【英语财经】为什么科技公司比银行更吸引MBA？ Beyond Banking: filling the recruitment abyss

Hannah Vallerie started her tour of top university campuses about six months earlier than usual this year.

The human resources manager for ING bank wanted to steal a march on rivals in an attempt to recruit graduates to the Dutch lender for its international leadership programme.

To make the job more enticing, ING, which typically hires an average of four out of 600 US applicants every year, moved the final event of the three-year programme from the group’s headquarters in Amsterdam to a remote training camp in Portugal. According to Cliff Belzer, a Harvard graduate who joined the “Orange leaders” programme in September 2011, it is stuffed with “fun” extracurricular activities, such as staffing food trucks and painting rooms.

ING’s efforts come as demand for top-flight business school graduates is at a premium as they shun careers in banks for well-paid jobs in technology, engineering and healthcare. One candidate offered a place this year on ING’s leadership programme, turned the bank down in favour of taking a job at Google.

“That was an eye-opener for us,” said Ms Vallerie, noting that this was the first time ING had lost a candidate to the tech sector. “We made some changes based on that experience.”

Other banks, like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have hiked the base pay for junior bankers, some by as much as 20 per cent. Goldman Sachs last week unveiled new measures including faster promotions, guaranteed rotations and less menial work to woo junior bankers. Credit Suisse, meanwhile, has introduced a fast-track program for top-performing analysts, as well as a mentoring program to offer support to junior bankers and keep them motivated.

“There’s a tendency to focus on specific things as opposed to the constant process,” says David Solomon, co-head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs. “We’re trying to make sure that we have the best practices in the context of the way we recruit people, train people and develop people.”

Mr Solomon said other banks might follow some of Goldman Sachs’ initiatives, but the bank can do enough to still give itself a differentiating edge. “Races aren’t won by 100 yards, races are won by steps,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure that your relative performance is a little bit better.”

Such measures, however, have done little to diminish the rising appeal of careers in technology relative to banks — as demonstrated by the roll call of top employers for MBA graduates from business school Sloan MIT.

Goldman Sachs was jointly ranked as the fourth biggest recruiter from MIT in 2008, while JPMorgan Chase and Lehman were also in the top 10. By 2014, there was not a single bank in the top hirers, but Apple had joined the list and Amazon had shot up to third place. Consultancies have also grown in popularity, with both Deloitte and PwC joining the list by 2014.

According to Harvard Business School, tech employed 7 per cent of its graduates in 2008. By 2014, that figure had increased to 17 per cent. Seven per cent of its graduates went on to internet services, a category that had not even existed in 2008.

Bankers are keen to dispel the myth that graduates can become instant millionaires by choosing Silicon Valley over Wall Street. “Everyone going into Silicon Valley thinks they are going to be zillionaires,” says, Ros Stephenson, UBS’s Head of Americas and chair of corporate client solutions. Technology failures and modest success stories, she argues, still outnumber the stuff of Hollywood blockbusters.

Paul Baron, head of derivative sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch says niche areas in investment banking are still proving attractive to some graduates because “the product is intellectually rigorous, it’s very interesting, bespoke, creative.”

Analysis by the Financial Times shows that graduates from the world’s top 10 MBA schools are 40 per cent less likely to go into investment banking now than they were before the financial crisis.

Pay and lifestyle are the two biggest deterrents. Alan Johnson, managing director of Johnson Associates, a Wall Street pay consultant, estimates that the total pay pool across Wall Street banks will be down by about 10 per cent this year. “It’s less pay, more hassle,” said Mr Johnson.

The cuts are even bigger at some banks — in Europe, Deutsche Bank is reportedly cutting bonuses by 30 per cent after a $6bn loss in the third quarter.

“The deal with banking was that you worked really hard but got paid lots of money. Now the deal is broken people are looking at other paths,” said Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice at London Business School. “

She adds: “Certainly at LBS we have many students who previously would have been banking candidates now starting their own businesses.”

One former junior banker at a top US bank believes that other industries do a better job of selling their social value. She quit banking for the non-profit sector because she wanted “to make an impact in my work”.

Recruiters say this desire to do something of “purpose” reflects this generation’s values. Millennials, or Generation Y, born in the early 1980s to 2000s, are also characterised as possessing less institutional allegiance than their predecessors. Many employers see them as impatient for responsibility and hankering after some semblance of work-life balance.

Young people, said Hazel Mulhare, vice-president at Kea Consultants, which helps recruit junior bankers to financial services firms, “don’t want to be a cog in the machine” and are frustrated by doing anonymous grunt work in large banks.

