US bank taps experience as vital quality

JP Morgan is banking on experience and diversity of thought as a vital quality in its potential employees as the US bank seeks to tap China’s continuing liberalization of its financial sector.

The investment bank targets a 63 percent rise in the number of students to be recruited for roles located in China this year, compared with that of 2014 when it first launched a China-based analyst program for campus recruits.

The US lender yesterday launched its first careers pop-up campaign called All Minds Wanted to encourage students from all disciplines, not just finance and business, to join the bank at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, which attracted over 200 students. The event enables students to interact with the bank’s executives in a less formal environment to encourage a more relaxed interaction between the parties.

The bank draws, on average, around 30,000 applications for its graduate and internship positions in Asia Pacific. It employs 1,000 students as full-time analysts and interns each year.

In the past year the bank saw 39 percent of its campus recruits coming from a background outside of finance, accounting and business in Asia Pacific excluding India. In China, 28 percent of campus recruits in 2017 were from majors such as mathematics, human resources, public affairs, energy management, English literature, and psychology.