Lead Product Analyst - Wise Business

Lead Product Analyst role within Wise Business to provide data-driven insights, lead analytics work and build automated pipelines. The position involves defining KPIs, running experiments, improving A/B testing, and owning cross-team projects to inform product and risk or pricing decisions.

Liquidity Risk Controller

The Liquidity Risk Controller will enhance Wise's liquidity risk framework, identify product liquidity risks, and ensure effective controls within the Treasury team. The role partners with product, engineering and second-line teams to design testing, KPIs, forecasting and to support ILAAP and committee reporting.

FinCrime Operations Team Lead - Reporting

Lead and manage a Financial Crime Operations team in São Paulo focused on suspicious activity reporting. Own team performance, quality, compliance and escalations while driving process improvements, risk mitigation and stakeholder engagement. Coach and develop specialists to deliver efficient, compliant reports to financial intelligence units.

Senior Vice President

Franklin is a huge firm post the merger with Legg, but it's still family controlled so it's a bit of an enigma, the family element will appeal to some not to others. Lots of opportunities here and as a firm they are very entrepreneurial, definitely a west coast attitude this has its pro's and con's. Pretty traditional core business but quite diverse on the edges, worth researching recent acquisitions in the fintech space if it rhymes with your experience a cold call might be worth it.

Analyst

BlackRock is such a large organisation, but a very nice company to work for. The culture (in the UK offices) is very collaborative and relatively laid-back, compared to many of the banks. The benefits they offer are reasonably competitive, plus they have an unlimited paid-time-off policy, which is almost unheard of in the industry. People and Culture: During my time at BlackRock, I spent time networking and working with people in different teams, and what stuck out to me most was how friendly and willing to help people were. There was definitely a collaborative culture, and I don’t think I once hit anybody who said they were too busy to help me, or point me to the right person of place to find the information I needed. BlackRock helps to facilitate cross-team connections by arranging small group dinners and running other initiatives. Training: The training resources are not the best. When you first join, there are a long series of videos and basic training courses that take a while to go through. They have a lot of video courses available, through an internal portal, but from the ones that I did, these were not of the highest quality or in particular detail, especially on the technology-side. It would be useful if they provided additional training credits for external courses. Size: The size of the organisation can be a negative as well as a positive. Depending on your team, it can feel slightly contained, in terms of that you have a very niche area of work to cover. This is good for knowing particular products or processes in-depth, but limits the exposure to different areas of the business, and thus limits your learning curve to some extent. Additionally, it can be very slow-moving, especially in terms of updating internal libraries and technology to cater for new business demands, which can be frustrating. BlackRock has build a huge collection of resources internally, both on how their systems function under the skin, as well as libraries and helper software. Compensation and Benefits: Compensation is roughly in line with the market, with a reasonable pension contribution scheme and health insurance covered. They have a program with discounts at various places, and a bonus scheme, though it is not transparent how this is calculated. Hours: Compared to banks, the hours and workload was low, particularly in my division. Other divisions worked for longer hours, but generally nobody stayed in the office after 7pm, my division probably an hour earlier. Progression and Internal Mobility: Internal mobility is extremely good. The firm are particularly keen on filling roles with existing employees, and have an internal job portal where roles are posted before they are published externally. Even across divisions, jumps are common and well supported by the firm. Unlimited PTO: This is a very good policy they have in place. Some people disliked the idea, on the basis that not having a set number of days of holiday might encourage people to take less, but BlackRock encourage taking time off, even asking employees to take at least 2 weeks off during summer. Although technically there must be some internal limit, I have not heard of anyone actually hitting it. Time off has to be approved by your manager before taking it anyway, and you need to ensure your duties are covered by someone else while you are away.

