How To Sign New York Banking Job Offer

How to industry sign banking new york job offer

you hello everyone this is Marlena Ram children from Canada infinite I'm a mentoring coach in an employment counselor with the Canada infinite pre-arrival program welcome to today's webinar which is focused on the topic the future of jobs and banking before we get started I just wanted to take you through some of the webinar housekeeping the webinar is being recorded and the length will be approximately 45 minutes all participant lines are muted and there will be a question answer session at the end of the webinar so while you have questions you may want to make a note of them and you can type your questions in the questions window you will see that window on your screen and please take time to complete the post webinar survey towards the end we will send an email reminder as well your feedback is very important to us as that helps us organize and plan other webinars in future the recording of this webinar will be posted on JVs Toronto's blog and last but not the least we are hosting from home so please bear with us a brief about JVs toronto services we have nine locations and greater toronto area including downtown toronto north york markham scarborough and it OB co so whichever centers near to you please feel free to reach out to us we have a range of programs for unemployed and underemployed individuals including job seekers who've been laid off decent graduates persons with disability disability internationally training professionals youth etc and yes during covert 90 we continue to support our work our clients province-wide with online services our employment experts meet with you one-on-one to determine your specific employment needs are two major services we have Canada intranet program which is a pre-arrival program intended for internationally trained individuals relocating to Canada within the next 12 months with an approved Canadian immigrant visa through this program we help you with in-depth job search preparation online mentoring achieving success in the Canadian workplace and help you build employer connections our employment Ontario services which are post arrival services which are offered to you once you land in Canada include help with variety of job search job matching job development resuming LinkedIn career exploration financial employment support and more and we also help you to clarify career interest skills and opportunities we help you build confidence at job interviews and attract job offers from employers so that's a range of services available to you please feel free to reach out to us based on what your needs are and we're always happy to help you I'd now like to welcome a speaker of today Rajeev chip to take this forward Rajeev over to you thank you very much thanks thanks everyone for joining today I'm very grateful for you spending this next 45 minutes or so listening to really what is a an extraordinary period of time looking at the future of the workforce particularly in finance and more specifically within within banking so if you can move to the first slide just by way of a quick introduction I've been in the industry for over 25 years I've had the privilege of working across various continents started in North America in New York Toronto actually based for those of you don't know in Hong Kong so today I'm coming live to you from Hong Kong so a 12 hour having said that I've been very connected with the Toronto job market with jbs have had the opportunity to work with GBS for a few years now and would love to share some of the trends within banking today in my current capacity and the CEO for large institution within the investor sales and relationship management space I've also I'm passionate enthusiastic about the business management arena and have had training at the University of Toronto and I understand the Canadian system as well for those of you pursuing additional education whether it's online or not you know touch a little bit on that within the presentation as well and I think the one thing that I'd love to you know there's a message to convey which I have a section talking about networking as well is being able to be associated with various associations and for those of you interested within the financial services or banking space there are a lot of opportunities you know both international associations local associations that are very much connected within the entire financial services ecosystem so you know I've ever had an experience within a sip MA which is essentially the Asian securities financial markets Association and also various FinTech big tech big data associations as well here in Asia do you move to the next slide so I thought I'd start you know today's session with some initial food for thought usually I would put out a poll question if it was in you know a live session and get a raise of hands on this now that we're delivering this through online content I thought I put a few points out here typically in regards to banking and then we can talk a little bit about some of the skill sets from you know my experience that I see would definitely be beneficial so from a banking perspective if you look at where banks have been you know since the global financial crisis back in 2008 it's a very different scenario today we have stronger balance sheets we've got banks which are much well capitalized you know liquidity equation is much more different from what it was back during the the great financial crisis you know in in 2008 so that isn't really a difference what are we really learning as we go through this period is very interesting and extraordinary period you know reputation and purpose are really increasingly important for our customers a survey and a strategy survey and study that was done by PwC mentioned that 83% of customers