Barclays

Originally Posted by Unregistered

everyone has a different opinion on which dept is really the worst, depending on your genuine strengths and interests. the thing is, compliance is a cost centre, whilst yes you are still an important function bcos obv banks cannot not have it, but you are not in a dept pushing sales and driving revenue.

and if you have actually worked in a bank before, you will realize that people at the revenue generating side are typically more capable and ambitious and you will simply learn more there and grow your career at a faster pace. of course, not saying there is no one capable or ambitious or nothing to learn at compliance, i am just saying in general that those are much more commonly found in revenue generating functions. when you go to work, i would like to think that it is not just the work alone that defines your learning experience, but also the people you are working with.

and just because it is BB that came up with a grad programme for the compliance function, doesn't make compliance a great function. JPM has a HR grad programme too, would you like to now change to pursue HR as a career? A grad prog is just a grad prog, banks need to have a compliance team and they want to bring in fresh grads to groom, in hopes that there will be capable ones who can eventually lead the compliance depts in the future. It is as simple as that. Grad programmes are just talent grooming programmes for that particular dept they recruit for. It is not suppose to signal anything about the prestige /whatever else, of the function.

Ok fair enough. I guess regardless of where each person ends up, as long as work hard and perform well and if you get a bb name + good salary, should not be an issue to move to better opps in future bah

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i'm just saying that in credit cards, you are in a revenue generating function. and even if you are in UOB doing credit cards, it is still better than being in a cost centre function like compliance in barclays.

different roles, so i am in no way concluding that UOB is a better bank than Barclays. But i am indeed saying that credit cards > compliance. and therefore in this situation, being in UOB credit cards is better than being in Barclays compliance

also am not trying to put everyone down who considers the compliance prog in Barclays. Some people genuinely enjoy their jobs there and they like it. I am happy for them. You find your own interests and find a job that matches it. That's it. and if compliance is that job that matches your interests, then fair enough. You don't have to be in a "revenue generating" dept. Those are just meaningless debates at the end of the day unless you really want to get the best pay/best career growth etc. etc.

True I think having these kind of open discussion and differing views are great as it helps people who aren’t familiar with the banking industry know more too.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i'm just saying that in credit cards, you are in a revenue generating function. and even if you are in UOB doing credit cards, it is still better than being in a cost centre function like compliance in barclays.

different roles, so i am in no way concluding that UOB is a better bank than Barclays. But i am indeed saying that credit cards > compliance. and therefore in this situation, being in UOB credit cards is better than being in Barclays compliance

also am not trying to put everyone down who considers the compliance prog in Barclays. Some people genuinely enjoy their jobs there and they like it. I am happy for them. You find your own interests and find a job that matches it. That's it. and if compliance is that job that matches your interests, then fair enough. You don't have to be in a "revenue generating" dept. Those are just meaningless debates at the end of the day unless you really want to get the best pay/best career growth etc. etc.

Ya I think no one is trying to debate or argue on this. It’s good to have differing views and for us to elaborate on them, I’m sure it has helped those who aren’t sure about the banking industry nor have experiences in banking to know more.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

everyone has a different opinion on which dept is really the worst, depending on your genuine strengths and interests. the thing is, compliance is a cost centre, whilst yes you are still an important function bcos obv banks cannot not have it, but you are not in a dept pushing sales and driving revenue.

and if you have actually worked in a bank before, you will realize that people at the revenue generating side are typically more capable and ambitious and you will simply learn more there and grow your career at a faster pace. of course, not saying there is no one capable or ambitious or nothing to learn at compliance, i am just saying in general that those are much more commonly found in revenue generating functions. when you go to work, i would like to think that it is not just the work alone that defines your learning experience, but also the people you are working with.

and just because it is BB that came up with a grad programme for the compliance function, doesn't make compliance a great function. JPM has a HR grad programme too, would you like to now change to pursue HR as a career? A grad prog is just a grad prog, banks need to have a compliance team and they want to bring in fresh grads to groom, in hopes that there will be capable ones who can eventually lead the compliance depts in the future. It is as simple as that. Grad programmes are just talent grooming programmes for that particular dept they recruit for. It is not suppose to signal anything about the prestige /whatever else, of the function.

Ok fair enough. I guess regardless of where each person ends up, as long as work hard and perform well and if you get a bb name + good salary, should not be an issue to move to better opps in future bah

Soooo can support or functional roles such as compliance or strategy etc move to revenue generating roles in future? Genuinely curious on this.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i'm just saying that in credit cards, you are in a revenue generating function. and even if you are in UOB doing credit cards, it is still better than being in a cost centre function like compliance in barclays.

different roles, so i am in no way concluding that UOB is a better bank than Barclays. But i am indeed saying that credit cards > compliance. and therefore in this situation, being in UOB credit cards is better than being in Barclays compliance

also am not trying to put everyone down who considers the compliance prog in Barclays. Some people genuinely enjoy their jobs there and they like it. I am happy for them. You find your own interests and find a job that matches it. That's it. and if compliance is that job that matches your interests, then fair enough. You don't have to be in a "revenue generating" dept. Those are just meaningless debates at the end of the day unless you really want to get the best pay/best career growth etc. etc.