Summer Intern

Polen Capital is an investment manager with offices in London, Boston and Boca Raton. The experience interning in sales and client relationship management was overwhelmingly positive, such that I have accepted a graduate offer to continue working there. Since the summer, Polen have also welcomed me back over university holidays to work on ad hoc projects and catch up with the team. The heirarchy is very flat, no silly office politics about who can talk to who, such that I felt comfortable talking to anyone. This goes across all teams. They gave me a very full orientation with the opportunity to attend AMAs with all the executives. Excellent communication from HR, who checked in with me initially on a bi-weekly, then a weekly basis. I was assigned a mentor outside of my team, as well as an unofficial 'life mentor' in my team. Because I was so well looked after, it may sound like I was stifled and patronised, however it felt far from that, instead feeling supported to achieve my best as independently as I felt comfortable with. I was trusted to do my own thing, and that was exciting as a 21 year old. Taking advantage of this was recognised by my boss, who upon hearing I could come back for just 2 weeks during uni holidays, gave me a problem to solve before flying off to Asia and leaving me to my own devices. This consequently involved one-on-one meetings with someone 30 years my senior. I loved having the responsibility yet without feeling stressed. Pioneers of ROWE (results only working environment) culture, Polen is non-corporate in feel yet still churns out excellent work. Being able to go to the gym in the middle of the day or take a 3 hour lunch break allows you to get things done on your own terms, and I think this is why the quality of work is so high. The perks are fantastic: LOTs of free delicious lunches, gym membership contributions, pensions etc. There is a very friendly feel to our team: I have got to meet my colleague's families at dinner and drinks events. They're a tight-knit bunch, so it might not be to everyone's taste, but it was to mine!

Internship

During my years at Morgan Stanley, I ended up interviewing quite a lot of candidates for off-cycle internship roles within Global Capital Markets (GCM). These weren’t the classic summer internships or year-long industrial placements with a more rigid recruitment process behind them. Off-cycle roles are much more fluid, they pop up whenever a team suddenly needs help. Sometimes it’s because there’s a surge in deal flow and everyone is stretched; other times someone leaves, moves team, or simply can’t cover everything on their plate. Because of that, the interviews tend to be quicker, more focused, and very much driven by the people who will actually work with the intern. The whole process usually starts at the desk level. It’s the juniors, Analysts or Associates, who do the first CV screening and pick who should be invited for a conversation. It makes sense, because they’re the ones who will be sitting next to the intern every day, teaching them, checking their work, and relying on them for the small but important tasks that keep the team running. The first interview is almost always a short video call, about half an hour or so, and the vibe is generally practical rather than overly formal. These early interviews are not designed to grill candidates on every technical detail under the sun. Yes, a few technical questions can come up, but Morgan Stanley tends to put more weight on logical thinking, common sense, and overall market awareness. Juniors want to see if the candidate can fit smoothly into the workflow: can they understand instructions, prioritise tasks, and ask smart questions without needing constant supervision? It’s much more about “How does this person think?” than “Has this person memorised the entire investment banking handbook?” This is also where the bank differs from some of its peers. Morgan Stanley leans a bit more heavily on logical exercises and simple mental-math or reasoning questions. Nothing impossible, usually quick problems that show how a person approaches a situation under time pressure. These aren’t trick questions; they’re just a way to see if someone can stay calm, think step by step, and communicate clearly. In my experience, the candidates who explain their reasoning out loud - even if they’re not 100% sure - tend to outperform the ones who try to jump straight to a final answer. If a candidate performs well at this first stage, they’re usually invited to one or two follow-up interviews with slightly more senior people in the relevant GCM team. The content here varies depending on the desk and on the candidate’s background. Someone with strong finance coursework might get more technical questions; someone with less technical experience might get more high-level market or problem-solving questions. But even these conversations tend to be fairly interactive rather than formal interrogations. The goal is to understand whether the person has enough raw ability and curiosity to pick things up quickly and contribute in a fast environment. One aspect of the process that people sometimes find surprising is the cross-team interview. Off-cycle candidates almost always meet one or two seniors from another team or product area. The purpose isn’t to test technical knowledge; it’s there to get an outside view on cultural fit and general commercial sense. These interviews often revolve around the candidate’s motivation, communication style, awareness of what’s happening in markets, and interest in the broader investment-banking ecosystem. Overall, the off-cycle recruitment process at Morgan Stanley is a lot more dynamic and pragmatic than the big graduate schemes. It moves quickly, focuses heavily on logic and attitude, and is driven by the actual teams doing the hiring rather than HR. Technical knowledge helps, but it’s not the main differentiator. The people who tend to stand out are those who follow the markets closely, think clearly under pressure, and show genuine enthusiasm for capital markets rather than just going through the motions.