actually believe the importance of banks is so much that they really have a moral obligation to help society particularly during these during these times and being part of a large Bank a large global bank you know we certainly see that internally within our competition or the market participants are also doing the same also the other thing other thought is really when you look at some of the leaders the best leaders you know will recognize some of these sounds strategic decisions the the point really here is is that things are changing there's a lot of uncertainty and things that may have occurred three months ago you no longer make actually sense today so it is really moving at a pace which is which which which is moving very quickly which introduces this element of uncertainty as well and really where we're seeing where the winners going to be is banks that are delivering the most complete customer but more digitized experience with the customers at the forefront will be the biggest winners so the concept of digitization and that customer experience certainly is still from an investment standpoint at the forefront of banks some more food for thought in the next slide as well just in terms of teeing up some of the themes you know one of the things that is this quite evident is and I use the term supercharged but the concept of utilizing technology you know becoming digital by default you know we've seen that across across the banking space across the financial services space so whether it's a customer for online banking you know whether it's looking at utilizing web and life chat for doing meetings such as these looking at mobile banking all of that you know it's become somewhat of a default and what we're also seeing is some of our clients who are smaller clients really were not you know as I guess within the lifecycle of digitization further along have been really forced to to move in that direction simplification we pricing you know focus more on you know fee based income given particularly given the low interest rate environment innovative solutions that are coming out of that we're seeing that our clients are demanding it and the marketplace is demanding it is work Lobel I think the other thing which will likely show up in 4 to 3 for the four of this year is as some of these large institutions are in the lending businesses you know they're preparing for some credit losses so I think the story here is that it's not smooth sailing there's more pain perhaps to come so just being aware of that particularly those of us who are looking for careers in banking it's going to look a little different and as a result of that there's also a big focus on costs concentrating on cost being you know clear in terms of where do we want to play where do these big companies Financial Services where do they want to win what's the purpose I think those are some of the good questions perhaps that will come out and get teased out of this we want much more focus also if you move to the next next slide so again these previous points were more food for thought and the question is so what so you know what are these key questions to ask ourselves given that we're in this crisis today do we really understand the needs and expectations of our clients today I think particularly if you're looking at the banking industry I'm within the investment banking space and the capital market space that space is changing and you know whether it's servicing institutional clients whether it's servicing corporate clients there is going to be a shift can we adapt our mindset so internally what we're seeing even within our own Bank is you know the support of talent which is more geared towards taking initiatives what we're referring to as growth champions and anything to deliver looking at agile ways to move quickly you know despite giving given the the actual headwinds and that's really as a result of this new set of client demands in in the low interest rate environment you know looking for innovative ideas we need individuals and talent which really tailors to that are we able to solidify a competitive position now I use the term fintechs and Texans and this is something I sort of made up but what I mean by that is even pre-crisis really what we were seeing was the fintechs we're getting more involved within the ecosystem of the traditional banks and you know when if I'm a betting man you know basically looking at some of these thin tech companies it's really a matter of time and in many cases is already happening where they're joining at the hip with some of the larger traditional banks to engage in initiatives and I think the idea there is that some of these banks have the platform but the actual intern intellect with respect to the technology space would still live in the FinTech so there's this collaboration that's already been seen and I think without that given that there are so many unknowns you know there's likelihood to be those who are going to be left behind no question about that so we move to the next slide now of course there's there's many many many skills that that are important what I thought you know the three three that I thought I would cherry pick is the whole concept with this new skills for the distance economy we've looked at again the digitization aspect of pre pre crisis you know moving a lot of our services electron affine a lot of our services and you know you look at classic mortgage refinance processing there's a lot of digitization around that is cross-training around that as a result of work that's been shifted away from humans to machines but I think the one interesting aspect that's the amount these past several months is some of our clients you know it's this whole concept of empathy and distress clients and how we use some of the cognitive side to be aware of that as we deal with