Capital Markets: Everything I Dreamed and More

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been missing from the forums and I’ll offer up the same excuse as last time, work (though honestly I still have time to read manga so I’m not being completely honest). But coffee has become my life blood. I need to kick start my day with a healthy dose of caffeine or risk passing out at my desk.

I’ve landed a job at a bank. Capital markets. Back office.
I thought the hours would be decent but they somehow manage to keep me till 8:30 on a Friday night.
But it is exactly like I expected.
Drama. Long hours. Bonuses. Cesspool of nastiness.

I’m in a particularly good mood today since my bonus cleared this week and I received more than expected.
(Granted I had no life for the past month).

Since my life has transitioned from student life to work life I feel like sharing some of the stories that I’ve encountered in my short two months. I feel like I’ve worked two years with the amount of drama I’ve witness.

Today’s focus is on the extreme importance of communication and a touch of branding.

I was a late comer in the project and I received no training and had no email access for the longest time. I was left to my own devices for a very long time.
I knew that if I wanted to stay I had to get creative and do something or I’d be out of the door before the leaves started to change colour. I was able to turn the tables in two months and people who started before me are asking me for guidance on how to solve problems.

My first course of action was to do nothing and watch instead of watching youtube videos and Breaking Bad. This by the way is the favourite pastime at my office. I figured out who were the most comfortable of the process and “job-shadow” all of the. Since I “job-shadowed” approximately 8 different individuals I learned all of their tricks. While I did this I was sure to up-sell my skills to the project manager and the management team. Since I did this co-currently the second I received access to all the systems I hit the ground running. It made me look better than I was. Knowing a bit of excel tricks and I moved from my current position straight to reporting and since I knew the process end to end and inside and had a flair for wiritng I was doing the communication on behalf of my team with the other teams and was the first point of contact if there was a problem. I went from having nothing to do to having my inbox constantly humming.

Take away advice Sometimes you have to carve out your own position in a team or you’ll be cut from the team if you stand around waiting for orders.