MEMORANDUM
TO:
FROM:
DATE: February 10, 2014
SUBJECT: Job Application Packet Information
COMPANY PROFILE
Barclays Bank (China)
General Corporate Information
Headquarters’ Address: Beijing China Resource Building, 21st Floor
City, State Zip: Beijing 100005
Primary Phone Number: +861058165000
Website Address: corpcomm.asiapac@barclays.com
Name of CEO: Antony Jenkins
Is he/she a PSU graduate? Antony Jenkins Understands the significance of Power Supply in his personnel team.
History
Barclays Bank from initial development stages was launched as one of the first Chinese banking company to offer and serve Chinese-American community in New York City, Hong Kong and Beijing as well as surrounding areas with different services. Savings, current deposits, investment decisions and financial loans are some of the services offered by the bank and they remain economic drivers of USA and China.
Primary Business
The focal area for the company is to enhance communal understanding of work environment and enabling the masses to generate income thus, improving their social standards. In another way, one can argue that the bank offers a wide range of financial security services and therefore, the best place for clients and staff to hedge. Responding to funding issues, the bank allows its staff to get loans which are vital in promoting their business processes and activities.
Industry Outlook
Barclays Bank as presented in this case is quite different from other national banks in the US. Each Barclay’s Bank branch in the country has a combination of a branch manager, CEO and several staff members whose responsibility is to ensure activities in the bank run smoothly and the highest level of client satisfaction.
The bank is also divided into different departments with each subdivision working towards collection of cash balances, finance consolidation, lending and borrowing as well as storage to meet unexpected costs. This reveals how the bank has a mechanism of offering a wide range of essential services and protecting its employees. In China, the establishment of the bank is no doubt an excellent way of enhancing relationships between the USA and the country.
It would be my greatest priority to work with Barclays America because my ambition is to combine production knowledge acquired from overseas with locally adopted techniques to ensure the best of the output needed. Working as a foreigner also enables me to earn respect and recognition amongst local employees. With the fact that Barclays bank appears to be an added benefit on the part most of its financial securities for sale in the market still remain influential amongst many clients.
Primary Market Competition and Financial Summary
In relation to some of the most significant information I retrieved from social media and the internet, there is no clear cut out on financial accountability and lending procedures. Lending procedures as a matter of fact was uncertain because many debtors opt to default in many cases. Therefore, it remained compelling to get the information and keep part of it for reference and justification purposes when need arise.
Throughout the recording period, there was a drop of up to 3.4 million dollars in cash and cash equivalence debts not accounted for besides limited ways of getting such finances back.
Other financial institutions often offer high competition levels for entire financial market to remain decentralized and elliptical. Barclays Bank is also popular in Chinese-American community for its banking services and it is termed here as easily transferable and identical.
Work Environment
Barclays Bank has different planned working hours. Some of performed tasks take place over the counter and must be monitored by individual personnel. The jobs call for high professionalism level and no personal interest. Money related issues must always be handled with high responsiveness as well as accountability level, which I am ready to observe.
Completion and preparation of curriculum vitae is no doubt an initial step that anyone looking for a job should work on. It should be written in a way that it includes all vital issues that are most relevant to potential employer. Additionally, it should an up to date resume including recent activities that could build opportunities and strength of a job-seeker. This is because a CV is a vital individual distillation where they are from and what one can offer the company they wish to work for.
Honesty is supreme in writing of a resume because lies have a way of haunting a person in some way. It is also imperative to make use of verbs such as ‘‘Served as contact person’’, one should say ‘‘Liaised with…managed’’. Proofreading is also essential as it helps to eliminate errors including spelling and grammatical errors because they often create an impression. Therefore, it is wise to involve two or more people to analyze the resume.
The format of the CV should also be simple classic format and clean. Personal details including contact details and names should be prominently displayed.
