Tête à Tête: Does banking give you the best opportunities post-university?

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Priyesh Patel says YES

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s thousands of students consider their post-university career paths, it is unsurprising that many turn to banking. Beyond an envious starting salary, banking provides an opportunity to understand the financial world and its relation to citizens and businesses as well as gain transferable skills such as networking, negotiating, leadership and team-management, all of which can come in handy in various other professions.

Many people struggle to distinguish between banking and investment banking, the latter being a branch of the former. Investment banking serves a very different role to retail and commercial for example, and has perhaps tarnished this profession disproportionately. If you are attracted to banking purely for the money, you will have to change your intentions. Greed and excessive risk played a major part in the economic downfall of 2008, and we certainly do not need people with similar intentions to plague this profession again. However, banking offers an ideal opportunity to talented individuals with a moral compass and fresh perspective to play a crucial role in supporting communities, stimulating entrepreneurship and rebuilding the economy.

An internship with a large high street bank allowed me to learn more about policy-making, political institutions, and the intricacies of the financial world, and polish my research and investigation skills. I believe that a career in banking equips you with a flexible skills-set to thrive within and outside of the banking profession. The leadership, team-management and problem-solving skills acquired in banking are extremely useful in professions such as teaching, business, management and politics, among others.

I have no experience or intentions to pursue a career in investment banking, I wouldn’t aspire to that sort of lifestyle, personally! However, that doesn’t mean banking can’t offer me other amazing career opportunities to influence the financial sector.

It is best to form your own opinion and understand the profession fully in order to realise what it can offer you. I believe that a career in banking can accommodate for more than the stereotypical alpha-male, crazy-hours, casino-style character which is often portrayed by the media and in films. This profession needs our generation, who are suffering for the financial failures of others, to return banking to its primary role; helping people’s lives.

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Milo Barnett says NO

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]anking is a career that doesn’t appeal to me. I admit it, and simply put it doesn’t have the best opportunities for a post-uni career. On the surface it may have it all: the money, glamour and prestige, yet it represents everything wrong with the British economy and its graduates.

A careers should provide you with three simple things: opportunities, values and above all happiness. Banking fails in these regards compared to other major post-uni career paths. When I speak of opportunities, I don’t mean the opportunity to spend your first bonus on a shiny sports car. I mean the opportunity to experience new things and so life isn’t simply sitting at the office all day doing the same thing day in day out. This doesn’t mean you have to be crossing the Andes every week. I mean the variety in life that turns the day job into a vocation. This variety is why many people decide to go into teaching and it is an increasingly popular path for those fresh on the job market. Banking however is often simply about the buy and sell and the recreation of buy low, sell high is why many people leave the profession after a while and some, ironically, end up teaching.

I believe that values are important in a career. I want to know that my careers helps not just me and the business but other people and the world as a whole. I want to believe that I am a cog doing his work for the greater good. This is why I’m attracted to Law for example because I wish to make a positive impact in the world. I can think of nothing better that matches this and my skills than being part of the justice system. This would allow me the opportunity to use my skills to help the weakest in society. With banking you have no duty to society, even after the 2008 crisis. Bankers continue to focus on money and this attracts a number of Warwick students. Britain’s brightest need to realise money isn’t everything and we need a more productive economy where banking doesn’t dominate the economy.

Finally, probably the most important things in any job: happiness or quality of life. I want to do a job where I don’t feel dread to get up and go to work. I want a job I enjoy. The thing is, is that many bankers don’t enjoy their job and do it simply for money. Many bankers have highly stressful lives where they focus simply on work, and in this high octane macho culture feel unable to talk about issues they have. So simply they bottle them up, which leads to many problems in he future. Banking is not the career for life after uni.

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Photo: flicrk/epsos