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Charles Aponso
Charles Aponso
"I started out in September 2006 with a comprehensive four week classroom based training program specifically designed for Nomura investment banking graduate trainees. The training took place in London and comprised different courses such as accounting principles, advanced accounting, M&A accounting, investment banking products, financial modelling and presentation skills. The Nomura graduate training programme is unique to most of its peers in two ways. First, each graduate is assigned a "mentor" (typically an associate or a vice president) during their first year to assist with their career development and help learn the ropes to get up-to speed on your day-to-day job. In addition a mentor also typically sets aside at least an hour per week to answer any questions you have regarding your role as a junior banker. These Q&A sessions could range from questions relating to valuation to market related questions to more personal questions such as which gym you should join with your corporate entitlement, or which bar serves the best cocktails on a Saturday night! Your mentor oversees your professional and personal development. They genuinely care about the work experience of their analysts and spend a lot of time ensuring that correct steps are taken to strengthen their development. From my personal experience, your mentor accounts for a lot of your success and job satisfaction during your first year. Second, Nomura's graduate training programme is rotational. You rotate through at least two different teams catering completely different regions and industries. This helps new entrants to the industry gain a better understanding of different market/sector dynamics, working in diverse team cultures and gaining exposure to different investment banking products at a very early stage in your career. I started off at the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) desk, which covered varying industries across fourteen countries. During my first six months with the CEE team, my job role involved company profiling, financial modelling, valuation, preparing market and sector updates, tracking the region's news floor to assist origination, attending conference calls with clients and liaising with other business groups such as equity capital markets and the integrated finance group, especially during live transactions. After six months with the CEE team I was rotated to the general industrials team, where I am currently located. Although my role is almost the same to what it was at my previous desk, we cater to different markets in different regions. At Nomura you can expect a lot of responsibility from a very early stage. For example, I was directly involved in one of the largest insurance sector privatisations in the CEE region and one of the largest global pharmaceutical sector transactions during my first four months. While at most of the other banks your responsibilities will be limited to certain areas in a transaction (e.g. valuation or market overview), at Nomura, you would be involved in different parts of the transaction, thereby have more responsibility and consequently gain more experience. The working hours are quite reasonable; there is a good balance between work and social life. However, when tight deadlines arise, you can expect the long hours, and even the occasional weekend. The people on the floor are friendly and courteous, and the seniors are quite approachable. Everybody on our floor be it an analyst or a managing director is personable, professional, sincere, dedicated and intelligent. They always take the time to answer your questions. It is fair to sayall individuals on all levels on our floor are more or less my mentors. My advice to incoming graduates is to research the industry and be aware of the commitment and dedication required to succeed in this job. Be sure that your motivations are correct and that you know what you are getting into. An analyst's job is extremely demanding and requires hard work and the right attitude. At the beginning of your career, be prepared to take on a lot of responsibility and complete the tasks assigned to you, with passion and interest as this is the only way you will learn and gain the trust of your seniors and peers. Investment banking is an extremely rewarding career, but also probably the most challenging!" Click here for more information on learning and development .
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