A New York-based banker who helps with recruitment says today’s graduates are “motivated by different things”. “If they started 10 years ago, the juniors would have been saying, yes, I want to work hard but I want the perks to work hard, concierge services, people to run errands, car services,” he says. “Now, it’s protected weekends and time off?.?.?.?they say they value that.”

Leavers are staying within finance

Business school graduates may be turning their back on banking, but those already working in the sector are not moving much further afield, writes Laura Noonan.

More than 60 per cent of workers who leave banking end up in other parts of the financial services sector, according to analysis carried out by professional global network LinkedIn for the Financial Times.

The findings dispel the common perception that large numbers of bankers are quitting for what some may consider more morally rewarding careers such as teaching, or more enterprising opportunities, such as in start-ups.

LinkedIn studied the profiles of almost 24,500 people leaving and joining banks in key financial centres during the first six months of the year. The figures are based on analysis of the 14,500 people who joined the banking sector in the first six months of the year, and the 9,000 who left, in New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich.

Although the research includes only those workers who have LinkedIn profiles and updated them — representing a fraction of the total workforce — the analysis provides a compelling snapshot on the flow of talent in and out of banks.

Despite being far smaller than London and New York, Paris was the most popular area for new joiners, attracting 34 per cent of the total increase in bank workers. France’s banks suffered during the earlier stages of the financial crisis but the country has largely escaped the latest wave of job cuts in the sector, which have been led by UK, German and Swiss banks.

The research also highlights how narrow the recruitment pool for banks is despite their efforts to bring in more diverse talent. The finance sector supplied 52 per cent of workers joining banks for the first time. This includes workers who list their previous industry as “financial services”, accounting, management consultancy, investment management and insurance.

Outside of the financial sector, the IT industry was the biggest supplier of new banking talent, providing 7 per cent of new joiners.

今年，汉娜?瓦莱丽(Hannah Vallerie)启动顶级大学校园招聘之旅的时间比往年早了半年左右。

荷兰国际集团(ING)的这位人力资源经理希望比竞争对手抢先一步，为该银行的国际领导力项目招揽毕业生。

为了增加这份工作的吸引力，ING将这个为期三年的项目最后一个环节的场地从其位于阿姆斯特丹的总部改为远在葡萄牙的训练营。该项目通常平均每年从600名美国申请者中录用4人。据2011年9月参加这个“橙色领袖”(Orange leaders)项目的哈佛毕业生克利夫?贝尔泽(Cliff Belzer)称，该项目安排了许多“有趣的”课外活动，比如餐车配给和给房间喷漆。

ING采取这些努力正值一流商学院毕业生供不应求之际，他们会为了科技、工程及医疗行业的高薪工作而放弃银行工作机会。今年一位被ING领导力项目录用的求职者，最终选择了在谷歌(Google)的工作机会而拒绝了ING。

“这令我们瞠目结舌，”瓦莱丽称，她指出这是ING头一次被科技公司抢走一位应聘者，“我们根据这次经历做出了一些改变。”

高盛(Goldman Sachs)、摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)等其他银行给初级银行员工提高了底薪，其中一些人的薪资涨幅高达20%。高盛最近宣布了一些新措施来吸引初级员工，其中包括加快晋升、确保岗位轮值以及减少细枝末节的工作。与此同时，瑞信(Credit Suisse)引入了一项快车道计划来吸引出色的分析师，并推出了一个指导项目以支持初级员工、使他们保持工作积极性。

“现在有这样一种趋势，关注特定事务而不是持续的进程，”高盛投行部联合主管大卫?所罗门(David Solomon)称，“我们正试图确保在招聘、培训和培养人才方面拥有最佳实践。”

他表示，其他银行或许会效仿高盛的一些举措，但是高盛仍然拥有独特的优势。“不是靠绝对性优势赢得竞赛，而是毫厘之间的差距，”他称，“你得确保你的相对表现要稍好一点。”

然而，在缩小科技行业相对银行业日益增加的职业吸引力方面，这类措施几乎没什么帮助——麻省理工斯隆管理学院(MIT Sloan)MBA毕业生的最大雇主名单就表明了这一点。

在2008年MIT毕业生最大雇主名单中，高盛排名并列第四，摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase)和雷曼(Lehman)也位列前十。但到了2014年，最大雇主中没有一家是银行，而苹果(Apple)挤入名单，同时亚马逊(Amazon)上升至第三位。咨询公司同样人气上涨，德勤(Deloitte)和普华永道(PwC)在2014年双双跻身名单之中。

