IT Career Consulting: The IT job market
- by the Editors -
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With information technology (IT) an essential core of most of today's business activities, IT professionals are sought after in a wide variety of industries. Within foreign banks and securities companies in Japan who are taking advantage of the 'Big Bang,' for example, IT professionals are taking an active part in improving service quality and work efficiency. This month, Computing Japan speaks with Gary Schemerhorn, managing director at Goldman Sachs (Japan) Ltd., about IT jobs in financial institutions.
Q: What kind of IT jobs are available at Goldman Sachs? A: We've been expanding our business in Japan and Asia, so we need IT professionals in various areas. In particular, amid the ongoing "Big Bang" in Japan's financial sector, we have been expanding our securities operations, financial services, accounting services, trade settlement, and asset management. Accordingly, we need to expand our technical infrastructure that supports these activities. We have been hiring IT professionals such as UNIX/NT system administrators, programmer analysts, business analysts, project leaders/managers, and database administrators. We also have a need for Web programmers who have superior knowledge of HTML, Java, or other Web-development tools, to help build and improve our intranet, public homepage, and Web-based client service system. We believe the Internet is critical for the future of business computing, so we are putting a lot of emphasis on it now. This year, we plan to hire 15 to 20 newly-graduated IT professionals, and 5 to 10 experienced professionals.
Q:What level of technical skill do you seek in new hires? A: For entry-level people, we prefer strong technical skills, which usually means a degree in computer science or a relevant engineering curriculum. But a particular degree is less important than a strong interest in IT and an aptitude for technology. On the other hand, we expect experienced professionals to have good knowledge of programming languages, such as C and C++, network architecture, client/server systems, and UNIX and NT platforms, as well as the Internet.
Q: How about skills other than technical
expertise? A: We evaluate an applicant's business aptitude and analytical aptitude, such as how well the person understands our corporate activities and needs, and how well the person can help improve our businesses. Since we are an investment bank, even our IT people should know at least the basics of the financial business so they can help people in other sections and improve the corporate IT infrastructure. We ask applicants such very basic questions as "What is the difference between a stock and a bond?" If you say, "I don't really know what that means; what I care about is computers," you may not be the kind of person we are looking for. Good problem-solving skills and common sense are also important. Further, communication skills are critical. You can be the best programmer in the world, but if you cannot communicate well with your fellow programmers, managers, and computer users in the organization, you are not going to be successful. We therefore check whether a candidate is capable of presenting his or her opinion clearly and whether they can share it with others, and also if the candidate possesses good debating skills. And then there is teamwork. After having a good discussion and debate in the team, we get to the point of making a decision. If you fail to convince others with your ideas, and your boss decides to adopt some other plan for the team, you have to respect the boss's decision and cooperate with your boss and other team members to achieve the team's goals. This is teamwork.
Q: Your company is said to spend a long time on the interview process. Why? A: It depends on the position we want to fill, but in general, yes, Goldman Sachs does tend to spend a longer time for interviewing. We might have eight to ten interviews for a candidate before hiring that person. In some parts of the firm people can sometimes do more than 20 interviews! This is part of the culture of this company, and it is common to any of our offices around the world. During the interview process, the candidate meets most of the managers, and if the candidate is interviewing for an IT position, the computer users also. "Computer users" means people in the operations, trading, and sales sections - those who use computers for their jobs and need the help of IT professionals to improve their business performance. These people won't ask the candidate detailed technical questions, because they don't necessarily know IT; instead, they ask business questions or analytical questions or questions to check the candidate's personality or "fit." Only when a candidate can obtain consensus among such interviewers is he or she finally asked to join us. This procedure helps us maintain a good track record. We've been hiring very high quality staff and enjoying the lowest attrition rate among our competitors.
Q: Are IT professionals required to work long hours, from early morning to late night? A: Well, in general, financial industry people tend to work harder than average. It just turns out to be the culture of Wall Street, of the financial industry. But it depends on the project the person is assigned to. If the project is important and has to be completed quickly, we expect our people to work hard to finish it on time.
In rough terms, I'd say most people start work between 830 and 930 a.m. and leave between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. But some people get here at 7 a.m. and leave at 10 p.m. if their assignment requires it. Our resource goals are to stay appropriately staffed so that unreasonable overtime is temporary or kept to a minimum.
Q: How many non-Japanese IT professionals do you have, and what kind of language skills are they required to have?? A: In Japan, we have over 175 employees and consultants in our IT division; among them, roughly 35% are non-Japanese. For IT jobs in our company, Japanese language ability is not strictly necessary since we are a very global firm and some positions do not require it. However, the ideal candidate is bilingual and bicultural.
A: We advise everybody, "Keep an open mind, and be a good listener." We are surrounded by some of the best people and best resources in the world, so sometimes just listening to others can help you solve your problems. Also, "Be patient with your career." It takes time to build sound expertise in the technology or systems design area in which you work, so patience is required. We further advise people to focus on improving their personal skills, and to take a few risks in their careers every now and then.
We consider ourselves a meritocracy. People advance through the value or contributions they offer the firm, not by age, gender, or political maneuvering. It's not exaggerating to say that even a person in their 20s can be on top in this company if they have extraordinary business ideas to make the company profitable and expand business. In fact, we have had a few 27- or 28-year old partners. There is a chance for everybody.
Career consulting is a new column in Computing Japan, in which we will offer advice and guidance to those working in the technology sector. You can also check out job listings for positions in Japan at http://www.computingjapan.com/jobs.html. |