our customers in order to to to retain them and I would even argue that that's a space from a career perspective or from a job opportunity perspective should be looked at as well and is being discussed as well this clearly number two imbalances in the whole supply demand equation with regards to talent once again you know the expectation is that clients those who are slightly you Roger hi this is Marlena we can't hear you it seems you're you've gone inaudible would you mind checking is that yes it's better now so you were talking about empathy as distressed lines and that's when we stopped hearing you so you may want to raise that front there Thanks so the second piece is really around the imbalances in the entire supply and demand talent and and really building off the whole concept of digitization there will be those clients who are not as far along with with regards to the technology space in terms of the life cycle they haven't adapted as quickly and they're now in really being forced to do so and some of the large tech companies the fan as we refer them to the Facebook's the apples and Netflix etc the googles of the world they've set up digital talent marketplaces as well as platforms to address some of these inequalities between the supply and demand talent equation the Bill Gates final foundation as well you know they take on we're seeing that that that is playing out and then point number three really looking at the changes to the supply chain and you know those were the days where we were looking at offshoring now given the environment that we're working in the challenges and headwinds you know even within the financial services industry there is discussion around moving the jobs onshore so there's a there is say you know from a skill training perspective some of these changes which are quite different from what we've seen historically if you move to the next slide so what is some of the what I call critical success factors particularly when you look at the technology aspect you know fintechs instead of using the term competition I think embracing coopertition is probably something that we've obviously seen in the in in the past several years this is nothing new however I think again I keep using the terms supercharged really this this situation that we are in within the crisis has sort of supercharged the the engagement with existing ecosystems within the technology space between clean tech companies and the banks and that's something that even in the last you know three to six months we've seen it where we are working very closely with in tech companies to come up with some of the solutions particularly around some of the risk metrics which are managers used to make decisions and how FinTech companies have helped some of the banks do that as well the other area are very important and you know really this is again it's not new something that post 2008 after the financial crisis there was a huge focus in banking in financial services around regulation and the change to regulation whether you had the Volcker Rule whether you night there is dodd-frank initiatives that will push through compliance you know through various regulatory bodies all of that has really looked at regulatory initiatives as as key so today in text may be flying under the radar I think the key difference as we start looking at the future of Finance is the regulatory tolerance and it's quite evident and it's a global phenomenon it's going to be very low when looking at not being in compliant to anti money laundering you know credit related disparate impact no your client just to name a few of them so I think regulation really is going to be the key swing factor at the end in terms of how think that destruction really plays out it's already out there I mean a lot of you may have heard the terms of rec tech and soup tech and anything that has a prefix before tech but you know regulation certainly is his front of mind for most of the market participants in this space if we can move forward this so you know this is this is something actually that we put out by McKinsey you know the banks are focused on building many different types of digital capabilities I just thought it would be quite interesting you who you just click I think I have sort of boxed a few items so the first one really looking at analytics so we've got six sort of pillars here under the data driven digital incise looking at the whole concept of analytics and and data and big data and and the infrastructure behind that I think that's again an area where this there's certainly going to be even more reliance on having robust analytics to be able to navigate and be able to put some of this information in front of key decision-makers the second pillar really is whether you looking at the client centric experience design phase are you looking at the actual journey I think at the end of the day that would be eight different forms and delivery to the client it is really if that's if there's one pillar here that's probably the most important it probably is around the customs customer centricity and you know at the industry level also I've been involved with several customer centric initiatives you know whether it's know you know your customer or whether it's AML related that's definitely something that I would say very very highly ranked and then within the same context you know the whole concept of marketing it's looking at also the focus on where the client is I mentioned earlier some of the clients that we've been dealing with frankly it struggled with regards to technology as a whole so this whole concept of also within the marketing space is where are your clients in that lifecycle and and then targeting the marketing the digital marketing aspect you know depending on you or your client so it's not a cookie cutter approach and then you