Autorenprofil
On November 11th, Dirlich Kolbeck, Executive Director of Nomura Global Markets visited Frankfurt School, to introduce the FS students with Nomura investment bank and its Global Markets sector.
So the first questions that might pop in an average reader’s mind might be: „What is Global Markets and what do they do that is different from investment banking?“ That was a question that troubled me too, thus I did some additional research so that you don’t have to! As seen on Nomura’s official web page and also as stated by Mr. Kolbeck, Nomura group can be broken into 3 big chunks – Global Asset Management, Domestic Retail (Japan only) and Wholesale. Global Asset management is what it is – a company managing global private and institutional investors’ capital and providing advisory services. Retail is the basic private and corporate client banking where they offer their clients financial and internet services, but only in Japan. Finally, the Wholesale and this is where we get the answer to the two questions expressed above. Wholesale business itself breaks into two units – Global Markets & Investment banking. Global markets department handles sales and trading of FX, Bonds, Stocks, Derivatives for institutional investors. Investment Banking Department is busy with underwriting of bonds and stocks, M&A advisory.
The Global Markets sector is comprised of the following divisions – Fixed Income, Equity and Instinet (electronic trading platform developed by Nomura). Each one is responsible for certain functions, for example, Fixed income includes Foreign Exchange, Commodities, Proprietary Trading etc. Equity includes Derivatives and Convertible bonds. Instinet is the trading platform which lists various securities, including futures and stocks.
In the Global Markets sector your roles may include things such as Sales – developing and maintaining relationships with company’s clients; Trading – buying and selling securities, controlling the firm’s exposure to the market; Research – providing the company with external information and creating investment ideas for asset managers; Structuring – creating specific products and strategies to individual clients’ needs.
It’s a very delicate yet important matter, especially for those students who are considering applying for a permanent position. There are several videos available on their official web page which were shown during the evening, accompanied by several intern interview videos.
However, in order to get a more comprehensive view and to find out about the factors which are most interesting to our students, I, once again did some research, so that you don’t have to!
As found in most recent company reviews on glassdoor.com one of the most praised aspects of Nomura is the friendliness and openness of the colleagues both for interns and full time workers. As mentioned by one of the reviewers from Nomura’s NY office the pros of Nomura are – quote: “Professional and very helpful people to work with. Relaxed corporate culture.” Second most cited advantage was good work-life balance. It was mentioned from employees and past interns in UK offices as well as from India and Hong Kong, thus we can conclude that it should hold for Germany as well since, unfortunately, there was no information on German offices.
When it comes to salary, according glassdoor.com reviews a UK analyst earns from 56,000 – 65,000 EUR. Associates with less than 3 years’ experience get from 58,000 – 93,000 EUR, averaging somewhere around 76,000 EUR. The summer analyst salary was averaging at 3500 EUR monthly. We can approximately project these numbers for the German offices as well, while keeping in mind that in London the salaries are generally higher as is the cost of living (Costs of living in London and costs of living in Frankfurt) but assuming that it should hold similar variance from the average banking salaries of respectable positions.
At the time of me writing this article there was an internship opening in Nomura’s Frankfurt office in the Global Markets department. 3-6 months Off-Cycle Internship in Nomura’s Frankfurt Office, with the Global Markets’ Fixed income team. The role will be in the Sales department and will involve activities related to Corporate clients relationship management. In order to apply you need to visit their official web page and submit the application there. Also, you should mention in your cover letter your period of availability for the job. However, sadly, the job is only for fluent or native German speakers.
For those of us who still are struggling with German there is a Summer Internship which is called Summer Analyst programme. That’s a 10 week rotational internship that puts you into two departments in Nomura and takes place only in London. To answer the potential question of many non-EU students – Yes, they do take care of your (and my) visa issues in case you are chosen to participate in the programme.
The application should be submitted online by January 11th, 2015, after which it will be screened by 4-5 associates who will focus on skills and competencies according to the recruiter Claire Cumming. After that there will be two short numerical and logical reasoning tests. If you pass the first stage, you will be invited for an interview which can be either at Nomura’s German office or via phone which will include 1 competency interview and one case study. Candidates who succeed in this stage, will then be invited to London for the final round of interviews with senior staff members of the departments from Nomura after which there will be the decision. A hint: at Glassdoor.com, apart from salary and review data, there is also feedback regarding interviews, check them out if you are interested. And one more nice thing about the final interviews is that even if you don’t perform well with one of the interviews from a specific department, it won’t affect the decisions of other departments.
For permanent positions you can also consult with their official web page.
In conclusion – Nomura certainly left a very welcoming impression on the students gathered at the evening and is an excellent option especially for non-German students if not for full-time work in Germany, then for at least a summer internship UK.
Frankfurt School gGmbH
Adickesallee 32-34
60322 Frankfurt am Main
