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The millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 2000, are the new force that will shape the world of work over the years to come. The Generation Y tech-savvy warriors of the digital age are the new emerging workforce that will enter the financial world. The Wall Street was the cul-de-sac of a powerful contingent of investment bankers. Until a decade ago, for young students from Asia and Africa, walking down Wall Street with a cup of Starbucks coffee in hand to a plush office of an investment bank seemed a dream come true. However, globalization seems to have disassembled this construct with many more financial capitals emerging across the world. In a reversal of decades of established trends, in the world of the stock market, Singapore is emerging as one of the most attractive destinations for millennials after London and New York. Home to 1,200 financial institutions, the CBD on Marina Bay in the Lion City is fast replacing images of tall skyscrapers dotting the skyline of New York’s Wall Street and London’s Canary Wharf.
What do the millennials seek?
A lot has been written about how the enigmatic millennial cohort is different from the earlier generation. The most dramatic differences relate to workplace aspirations and habits of the millennials. A Business News Daily report states that millennials seek work-life balance above everything else and they want the workplace to be fun. They see work and life as closely intertwined. Quoting a FlexJobs Survey, Forbes states that more millennials want to work abroad and are ready to start afresh in a new country. The survey states that 70% of millennials want to work overseas because they like to travel and 40% of millennials want to live abroad.
These statistics fit in well with the mindset of this demographic cohort. The preference for overseas jobs is underpinned by a desire for better quality of life, career progression, lifestyle changes, and wanderlust. The preference for financial careers, which encompasses all these factors, is not intriguing either. Historically, the financial services sector has been associated with high stakes and high pressure that come with high salaries and bonuses. For millennials who seek challenge and adventure, a financial career is the right recipe for a good lifestyle.
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The choice of a financial career by millennials is also a reflection of the emergence of global financial hubs providing increasing career opportunities. In the past, New York and London were the financial centers of the world. However, with the bulge bracket banks outsourcing a number of their important functions to cut costs, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Mumbai emerged as centers with burgeoning growth potential. Further, with a number of mutual funds setting up offices in these cities to capture the pie of the emerging markets, wealth management has become a lucrative job profile. Many banking, brokerage, and accounting firms are moving top-level executives to international locations.
Even employers are keen to recruit millennials
For the millennials, the time is ripe and the opportunity is attractive. Nevertheless, it is not just the millennials who are seeking financial careers. The employers are equally keen to attract this demographic. They are making efforts to understand what motivates millennials and how they perceive their employers and colleagues. Some big financial services leaders in Singapore say they are preparing for the challenges and are recalibrating their recruitment practices to attract high-caliber millennials.