know not to not to read through everything but again it's it's all the services our client centric we're looking at obviously the ability to be more agile and this kind of goes back to my previous point about talent where one of the banks are looking for growth minded champions and it's this sort of you know the next generation not only of technology but those who are going to deliver it as well it's that growth mindset as well and then I struggling with the last pillar I think I sort of circled all three which is really the digital talent management organization and governance and then the innovative test and and learn culture I think all of that really are the enablers to get these five pillars in action so that's sort of you know from looking at the focus of where we you know big banks and big financial services will look at building you know their capabilities and building upon as I mentioned it's not something that's new but I think a lot of the focus is really going to be within within these be these five six pillars that we've gone through so the next slide so looking at V scaling you know a couple of items that I called out here is identifying skills recovery and that really is very bespoke to the organization the different type of banks that are out there so understanding and building employees in sets with the new business model I think that's what you're going to start seeing with the banks there isn't a cookie cutter approach in terms of bridging skills gap it has to be quite bespoke to the type of clients that were servicing the type of roles that are out there the other thing which is quite resonating which came up at an industry committee meeting last week as well as is this whole concept of uncertainty and where some of the success stories have been shared have been in cases where you know we've started as quickly as possible we continue to test and then we we reiterate because there will be mistakes but the idea I think the key point is starting ASAP and you know that's something that resonates with quite a few initiatives that that we've been looking at and then the last one the item number five is looking at really thinking as a small entrepreneur especially with some of the banks tend to be in the Canadian banks tend to be rather large so essentially the idea here is is being part of change change agent mentality you know small entrepreneur to have a big impact and last but not least especially doing this type of environment is you know treasuring the learning budgets morals you know management knows that that will regret it so being able to value talent being able to develop people I think that's certainly something that still continues to be very much at the forefront in fact I would argue given the time that we're in there's even more opportunity to do that so if we move to the next slide so I won't spend too much time here but this is sort of just building off the previous slide in terms of safeguarding the banking workforce as we think about post prove it so if you just click on the next few which I think box to come so I put it in this sort of order not necessarily starting in micro screaming what I'm saying is really upscaling you know expanding the nature the existing roles and and understanding where some of the gaps are and the new skills and activity that we really become part of this new normal this focus on that and I actually think that they'll be quite a bit of opportunities from from a job creation perspective even in that space you know rescaling you know we basically retraining employees you know given their experience given a lot of them already know how to navigate within their organizations but there will be a rescaling there's definitely a space around hiring new talent which which is happening as well and particularly was you know we expand hiring in roles where with with remote work opportunities there's there's demand that has peaked gone I think are those days where there was a belief that what particular had to be in a particular physical location I think now we've been challenged to test that you know that could actually happen online elsewhere and then instead of going back to the first box really micro scaling is you know expanding employee school said without really changing the roles yes I think that is true you will see that in in certain type of small businesses or in certain type of work where we're servicing more manual activities I personally haven't quite seen it but but definitely this is something that you know is part of this so-called safeguarding so we can move to the next slide so here you know I thought I'd take a little bit of a pause I know that we've got questions coming up closer to the end so I'll just continue on but really the idea here is you know shifting if we can just go back and shifting your perspective is it's really more powerful than being smart I think especially given the current situation everyone is in everyone is being challenged to look at a different paradigm it is a paradigm shift it is a different way of thinking about not only clients not only the nature of the business but also I think well-being I think well-being is a big part of this it is a people's business so do you move to the next slide so what I thought would be interesting is just providing maybe one or two case studies of things that we've seen in the industry as well that may prove to be helpful and put some perspective I've talked a little bit about this whole turbo charge concept of acceleration and digitization so if you move to the next slide so so I just wanted to I guess put into perspective and no pun intended I'm sure a lot of you already are very familiar with robotic process automation and machine learning but some of the things that so when I speak here I represent hopefully some of my colleagues within the