 Women to Watch in Banking. Nandita’s vision, which she has been implementing in her role as President & CEO over the past few years includes an improved customer experience, solidified brand reputation, and to build a culture of innovation. Barbara J. Desoer – CEO, Citibank Barbara J. Desoer is the Chief Executive Officer of one of the world’s leading banks, Citibank. She also leads the group’s AML (anti-money laundering) function, whilst also contributing to their Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review process. Barbara previously had a 35-year career with Bank of America, before moving on to Citigroup where she served as Co-Head of their Global Women’s Initiative. She has also served in various non-profit board positions over the years. As well as this, Barbara is a member of the Board of Visitors at the University of California. Kate Quinn – Vice Chairman & Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. Bank Katherine Quinn, better known as Kate is Vice Charmain & Chief Administrative Officer at U.S. Bank. Kate serves on the boards of several local organisations, is an advocate for women in leadership, and heads up three divisions within U.S. Bank: Human Resources, Strategy, and Corporate Affairs. Kate oversees the strategy, reputation, and people work elements of the business and has been integral to their reputation for having incredibly loyal customers after implementing a community-first engagement strategy with the public. Feeling inspired? Talk to us, our Head of Front Office, Katherine Ibbotson is full of market knowledge and is keen to discuss your career progression, reach out to her at k.ibbotson@hamlynwilliams.com. Please find our latest Banking & Front Office vacancies here. Feel free to get in touch with us at info@hamlynwilliams.com or by calling 0203 675 2920 for more information.