What do you want to be when you grow up? Most of us have great difficulty figuring that one out. But, there’s no reason why women shouldn’t be anything they want these days. More and more women are seeking jobs away from the traditional teaching, nursing and social work careers and branching out into other areas.
Giulia Bianchi is working in an environment which was, until recently, considered to be men’s domain.
For most women the world of life insurance, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and taxes seems almost a frightening prospect although they are rapidly learning that if they want to travel the road to financial security, they had better learn to map the trip themselves.
Giulia is in her twenties, well-spoken and articulate. She moved back to Malta at the beginning of last year and was looking for a job in financial services. Until then she had been working with CSFB (Credit Suisse First Boston) in the UK. She explains how she came by her present job: “A friend of mine mentioned that a trust company had recently moved to Malta and were hiring personnel. She gave me their contact details, I sent in my CV and was called up for an interview.”
Since then Giulia has been working for Bentley Trust Ltd in Malta as a Trust Executive. She explains: “Bentley Trust Ltd is a trust company which forms part of an international personal financial services group. The trust company manages trusts and companies on behalf of private clients advised by the Bentley Reid Group as part of their overall financial planning strategy. My job is to look after the administration of a part of the portfolio of trusts and companies managed by Bentley Trust Ltd.” So what exactly does her work consist of? “I liaise with the tax and financial advisors in the Bentley Reid offices in London and Hong Kong as well as the Directors of Bentley Trust Ltd on a regular basis to do this.”
Giulia believes there are plenty of opportunities for young women in finance. “The two areas of finance that I have worked in are very different. In London, I was working in the financial markets, dealing with large institutions as customers and now I’m working in a business focused on providing solutions for individuals. So they are two very different experiences.” In both cases Giulia has been encouraged by the opportunities available. It is true to say that in the investment banking environment women are in the minority but many banks actively encourage women to apply by having open days and events targetted specifically at female students. When working in London she was often asked to take part in these kind of events. In Malta Giulia works in an office made up mostly of women “so that speaks for itself,” she adds.
“I think it’s important to keep an open mind to the opportunities available when deciding what career to take. It’s not easy to know what’s out there when leaving university – often there only seem to be one or two options available for your degree qualification. This would be the case of course for professions such as law or medicine, but in other cases it’s worth exploring the different options and it’s very worthwhile speaking to people who have recently had to take the same decisions and are now working. Even within one area of interest, such as finance, there are so many different types of jobs each with different requirements and areas of focus as I’ve learnt from my own experience.” Giulia believes that abroad, banks are also very open minded to the type of degree subject studied at university. Often, people with non-financial degrees are offered jobs in banking – this is because they have formal training programmes for people leaving university so although a financial degree often helps and provides an advantage, someone who comes out of university with a degree in English or the sciences for example has just as a good chance if they show sufficient potential and interest in that career, such as having done some work experience as a student, for example.”
Her advice? “Explore your options, be open minded and don’t be afraid to take hold of opportunities that come your way even if they are a bit unfamiliar or not what you were looking for in the first place,” she encourages. “In the end, I think that gender is not the important issue, it’s more about showing the confidence and determination to do well in whatever career you take.”
What type of education has Giulia had? “Well, my education was mainly based in the UK having done my secondary education at an English boarding school and my university degree at Oxford. I chose economics and management as my degree subject mainly because I thought that it would give me the most flexibility in career choice and it was also a subject I thought I would find interesting to study.”
She recalls that while at Oxford, investment banking was the sort of job that was talked highly of and banks were constantly organising events in Oxford to encourage people to apply. “I knew that I wanted to find myself in an international environment when I left university, and if possible in a job where I could challenge myself a little and gain lots of experience in an active environment. Banking seemed to offer that opportunity, my degree had also served to increase my interest in the financial world...and of course I was also attracted by the idea of working in London and experiencing ‘city
life’.”
So after university Giulia went back to London and started applying for undergraduate jobs at investment banks.
“I was lucky enough to be offered a job with an international investment bank working in the bond markets and it all started off from there...”