financial services industry being part of quite a few different associations but I look at the lifecycle over the last five or so years and we were in back in 2015 as part of the whole robotic process automation or RPA as its called an area where the processes had few variations so we were looking at technology but we wanted to see there was a maximum impact was some of the more many processes where there were a large number of steps involved and essentially we build certain rules as part of technology to perform those steps you know using simple rules and in rules that would then automate those processes as we move forward we sort of moved on to something would be calls it calling their autonomics or machine learning and there again a lot of the processes will not work or manual but this is the first time we started looking at this concept of cognitive decision-making and that was essentially you know where the human decision-making comes in place so algorithms have been built and you know we see that particularly in the job that I'm in where I work very closely with traders and salespeople and you know the questions become given the market volatility and the speed at which information is received the need for digitizing and creating algorithms to come up with a desired outcome you know that that has been definitely embedded in a lot of the in a lot of the computing power that we used today in distributing capital market products in providing best execution for our clients as well so that's something that you know we've got large technology teams that support it we've got you know PhDs who essentially focus just on algorithms so that you know was the period and and I would say we are now sort of in a period where we could I think people would argue and I definitely don't claim to be an expert in this field at all but people would still argue whether we are in the artificial intelligence phase or we're still sort of in machine learning but for sure processes are much more complex this high level of human intervention required as well and you know data is unstructured and there's not only one set of rules which is simple but it's multi-dimensional as well so we've sort of come into a phase of increased complexity and and that's sort of the lifecycle and I see that continuing and being a big focus within the banking space but again for those of you interested in the capital market space certainly will continue our next slide please so I won't go through this in detail and cognizant at the time as well but what I want to call out is some of the things that Roger we can't hear you again the reality really is is processes that existed within big organizations in in banks and financial services where they were large in you know departments that were essentially performing roles providing for example what I call first land sorry rajeev this is milena your voice seems to fade in and fade out so what do you mind repeating what you're saying we still can't hear you can't hear you writing hi everyone we'll just try and figure this out just just bear with us meanwhile we're going to send him an email Raj if you could we can't hear you so I'm not sure if you can hear me but we've sent sent you an email as well you point number three which is looking at you know processes where data needs to be typed into their systems and you know classic examples in banks is when performing transactions there are usually confirmations and paper trails of those of those transactions you know a lot of that has really been automated through artificial intelligence and what that has also done is it shifted employees from you know doing one type of role to read a coin then to more value-added functions as well next like this so future of careers in banking so sort of building up the thought talked a little bit about some of the gaps within the skills talked a little bit about the critical success factors as well and and and then just presented very very briefly some of the case studies that we've seen both you know internally within the banks and also with our clients I thought I'd spend just a few minutes around you know the future careers as we see it in banking so the next slide so this first slide is we given my experiences in capital markets and again apologize if I'm I'm only speaking to those who are interested in that particular space but I'll just quickly mention a few areas which I think continue to be real strategic areas for the industry you know so I would say the simplification of processes you know looking at the productivity of training of salespeople looking at you know multi trade processing multi products so cross product lines how do we automate how do we create consistencies around trading strategies around systems having instead of having a entire space spaghetti diagram when you looking at how technology is aligned across products simplifying it I think that's the the one the from the first bullet point that the key takeaway is simplification using technology that is real focus the second point is around becoming comfortable with data I think at the end of the day data analytics their fancy terms their fancy programs the Pythons the data flames etc I think at the end of the day roles that are going to be created or employees who have to retrain have to become very comfortable not necessarily in you know computer programming but this concept of having data being able to understand how to analyze data as well I think there's going to be a big need towards strategy so business development initiatives partnering with business development initiatives from a technology standpoint and you know being able to particularly with the larger banks where we continue to see verticals where you know one part of the organization is doing something completely in silo of the other there's going to be this