Description and Responsibilities of the Position
A banking career could be in investment or retail banking. An entry position level for recent graduate is known as analyst job for an investment banker. It means that the entry title for the job is Financial Analyst or just an Analyst. For those holding a master’s degree however, the title that can be assumed at the entry level is Associate. In many cases, an Analyst stays in the position for two to three years before or she can get a promotion to an Associate level or an MBA.
On the other hand, an Associate stays in the position for three to four years after which, they can be promoted to the position of Vice-President. This is no doubt a challenging field to consider with heady day to day business activities, high stake deals and bailout years anticipated. It is indeed a tough area to engage in.
Retail banking is however less challenging compared to investment banking. It focuses on the branch, online banking and telephone. It also concentrates more on customer facing responsibilities. Recently, banks settled for graduate training schemes where they employ graduates in respective fields of study and training them on the job. Finance related degree for this reason is not always an essential to joining a banking career. However strong communication skills are essential and attractive for an employer.
Some of the financial institutions that a person could apply jobs in America include Barclays, J.P Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Company, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of New York Melon among other large banks in the US. Even so, it is not very easy to get a job in large banks especially in the event where an applicant is not experienced.
Making applications for a desired job is however the most important initial step of getting into the industry. It is also important for an applicant to work on his or her qualifications to get the interview. Banks as mentioned earlier are employing fresh graduates from different academic fields at an increasing rate. This could help a focused and aggressive fresh graduate to get a job. A job hunter on the other hand may wish to consider working in small towns first, before making his or her way up to larger organizations.
Smaller financial institutions could also be more flexible in their job requirements thus, making it easier to get into the institution. Additionally, they provide greater orientation and ideal working environment for beginners based on their smaller size. Learning environment is also conducive because employees are not too busy running business.
Additionally, new staff gets more time to learn and enjoy hands on experience because small banks are characterized with smaller departments available in one banking facility. Bigger banks on the other hand have larger divisions specializing in one service because of a large number of clients they serve on daily basis. This is a factor that may not offer room for new staff to get adequate training for the job.
It would therefore be ideal for a job seeker to start working with smaller banks to gain more experience as well as background information on operations before trying a hand on bigger banks. Smaller banks are no doubt an ideal training place. Employees learn more on customer service skills because they deal with a small client number on almost daily basis. Cohesion between employees in smaller banks also enables new staff members to learn the job, love it and gain more confidence in the job. These are some of the factors that go hand in hand in growth of future career.
It is the responsibility of a financial accountant to ensure bank balance reconciliation, cash balances of the day reflect the rightful amount retained in the bank, keep current account books and to ensure that branch managers are informed of company progress. On several occasions, financial accountants have recorded and submitted wrong financial statements that can provide misleading information.
In such as case, the financial accountant should ensure that his or her account balances matches those released by a bank supervisor. Financial accountants in one way must also be ready to learn from prevailing circumstances and responded amicably to financial issues.
Basic Knowledge of the Position
I hold a bachelor’s degree at present. This is one of grade requirement levels for financial accountant application. According to listed requirements, if a person is in an accountant related field or has accounting experiences, then he or she stands an opportunity of getting employment, which, will also be better for a company to hire such an individual as a first applier.
From exhibited information, Barclay payments in 2012, many employees were in a high income earning position following the kind of duties the person used to carry out. Such instances tool place in 2012 where many people were able to earn about $47,250 annually and $31.067 per hour. Hiring managers will be in charge of Human Resource Department and Bank supervisor with full responsibility of ensuring that employees remain focused and responsible towards achieving their financial obligations.
Primary Skills Required
Different job advertisements in the given field shows that managers need a 4 year bachelor’s degrees for entry level position in an accounting field such as securities marketing, financial reporting, financial accounting and communication. I was able to develop personal working experiences as a student in a related field or through various internship experiences.
Champion to the job descriptions, I have ability to communicate well, develop excellent writing skills, in a position to engage in the right problem solving, research skills and decision making. I am also computer literate relative to the requirements and have the right skills in job related software. Team work is additionally essential in creating an environment that allows for value creation.