Career Pathway for Risk Management Role

Uncleroger on 21/12/2022 - 17:54

Hi Fellow Ozbargainer,
Need some expert advice to transition in Risk and Control roles.

I'm currently working in one of the BIG 4 banks in a Senior Specialist role for a high profile remediation project. I have a good relationship people leader and other PL's in my wider team, getting decent pay and recognition for my work. I have been in remediation space from last 6 years (advice and banking remediation) and worked on various projects. I'm now looking for a change in roles and want to learning something new and looking for pay hike.

Came across quite a few roles in "risk and controls" internally, but most of the roles required min of 2-3 years of experience in risk management, although I have worked in remediation space and have strong compliance experience I have not been involved in risk managed or controls and monitoring. Just to test the waters, I applied for a Risk Manager role and got through the last round of interview only to be unsuccessful as other candidates had stronger experience in risk and controls space. I had the intuition that I will not get the role, and if I get the role it will be a miracle given the limited exposure. TBH I do see myself in that role and want to work towards it.

After researching I can see that there course such as (GARP - FFR or FRM certification) which can give boost to my resume as well help me get my basics strong. Should I take this path and learn more about the fundamentals of risk management get certified and then apply for roles? Or shall I reach to peers how are already working in risk space and seek guidance and have mentoring sessions?

I'm at a point in my career where I would love to learn new skills, and open to certification courses. Don't want to study any diploma's or bachelors as I have got my master's degree done and have no desire to go to Uni.

Any risk management professionals or anyone who has transitioned to different domain can share some expertise?

Education & Work

Comments

  • SF3 on 21/12/2022 - 18:16

    got through last round of interview only to be unsuccessful as other candidates had stronger experience in risk and controls space

    Sound like they are risk averse.

    Since they are internally roles, why not approach the hiring managers, in terms of what they are looking for and build ties with them so that could get a clear path to your desire direction.

    • Uncleroger on 21/12/2022 - 18:43

      Yes, they wanted someone who can hit the ground running. Not really interested in training that was the sense I got from them.

      That is my next step, will reach out to one of the hiring managers and see what they have to say.

  • Vulgar on 21/12/2022 - 19:25

    As someone who works in credit risk, it's pretty easy to get a gig. Given your experience you may qualify for a senior analyst. If you're truly competent, you'll get promoted to manager pretty quickly, I managed it in 5 months (due to high turnover in my team). This is all assuming you can code in SAS and SQL.

    • Uncleroger on 21/12/2022 - 19:28

      Thanks for the input mate. With regards to SAS and SQL I have no experience nor I can code. Do you reckon it would be beneficial if I learn SQL or just focus on FRM?

      • Vulgar on 21/12/2022 - 19:33
        +1

        If you can't code, you can only apply for analyst roles (one rank below senior analyst). It is beneficial to learn both the basics of SAS and SQL. You don't need particularly advanced knowledge, just how to extract and merge tables to do basic analysis. From what I can tell, both languages are used by CBA, Westpac, NAB and HSBC.

        This only applies to what I've experienced in credit risk. The other risk departments (market risk, operational risk) may differ.

        • Uncleroger on 21/12/2022 - 19:37

          will definitely look into it, the roles I'm eyeing are operational risk.

        • chickenchipsgravy on 21/12/2022 - 20:12

          Out of interest, why would credit analysis (or any other bank risk mitigation role) require sql/sas or other coding skills?

          • Vulgar on 21/12/2022 - 20:19

            @chickenchipsgravy: Just to be clear I'm referring to line 1 and 2 roles, which deal with creating the policy surrounding loan and credit card applications in addition to hardship and collections. These roles are not the ones that confirm people's income and documentation to process their application.

            These roles definitely need coding skills to make the correct judgements on how to decide our policy e.g. which income level, credit score or other factor to use to decide which applicants to accept.

            • chickenchipsgravy on 21/12/2022 - 21:09

              @Vulgar: fair enough, I certainly would not have thought policy, wholesale risk & exposure determination specific to LGD/PD/EAD and other factors were 1LOD.

  • Unorthodox on 21/12/2022 - 21:40

    Remediation and GRC (along with being in financial services) was very relevant post-RC and still somewhat now.

    I would sacrifice 6-12 months and go to one of the Big4 accounting/consulting firms in their Risk Advisory team (Financial services) - arguably you will take a pay cut but you will very quickly broaden your risk knowledge, have certifications paid for and work with essentially all the big banks, reg bodies like APRA etc and easily move back at a higher level.

    A consultant/senior consultant in risk in one of the Big4 can easily move to Manager roles at one of the big banks and make Senior Manager in 2 or fewer years. (Many of my circle have taken a similar route).

    • netjock on 21/12/2022 - 22:51
      +2

      Big4 accounting/consulting firms

      Gets you into the secret club. A guarantee you have been abused and know how to abuse. Will also be really anal about naming conventions, Excel spreadsheets and powerpoints. Willingness to sign off big invoices paying $1k a day for grads doing "work" because you want one you need to hire the whole team.

      Partners, managers, consultants when consultants is ones who do all the work and the others just get access so they can wonder around and pitch for more work while charging you for it.

      I love telling the story about a big global bank where the strategy team is all ex McKinsey. They hire Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to do a cost out plan. Then hand that plan to Accenture to execute. When Accenture can't complete the projects on budget with cost reductions per BCG. They decide to hire Deloitte to "close the gap"

      Maybe they should have paid on credit card and did a charge back?

      • Uncleroger on 22/12/2022 - 09:52
        +1

        Thanks for the suggestion, although it makes sense to join a Big4 accounting/consulting firm, but I have reservations when it comes to Big 4 consulting firms. My partner works a Senior Con and is severely underpaid for the amount of quality work she puts in, frequent change in engagements and massive amount of pressure from clients. Although I agree she has learnt a lot in the last 2 year but even she has recommended not to take this path.

        • netjock on 22/12/2022 - 09:59
          +1

          My partner works a Senior Con and is severely underpaid for the amount of quality work she puts in

          That is how partners at those firms are only like $500k+ they prey on people who wants to get the name on their CV.

          The level of group think from ex Big4 consulting firms is crazy. If you look at all the entrepreneurs, how many of them are ex Big4? Not many and if they are it is way far in the rear view mirror.

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