Often referred to as a ‘back-office role’, Operations is the
engine room of an investment firm and the success of its staff has a huge
impact on the overall efficiency and cost to the business unit. With over 10 years hiring experience in
Operations, I’ve been able to narrow down the 4 key traits that successful
hires display, or should at least develop within their first 12 months.
Attention to detail
With most roles requiring a high degree of processing,
attention to detail is a basic but critical skill to master. When working in investment banking you’re
often dealing with large numbers containing far too many zeros for your liking,
handling legal contracts where one omission could cost thousands, or settling
payments larger than your parents house. Getting something wrong here can have a huge
impact on your traders’ PnL so you want to ensure a high degree of accuracy.
Customer service
Not all Operations roles are directly client facing but all
are customer facing in some way, whether internal or external. New employees need to be able to confidently
work with other internal teams and see them as their customer. If you are facing off against external
clients, then you have the ability to make or break a firm relationship across
a range of products. At the end of the day, the
same customer service skills can be applied in both an investment bank and a
retail store.
Initiative
In order to develop from just an efficient processor into
more of a change agent or future leader, you need to show initiative in your role. This is one of the most important skills to
display if you want to move into management.
New scenarios, or curveballs as I like to call them, can pop up at
anytime in banking and there’s not always a procedure or precedent to tell you
how to handle it. By understanding your
product, process and systems, and then applying some initiative, you should be
able to resolve most incidents with no operational risk.
Risk Management
Almost everything you do, in any role in banking,
has a risk element to it. Understanding
operational risk, how it fits in to your role, and what you can do to reduce it,
is critical to your success. If you’re
unsure, ask your manager to explain the key risk areas for your team but it's
crucial to understand how your actions can increase or decrease operational
risk. As a manager, this will be one of
your most important responsibilities.
Key risk areas could be trade booking errors, incorrect or missed
payments, legal document oversights, or poor client service.
Hiring candidates who fulfill the above criteria doesn’t
guarantee a successful employee but your odds of success will be greatly
improved.
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