eFinancialCareers

Our new Hong Kong-based columnist tells us all about his plight over the last 18 months as he tries to quit accountancy and return to a research-based role.

I started my career as a research assistant in a small fund management company in Hong Kong in mid 2007. After spending 10 months there, I moved to a larger hedge fund on a three-month contract. At that time, I was hopeful that I’d be made a permanent staff member after this trial period.

But, like many junior people in the industry, I underestimated the power of the downward market. My dream didn’t turn into reality as the whole hedge fund industry suffered its worst performance in history, with severe redemptions from frightened investors. I was forced to leave the firm in mid-2008, three months before the Lehman Brothers collapse.

Then, just two weeks before the Lehman bankruptcy, I was at a final-stage interview with an Asian investment bank for a research associate position. But soon after my interview, that firm, like many others, was involved in a large-scale merger.

Alarmed, I emailed the head of research about my application. He was sorry to tell me that the bank would need to restructure and make redundancies before it could take on any new recruits. This news was doubling disappointing because it came from an Asian bank – supposedly a safer haven in those troubled times than their US and Europe counterparts.

I spoke to an agency recruiter in late 2008 who said he was receiving more than 100 resumes daily from New York to London. He told me that it was “nearly impossible” to find a job anywhere in the world because the market had not bottomed out yet.

Even so, I tried to talk to as many people in the industry as I could, but usually received the following feedback: “we are not hiring at the moment, but would like to take your resume for future consideration.”

I was feeling the pressure of living without a regular income. Therefore, I knew that I had to step back and think about non-research positions. Before Christmas in 2008, I eventually moved into accounting and found a job as a tax accountant in a Big Four firm.

As the market started to recovery from March 2009, I started looking again for a research role in a brokerage house. But my job hunt hasn’t been any easier than it was last year.

An HR manager at a large investment bank recently told me that hiring freezes at the junior to mid-level are still there, even though the bank had made a handsome profit from the market rally.

In many of my recent interviews with both international and regional brokerages, I got the impression that employers only want to hire “perfect” candidates. However, I still have a strong hope that I can get back into the industry, especially because at my level I am still considered “cheap labour”.