Equity Research

I interviewed for a junior/mid-level sector specialist position. The job was based in the Netherlands (The Hague) and in London. Process I applied online (linkedin). The recruitment process was in three stages: 1. A phone interview with the head of the department. 2. In-person meeting in London, then the Hague with members of the team I was to work directly with. 3. Case study in front of a panel, in The Hague. It took about 2 months from start to finish (I got a job offer). Here my five takeaways 1. The HR department is in charge. This is a slightly bureaucratic European bank, and I found that HR had a disproportionate role in the process… A lot more than in a US or British bank, typically. It took more time to organise all the logistics (with a couple of mishaps along the way – keep all your receipts!), more scrutiny of my motivation (in writing and in interviews), and two interviews with HR instead of one, usually. 2. Mind the (cultural) gap. This will sound like a cliché, but after years working with them I can confirm: you will face people during the interviews that you may find blunt... If you come from an English background, they may look downright rude, but they see it as being honest, upfront, and efficient. Besides, even if their English is really excellent (far better than their continental neighbours), it is not their mother tongue – some things might get lost in translation for some of them. So don’t get offended! The Dutch I have worked with were relaxed, welcoming and it’s usually not meant in a bad way. 3. LOTS of questions on motivation. Expect to get asked by everyone what attracts you to ING, and to working in the Netherlands. They are well aware that London is a big financial centre and Amsterdam is not. The best answer you can provide? Claim that you want a quieter, more balanced lifestyle. Whether you really want to move to the Netherlands or not, they will appreciate the thought, and most of the people you’ll meet love that lifestyle (i.e. cycle to work, skating in winter etc etc). Meet them in the middle. 4. Technical questions – you can relax My role (Tech investment specialist) was not extremely ‘technical’, but the questions I got were quite basic: calculate a WACC, the Free Cash Flow, how you build conviction on a stock, a few basic questions on derivatives. So, to ace those questions, you have two possibilities: either you get even more sophisticated on the calculation (break down some assumption in smaller pieces), or you can take a concrete example of a company you know well. The former may impress them, but the latter may be a good segue into a conversation on a stock you like, and help you redirect the conversation, in a subtle way. 5. Think Green if you want to turn Orange The Dutch take ESG and SDGs very seriously, and have for a while. Some of the earlier ESG strategies I have seen there are now more than ten years old. It is not something they were forced to adopt recently, under pressure from their clients, and it is not a rebranding exercise. So you’ll need to show real conviction here, because ESG considerations will permeate every aspect of your professional and even personal life. Good luck!

VP Global Banking

I interviewed recently as a lateral hire in the Global Banking division. Structure. It was a long process. It felt like the organisation was trying to have a very detailed but fair overview of who the candidate is, seen from as many angle as possible, both professionally and on a personal level. Contrary to what I had heard it felt quite humane: no one tried to fault me with trick questions. Here’s what I learnt: Prove your capacity for team work as frequently as you can. For a lot of questions, it felt like the interviewer wanted to know if he or she could work with me, rather my technical skills. Being too self-centred or openly competitive will set you back in the process. There’s no room for rockstars. So prepare to give examples of where you disagreed with a colleague, or pushed a project that did not go through, and how you reacted. I know it sounds a bit wishy washy, but it makes sense that the bank focuses on this: if you have come this far in the process, you’ve probably given enough proof of your technical proficiency. Clearly you know your stuff. In summary: the team is the ’superstar’, not you – you can gloat at family reunions that you work for a top investment bank, but internally the team always comes first – something I don’t think a lot of people realise before interviewing. You won’t meet arrogant ‘masters of the universe’ – so don’t behave like one. Everyone was mild mannered. Except perhaps for quant or trading, it seems consultant-style brainteasers (think ‘How many golf balls are there on the Moon?’) were rare. Real work situations made up most of the interviews. So if you join as an industry specialist in a given asset class, expect a conversation like you would have in real life, as part of the team. Questions like: What would you buy? What’s your In? Your Out? Your stop loss? And deep, deep drilling on smaller and smaller details. It’s harsh, sure, but not meant to put you off balance – more as a way to test how thorough you are, and what type of investor you are. Someone explained to me that, the day I’ll present an idea to the group, I will have questions from everyone, each with their own perspective and style. So just imagine the toughest pitch Q&A you can think of, and write down all the objections, justified or not, that someone might have. You will meet the whole team – internationally. One of the reasons the process takes time is that you will have an interview not just with the London team, but with its counterparts on other continents too. This makes sense – in most businesses, the bank is very integrated internationally, and obviously the center of gravity is in the US. Be ready to be flexible to accommodate everyone, and try to think of local examples your interviewer will be familiar with (for instance a business in Hong Kong you worked on when you speak to someone in Asia). I found that it helps finding a common ground that makes the conversation easier. At various stages of your career, you’ll be judged on the impact you’ll have on the organisation.

Associate

Base Salary: £90,000–£120,000 Total Compensation: £130,000–£180,000

Analyst

Base Salary: £60,000–£70,000 Total Comp: £80,000–£100,000

Quant Trader Developer

$115,000 AUD (+ $30k AUD sign-on bonus)