Last week, Christian, Raju, Abigail and Daria from Mizuho International PLC, a leading Japanese Investment Bank, came to talk to the Sixth Form for the last Wollstonecraft lecture of the Spring Term. To begin, they explained how bond trading and investments work and informed us about how their bank operates and its foundations. After giving us a basic understanding of the concept of trading, they began to tell us about their individual jobs and particular traits one might have to fulfil the job expectations.

Raju and Daria explained the pros and cons of working on a sales desk and told us how diplomatic and understanding they have to be in order to not lose the investor or the client. Then, Christian described life at the trading desk and how you do not need to be a maths whizz to do the job successfully, explaining that you just need to be driven and passionate about your work. They also spoke about women in the workplace and how there are less than 10% of women working in the trading sector of the bank. They explained that there really is no reason why it should be like this and encouraged us to consider working in this sector.

After giving us an account of how they themselves entered this career path, they gave us advice on how to climb up the employment ladder; work experience. Finally, they opened the floor to questions and girls in the Sixth Form posed very interesting questions around the ethical side of trading and the consequences for the banking industry after Brexit. Finishing their lecture, they kindly offered work experience to our Sixth Form students and handed out contact details and goody bags which were much appreciated!

Nadia Neffar, Y13, Sixth Form