据哈佛商学院(Harvard business school)数据显示，2008年，科技公司招走了其7%的毕业生。到了2014年，这一数字增加至17%。该学院7%的毕业生进入互联网服务业——2008年甚至还不存在这个类别。

银行业人士急于打破这种神话，即毕业生放弃华尔街而选择硅谷便可以一夜暴富。“每一个进入硅谷的人都以为他们将成为亿万富翁，”瑞银(UBS)美洲业务主管兼企业客户解决方案负责人罗斯?斯蒂芬森(Ros Stephenson)称。在她看来，科技行业失败案例和平凡无奇的成功故事远远多于被好莱坞大片当作素材的成功故事。

美银美林(Bank of America Merrill Lynch)衍生品销售主管保罗?巴伦(Paul Baron)称，投行的个别领域仍然吸引着一些毕业生，因为“其产品在思维上是严谨的，非常有趣，可以定制且充满创意”。

英国《金融时报》的分析表明，如今全球前十所顶尖MBA学院的毕业生进入投行的可能性比金融危机前降低了40%。

薪资水平和生活方式是两个最大的阻碍因素。薪酬咨询公司Johnson Associates的常务董事艾伦?约翰逊(Alan Johnson)预计，今年华尔街银行的总薪资池将缩水10%左右。“报酬更少，事儿更多，”约翰逊称。

在某些银行，减薪幅度甚至更大。据报道称，在第三季度出现60亿美元的亏损后，德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)将削减30%的奖金。

“过去银行的情况是，你卖力工作，但你也能拿到很多报酬。如今的情况是消沉的人们正在寻找其他途径，”伦敦商学院(London Business School)管理实践教授琳达?格拉顿(Lynda Gratton)称。

她补充称：“在伦敦商学院，我们确实有很多学生之前本来要进入银行业，如今却自己创业。”

之前曾在一家美国顶尖银行做过基层工作的人士认为，其他行业在兜售自身社会价值上做得更好。她离开银行业，投身非盈利行业，因为她希望“我的工作可以实现价值”。

招聘人员称，这种对实现某种“目标”的渴望反映出这一代人的价值观。在1980年代初至2000年代之间出生的“千禧一代”（或Y一代）的特点之一是他们对组织的忠诚度比前一代人更弱。很多雇主认为，他们责任感不强并渴望达到某种表面上的工作与生活平衡的状态。

Kea咨询公司的副总裁黑兹尔?马尔汉尔(Hazel Mulhare)称，年轻人“不想成为机器上的一个小齿轮”，对于在大银行做繁琐工作会感到受挫。Kea咨询公司帮助金融服务公司招聘初级员工。

一名常驻纽约、协助招聘的银行从业者称，如今的毕业生“工作的动机与过去不同了”。“如果他们是10年前开始工作，这些年轻人会说，没错，我想努力工作但是我希望工作福利也很给力，有人跑腿，还要有汽车服务，”他称，“如今，他们要的是有保障的周末双休以及假期……他们说这是他们所重视的。”

离开者仍留在金融业

商学院毕业生或许不太愿意进入银行业，但是那些已经在该行业工作的人不会离这个行业太远。

据全球专业人士社交网站LinkedIn为英国《金融时报》所做的分析显示，离开银行业的员工中，超过60%的人最终去了金融服务行业的其他领域。

该调查结果打破了一种普遍印象，即大量离开银行业的人会转向在一些人看来更有道德价值的职业，比如教育行业，或者更具有创新精神的机构，比如进入初创企业。

LinkedIn研究了主要金融中心将近24500名于今年上半年离开或进入银行业的人的材料。这些金融中心是纽约、伦敦、香港、巴黎、法兰克福和苏黎世，各项数据来自对14500名今年上半年进入银行业的人以及9000名离开银行业的人的分析。

尽管研究对象仅包括那些在LinkedIn有简历并更新过简历的从业者——只占整个银行从业者群体的一小部分，但是该分析提供了一个综观银行业人才流动的鲜明缩影。

尽管巴黎比伦敦和纽约要小得多，但它却是最受新入行者欢迎的地区，吸引了34%的银行业新增员工。在金融危机的早期阶段，法国的银行曾遭受重创，但是法国基本上没受银行业最近一轮裁员潮影响——此次裁员主要发生在英国、德国和瑞士的银行。

该研究也凸显出，尽管银行业努力吸引更多样化的人才，但它们的招聘范围太过狭窄。在首次进入银行业的员工中，52%的人来自金融行业。这其中包括自称此前在“金融服务”、会计、管理咨询、投资管理以及保险行业工作的员工。

除金融行业外，IT行业是银行业新才俊最大的来源，7%的新入行者来自IT行业。

译者/马柯斯