big push towards the partnership electronification most of these larger organizations have innovation labs and in terms of product design in terms of engineering you know leveraging that as much as possible this is where actually I use the term FinTech and Texan I think these innovation labs that the traditional banks are more likely to to be able to actually join at the hip with some of the syntax and then again working with people I think at the end of the day we can talk about all these digitization but at the end of the day it is about working with the salespeople with the traders in terms of execution next slide please so my two cents again I have more than two cents but I thought if I was to distill it into three simple concepts given where we are today even a very different new norm that banking is presenting from a career perspective being someone in financial services for the last 25 years I think the ability to unlearn and relearn or learn should've got the same pace in a consistent manner you know given the amount of change that we're seeing is probably something to take on broadening exposure to various domains within banking I think that always probably another word of another word would be networking this is never a better time to do that and then building on core competency that you already have and then enriching that with this peripheral competency which sort of goes to the first bullet point around learning you know I think that curiosity and these opportunities to learn particularly the new skills that the the difference or the imbalance between supply and demand of skillsets focusing on personal development in that space is you know another area of focus connects like this and and sort of as we get to the close of the presentation I thought I just put in you know a few a few things to be aware of as we as those of you who are interviewing or looking for roles looking for new roles you know how do we actually navigate this new way of job interviews of searching for jobs I thought I'd give my two cents I do represent a talent and diversity I sit on one of the committees here in in Asia it's a global committee as well I'm also on the Ottoman international advisory board which is at the University of Toronto we talk a lot about talent as well and then my own experience at the firm that I work for so I think you know dealing with the the empathy aspect is very very important I think it's very important and you see a lot of the leading banks a lot of the organizations are providing remarkable support whether it's you know flex time but it's whole the whole concept of dealing with with brief over lost denial anxiety all of that I think is definitely something that is at the forefront also accepting you know as you go out for those of you who are looking for a new role you may have some ambition in terms of the type of all that you had in mind I think you the quicker we accept that what we were planning for is going to look very very different or it's just not going to look like what we were planning for I think that is a reality and the key thing really is to reorganize we need to map our skills and also do some research on the organizations that you're looking to target and I anticipate that talent acquisition I think the positive is there is the reality is a lot of people along seniors are not traveling anymore there's an opp rtunity to network I think that's a great way for us to be able to tap into that reality I think the hiring process is also looking very virtual it was looking virtual prior to the crisis I think now even more so a lot of the human resource and talent and development areas of banks are certainly looking at that the physical environment let's face it you know it's no longer about the Millennials physical environment it's about everyone and number of hiring managers are frankly uncomfortable hiring individuals without physically seeing them as part of an interview process it's just being aware of some of that and I think you know my third sort of bullet point is around when you do get into you have an opportunity to interview I think these first impressions is very different from being in person at an interview you know virtual interviews there's a lot of nonverbal cues your interviewer cannot see and judge your boy language so being just aware of that I think at the end of the day you know your body cues they go away and it's all about your own camera now so there's more face time you know to your eyes your hands talking with your hands and you know this may seem quite straightforward but the reality is when I interview some of the senior most human resource seniors within within the banks these are some some areas that clearly are differentiating certain candidates from others next like this I realize I'm running over so I'll just quickly speed through these as well I think and I mentioned this earlier I think this is there's no better time to actually network then then now I think that the idea here is is you know no pun intended but I think the isolation is actually creating a desire to be more connected with others so networking is important be sensitive to choose I think it's really important that when you are networking it's not going with the lens that hey you know I'm networking because I want to get a job per se but it is you know it's it's from the perspective of seeking guidance and and also then showing gratefulness and that will really then you lead towards a much more rich connection a much more informed connection where there is freer flow of information recruiting for the future I think the reality is going to be obviously there will be more sources there's more supply there's more tools to be able to get towards that supply of talent just being aware of that there's going to be AI tools in terms of screening applications