The global financial services industry is becoming increasingly complex and interconnected, such that simply having the best people, service and technology are no longer enough. The industry is going through significant disruption and strong collaboration will be key to unlocking the potential of your employees and your business. No one knows this better than global business and financial information and news leader, Bloomberg.

While the company is always on the lookout for new recruits, it is currently trying to grow its core financial products and data business in Asia. This means looking for the best and brightest candidates to fill roles in a number of departments that support users of the Bloomberg Terminal service.

“Financial markets are highly competitive, extremely fast-paced, and ever changing,” says Manju Sakhrani, analytics manager for Asia-Pacific, Bloomberg. “Our mission is to help our clients make smarter and faster decisions. We strive to help our clients stay on top of valuable information and to maintain that critical edge in their investment decisions, using the best data and technology; to do so, we need the best talent to support them.”

The company’s mainstay is to connect influential decision makers, such as those from leading banks, corporations, central banks, financial institutions and universities to a dynamic network of information through the Bloomberg Terminal Service - a dynamic and powerful technology platform that provides real-time financial data, news and analytics to approximately 325,000 subscribers worldwide. Being able to provide the fastest, most accurate news and data analytics is therefore critical for the business and its clients who have to make important investment and business decisions.

“And all this requires the brightest minds, providing the quality of support our clients deserve,” Sakhrani says.

Asia continues to be one of the company’s strongest growth regions; the company has been expanding aggressively as client demands increase, especially from Greater China, ASEAN countries and India. Not only has the company been working hard to localise its products and solutions to cater to various local market conventions, it has also been broadening its business into the enterprise space, enhancing its coverage in fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities, as well as focusing on next-generation technology to enhance its financial product offering.

Given all these pressures, the company is prioritising hiring in its core financial products and data businesses in Asia.

“The forefront of our growth is our Market Data,

Analytics and Sales departments; they each serve to provide best-in-class service and specialised support to a growing, diverse client base across Asia,” Sakhrani says.

She explains that a career within financial products at Bloomberg is defined by the challenge and reward of building strong client relationships and growing the business, while market data analysts in the Global Data business would play a key role in developing financial content, algorithms, research notes and analyses for the Bloomberg Terminal service.

“Data analysts are also expected to solve complex issues for clients, while building relationships with key market players in the financial industry,” she adds.

Sakhrani stresses that the company is not looking for graduates from a particular discipline for the financial products roles, but candidates must have a strong passion for finance, as well as the desire and flexibility to learn and grow in a fast-paced environment. The same goes for the market data analyst role, but with an added requirement of having an interest in technology and programming skills, in order to take ownership and identify ways that processes can be improved.

“At Bloomberg, we are looking for motivated and determined individuals to drive our future success,”

Sakhrani says. “Our people come from a diverse range of backgrounds, with the common denominators being passion for finance, client service and sales, and being an effective communicator.”

As such, the company emphasises that soft skills are more important, because extensive training will be provided. For the financial products analytics team, newcomers will start off on a comprehensive training programme that is designed to develop their product, market and financial-asset class knowledge. The

Global Data Training Programme consists of a four-week long training course, which includes financial concepts, data, and the functions of the Bloomberg Terminal service. New joiners in this department will also get the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in one of the following asset classes: equities, fixed income or derivatives.

Those who are looking to grow their careers can expect Bloomberg to be an employer of choice, with more than 19,000 employees in 192 locations worldwide. Sakhrani says that the company provides a nurturing global work culture, which means that employees can have many career possibilities within the company across different departments, specialties and business areas.

“The industry is constantly evolving so those people who succeed need to have bold new ideas, possess the ability to execute quickly, work hard and collaborate across departments, sectors and geographies,” says Sakhrani.

Of course, the company also values other skills such as creative thinking, problem-solving, tech-savviness and financial market knowledge.

“Those who excel can bring this all together and make a mark at the company and even the industry,” Sakhrani says.

The biggest challenge that many newcomers face when joining Bloomberg is their lack of financial knowledge, but this is not an obstacle and it should not deter applicants.

“We consider attitude and personality more important than how knowledgeable you are,” says Nate Yen, an analytics representative who works in the Analytics department. He was a psychology graduate from the University of Hong Kong when he applied to Bloomberg. “I was struggling between working in a psychology-related field or another industry, and I made up my mind to apply for a role in financial industry because I was attracted by the impact of finance on the world.”

Jojo Li, who works as a market data analyst in the Global Data department, echoes these sentiments: “Honestly, I wasn’t so familiar with the industry before I joined but a curiosity in such a data-driven world caught my attention and instilled in me a passion for this role.”

Li, a Chinese University graduate who studied risk management science says that having a proactive attitude and the ability to communicate with different people is the most important thing.

Looking at her own role, she says the role of analyst is about more than just processing data, but a large part of it is also about hunting down data sets, but also collaborating with other departments and teams to search for new opportunities.

“So you are like a chef trying to conjure up delicious dishes with material which can look ordinary and simple,” she says.

While Bloomberg provides sufficient training to get the job done, both trainees agree that the best part about working at Bloomberg is the people and the company’s excellent mentorship programme.

Li says she is fortunate to be working under two mentors.

“It’s been invaluable for me to talk to them,” she says. “Not only do they provide me with professional advice on my career development but also offer useful tips in terms of the personal skills

I have built up, equipping me with a lot more motivation and confidence to move on.”

Yen says that his mentor has even gone a step further to guide him on how to cope with technical challenges.

“He absolutely understands and guides me all the way.”

So for anyone interested to join the company, the trainees have some advice. “You need to grasp the power of data and find answers to complicated questions,” says Li.

But also, “Be yourself, because ultimately we are looking for people who can work well with our team”, says Yen.