True I think no one trying to argue or debate. But it’s great that we have differing views and always good to share the reasons why too, I’m sure all these helped those who aren’t too sure about the banking industry to know more as well

Originally Posted by Unregistered

everyone has a different opinion on which dept is really the worst, depending on your genuine strengths and interests. the thing is, compliance is a cost centre, whilst yes you are still an important function bcos obv banks cannot not have it, but you are not in a dept pushing sales and driving revenue.

and if you have actually worked in a bank before, you will realize that people at the revenue generating side are typically more capable and ambitious and you will simply learn more there and grow your career at a faster pace. of course, not saying there is no one capable or ambitious or nothing to learn at compliance, i am just saying in general that those are much more commonly found in revenue generating functions. when you go to work, i would like to think that it is not just the work alone that defines your learning experience, but also the people you are working with.

and just because it is BB that came up with a grad programme for the compliance function, doesn't make compliance a great function. JPM has a HR grad programme too, would you like to now change to pursue HR as a career? A grad prog is just a grad prog, banks need to have a compliance team and they want to bring in fresh grads to groom, in hopes that there will be capable ones who can eventually lead the compliance depts in the future. It is as simple as that. Grad programmes are just talent grooming programmes for that particular dept they recruit for. It is not suppose to signal anything about the prestige /whatever else, of the function.

Are these revenue generating departments in other words are also sales… RMs they are pretty much similar to salesperson and insurance agents but they just work in a bank. It doesn’t really require much skills to be a RM, the barrier to entry is low. Of course IB is another thing but how often do people get a chance to enter IB, usually only those from affluent families or have connections tend to enter as a fresh grad much easier than the majority. Not picking a fight here but just sharing…

But curious you know how strategy seems prestigious too… so is strategy roles in banks considered support role too? 😬

Originally Posted by Unregistered

everyone has a different opinion on which dept is really the worst, depending on your genuine strengths and interests. the thing is, compliance is a cost centre, whilst yes you are still an important function bcos obv banks cannot not have it, but you are not in a dept pushing sales and driving revenue.

and if you have actually worked in a bank before, you will realize that people at the revenue generating side are typically more capable and ambitious and you will simply learn more there and grow your career at a faster pace. of course, not saying there is no one capable or ambitious or nothing to learn at compliance, i am just saying in general that those are much more commonly found in revenue generating functions. when you go to work, i would like to think that it is not just the work alone that defines your learning experience, but also the people you are working with.

and just because it is BB that came up with a grad programme for the compliance function, doesn't make compliance a great function. JPM has a HR grad programme too, would you like to now change to pursue HR as a career? A grad prog is just a grad prog, banks need to have a compliance team and they want to bring in fresh grads to groom, in hopes that there will be capable ones who can eventually lead the compliance depts in the future. It is as simple as that. Grad programmes are just talent grooming programmes for that particular dept they recruit for. It is not suppose to signal anything about the prestige /whatever else, of the function.

Yea I’ve not had any banking experience before so I’m not too sure as to the different departments and functions other than commonly heard ones like IB, private, retail banking….

I missed all other grad programs for banks so only Barclays compliance was left…. So are the MA programs in local banks such as dbs and UOB considered better than Barclays compliance? I mean in terms of the brand name and prestige as well as future opportunities.

Hope anyone who have knowledge on this to kindly share.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i'm just saying that in credit cards, you are in a revenue generating function. and even if you are in UOB doing credit cards, it is still better than being in a cost centre function like compliance in barclays.

different roles, so i am in no way concluding that UOB is a better bank than Barclays. But i am indeed saying that credit cards > compliance. and therefore in this situation, being in UOB credit cards is better than being in Barclays compliance

also am not trying to put everyone down who considers the compliance prog in Barclays. Some people genuinely enjoy their jobs there and they like it. I am happy for them. You find your own interests and find a job that matches it. That's it. and if compliance is that job that matches your interests, then fair enough. You don't have to be in a "revenue generating" dept. Those are just meaningless debates at the end of the day unless you really want to get the best pay/best career growth etc. etc.

Ermmm why do you say compliance is a cost centre? And why is cost centre this bad or so not looked upon?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Soooo can support or functional roles such as compliance or strategy etc move to revenue generating roles in future? Genuinely curious on this.

Yes, can. Seen it happen in GS (from MO functions like Operations into Asset Management / Wealth Management Advisors). But the flexibility of such internal movements differ from bank to bank. Not sure how flexible Barclays is on this. And even in GS, for such a move to happen, it doesn't just happen because you want to. There must be headcount available to take you into the other dept, and you must network hard to get someone influential from that other dept to pull you in (and convince them you have some kind of transferrable skillset / actively building the required skillset outside of work so you are not useless to them), with the HR knowing your intentions, all while managing your current line managers/seniors and not letting the whole team know you are actively trying to leave AND manage your own current work in an area you do not have much interest in. Basically, a painful process to make the switch and stars must be aligned. So don't count on it to happen the way you want it to.

It's easier to move from strategy to a revenue generating role though, compared to compliance.