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Ben Packman
Ben Packman
Ben studied finance at Loughborough University and it was there he discovered his passion for crunching numbers. He joined Nomura because he felt that unlike some of the larger banks, Nomura assigned 'real jobs' for grads. "I joined the graduate programme in January instead of the usual intake in September, so I guess my story isn't a typical one. The scheme began with a few weeks of product training followed by a team building offsite after which we were allocated our first role. Unlike some of the larger banks, Nomura assigns 'real jobs' for grads so you feel like you're are contributing from day one. Finance at Nomura isn't a large department by comparison, and because of its rotation scheme I was soon exposed to other areas of the business. Grads at Nomura tend to have a pretty good social life outside of work. One of the projects set as part of the scheme is to organise a charity event. We organised an 'It's a Knockout' style day with participants from all over the city which was really good fun. Nomura hosts a wide range of social sports teams including football, rugby, golf, cricket and netball to name but a few, so there are lots of opportunities to get involved and meet people across the business. Nomura place a very high value on training and development, and not only are there excellent in-house courses to attend, but you'll find all the support you need to complete any relevant professional qualifications. There are many different roles and opportunities available at Nomura, even within each division. I have been lucky enough to have experienced a variety of these during my relatively short time here and each one of them has added something to my skill set. My first placement was with the treasury desk which provided me with a good overview of Nomura as a whole. After nine months in this team I rotated to management information systems (MIS) reporting where I was given a great deal of responsibility from the offset. In this position I had exposure to some of the most senior people in the business which was a great opportunity and enabled me to network. I spent a total of ten months in MIS and learnt a lot about the structure of Nomura as well as a great deal about its direction and strategy. After my time in MIS I joined new products. I had very little product or project knowledge when I started in this area and had to learn quickly but I worked hard and this got me through. I had to liaise with a wide range of departments across Nomura in order to ensure new trades were approved within deadlines. I learnt about other back office functions outside of finance and gained a higher level of product knowledge. Whilst in the new products team, the opportunity arose to manage the equity product control team. This was my first management role and my first experience of Product Control so I was thrown in at the deep end. The fact that Nomura prefer to promote from within is definitely a plus. If you work hard and take opportunities to learn, the sky is the limit. I have now got to grips with the role, but have recently moved across to manage the credit derivatives team, also in product control so the learning starts again! My short term goals are to quickly get up to speed with my new role and try and support my team. In the longer term, I'm happy in finance. I like the people and like the job so I'm looking forward to the long steady climb to CFO!" Click here for more information on learning and development .
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