in terms of screening candidates in fact today even those tools exist there's certain organizations who candidates actually don't see a physical person until the third interview so you know it's really the digitization of the entire interview process so there's virtual interviews sort of going back to the earlier point as those of you who do interview virtually you know be aware of energies they come through virtual interviews as well pay attention to that a level of engagement I think small versus large meetings there are differences in terms of how to be engaged you know it depends also on that that's well acknowledge three main areas I would says everything has changed nothing has changed in empathy so everything has changed yes as I mentioned earlier for those of us who were planning a type of career let's get over that I think it will look very different and employers they are waiting on the sidelines and in many cases it may appear they're not hiring but also it's the unknown so this is the time to make relationships with these organizations nothing has changed in terms of what the criteria the prerequisites are in terms of getting of all the skill sets are still required so when you prepare for a virtual interviewed really my two cents are really to you know prepare with the same vigor as if you're going in person so pre-empting interview questions being well-prepared that really shows through and it then ties up to the whole concept of energy and then temporally you know I think it's also important not only as an interviewer but as an interviewee that you know this is a tough time not everyone is you know reacting to it the same way so understanding that understanding individuals for who they are I think believe it or not that would also differentiate you you know particularly when flying through walls next slide please so the banking industry I am very bullish it will continue lawful roles it is a complex arena with a variety of disciplines there's areas within regulation there's areas within this whole concept of first line of defense I've talked a lot about the concept of you know having an opportunity to supercharge technology working within tech companies this in tech tech same concept sustainable finance the whole idea that you know the working environment is there to be the new normal a new a new working environment one other area I would say is there's a big opportunity for online training a lot of the educational institutions are offering discounts encourage you this is a great time to upgrade skills there are free courses as well whether it's data analytics whatever it is that you know you have an enthusiasm for and an end diversity is also something that employers will continue to look for whether it's gender whether it's diversity culture etc and I believe the last slide so in closing thoughts you know I think my my true message really is obviously health certainly comes first you know that is the number one priority but do you use the time to reflect do you use the time to reset in terms of from your career perspective for those of you looking for roles those of you making transitions I think financial services really if there's one thing that you take away from my presentation today it's about you know being on the supercharged mode and taking advantage of it as well and staying connected I mentioned online training I think also leverage these new modes of communication whether you use zoom we will meet I think the reality is is that for those of you who have kids you know I have my six-year-old teaching me how to use zoom sometimes so you know that is something that we all need to become comfortable with and then banks you know they'll be forced to rethink business models and it remains an attractive destination I think there will be roles for those of you already in that space who have roles I think do you think very hard about opportunities of rescaling those of you who are looking you know be aware there are new neurons coming up stay connected to that take advantage of networking opportunities and at the end of the day you know what I would say and this is based off again many discussions with my peers as well is that talent and diversity it is no longer a buzzword just for the sake of it it's a an asset and that's something that will continue to be a feature of the workforce and leaders are definitely focusing on this asset so with that I'd like to thank you and apologies have taken few minutes over but maybe I'll hand it off for any questions thank you very much Roger that was very insightful and we do have a lot of questions we'll try and take as many as we can so the first question is from Reba and she's a chartered accountant who's been on a break for two years after getting her baby so her question is how does she overcome this and land a job back in banking sector and I'd like to combine this with another question that you yourself have been an immigrant and you any specific advice that you would have for professionals who have immigrated to Canada and sometimes they may need to restart their career yeah I know absolutely that's that's a great question maybe I can sort of start backwards with providing a little bit of insight from my perspective and then hopefully I can address the question at the same time so I think what I would say is my experience had been coming to to Toronto specifically was this and I and I must admit I did come at a much younger age so I sort of came in at an age where I was going into education so still in my university years but what I would say is I heard it a lot from peers and from even my own parents etc is this whole concept of Canadian experience and it's a little bit of a chicken and egg situation where you know in the one hand you're knocking doors you've got the skills that the individual lost the question is a professional the chartered accountant a rigorous designation to get world renown etc but yet you know you will still get the question well you don't have any Canadian experience so I think this is a classic case where it's trying to understand the system again it's a supply demand equation certainly not a personal thing you know the reality is when you look at banking today in Canada it's a little bit of an oligopoly where you have five six maybe arguably seven main players so there isn't that much of a supply and there only so many rules but what I would say is you know the way that you get into banking is is essentially the points that I touched on earlier which is you know looking at and it can't be a cookie cutter approach it actually that really has to be looking at what is what what what is the role that you're looking for what are the skills you know that that role may be demanding given the environment that we're in even though and I know this is a challenge for many who spent many years at you know at educating themselves but I think the the reality is now there is an opportunity to retrain and we skill stepping back being able to do that because not only do you get Rhys killed in that area but also I think that shows commitment to the employer as well so I think I know that's a that's a mouthful there but I would say that it's not a cookie cutter approach I think being able to identify the skill gaps for that particular role very important not not using a 1 Fedor approach to all the roles that you are applying to is important as well networking speaking to as many people as possible joining associations I think is another one where I would say you know you you're able to then get a very good perspective from many professionals so that's that's what has worked not only for me but you know many of my my contacts in that space as well thanks Reggie so we'll ask you one last question before we wind up so if one does not have professional certifications like CFA or CPM then what sectors would you recommend are comparatively easier to get a job in the field of Finance and what if someone has a master's qualification add it to that so the one thing I would say is and I must admit right up front you know I certainly am NOT you know an expert in this space but I I do have a few people in my team who are which is in the area of data analytics I think at the end of the day what we're finding particularly in banking where there is a move you know to a digitized environment where data is power at the end of the day I'm in the investor sales business so we service you know we service institutional clients the advantage of having data analytic skills being able to then look slice and dice information which provides me as an with information which can then be used to either make inferences come up with certain decisions at the end of the day is critical and I think for anyone who really does not have you know a CFA CA also that matter you know even a masters I would say being able to even invest in time I mean doesn't you know I think I think go on frankly gone are the days where you know people are looking for Nestle the traditional the traditional form of training but it is really more how can that individual hit the road running demonstrate execution through previous experience I think that is viewed definitely sort of in equal weight if anything and being able to and if they don't have that but being able to invest in in that space to to me it is in banking I think is certainly something to consider awesome thank you so much Raju we'll just take one last question this is from Hari what would you think about the future of hedge fund accountants in Canada do you think there are going to be more opportunities or is it going to be worse so I think look at the end of the day in terms of that particular institutional client segment it is certainly here to stay you know that's one of our biggest institutional clients that we service I mean the question specific around hedge if I understood it correctly was that hedge fund accounting or was that hedge accounting just accountants education films so and that particular client segment is here to stay you know we we service you know some of the biggest hedge funds globally I would say that there's certainly a healthy demand for that client segment in fact some of the most innovative structured products are those that were distributed to that client segment so if you're looking at it from a you know from a relevance perspective that client segment is extremely relevant in in many regards to to this space so yes I think that will be you know definitely an area to consider but what I would say though is accounting as a whole though again I'm going back to the previous question some of that is being addressed through content right so to hurry I think question back would be you know rethinking some of the expertise that you would have already you know how do you actually take that to sort of version 2.0 think of an environment where you know an AI tool is performing you know some form of an accounting whether it's an accounting policy or whether you're looking at actually automating you know bookkeeping your debits and credits etc but what is it that is going to be the future of accounting put hedge fund accounting aside so I think perhaps look at it from that lens would be you'd be able to become more marketable not only to hedge funds but across the industry excellent thank you so much Rajiv this has been very informative and we got a lot of strategic inputs into how the banking and testing and financial industry is moving forward thank you once again for accepting our invitation and we hope to keep hearing from you more often thank you once again that you thank you thank you everyone for joining very grateful thanks very much bye-bye