Since his appointment as an Analyst Developer in 2010, the Imperial College EMBA has risen through the rankings with a swift pace. Three years on, and he has been promoted to Vice President.
It is hard to imagine that someone who has achieved such success in the recruitment process with a global investment giant would have any jitters at the thought of the jobs market.
But Simon once feared for his career. He was, in truth, lucky to survive a cull while a young Developer at Lehman Brothers. Fresh out of a degree at Kings College London, Simon had been working as a Junior Developer for a year at the former Financial Services firm in 2007. At the time, it was the fourth largest investment bank in the US. Flash forward to 2008 and it was bankrupt.
The company was purchased by Nomura Holdings, Japan’s top brokerage firm, for a meagre $225M. Redundancies swiftly ensued. “I had a lot of denial in my mind,” Simon says. “I was fortunate because a lot of employees had been there for their whole careers, whereas what I was going through was only for a year.
“I thought if I lost my job, its bad, but it’s something I could recover from. I was a bit naïve maybe. You don’t realise what the implications are until in hindsight.”
In hindsight, no such drama was needed. Simon transitioned from Lehman Brothers to Nomura and worked as a Java Developer for another year. Although he oozed initiative, creating and implementing the design of front-end generic components, the role lacked “opportunity to learn” and had less room for growth.
I wonder if he is constrained by the boundaries of company culture. He worked as a freelance web developer alongside his degree at university. Did he find it difficult to build a career in the tech industry self-employed? “It was just something I did on the side,” Simon says.
“Most of my clients were friends or my friends of my family. I always wanted to join a bigger company.”
He could not get much bigger than Goldman Sachs: the company currently employees over 31,000 people in, among other roles, investment banking, asset management and mutual funds. While most MBAs would seek a job in Finance at a firm like Goldman’s, Simon is firmly a technologist; one equipped with a Master’s degree in Computer Games Technology from City University, London.
Simon says the recruitment process at Goldmans was rigorous. “It was a fun process although it was very rigorous, as you’d expect,” he said. “I had to try to demonstrate initiative even though I didn’t know much about Finance.
“If you demonstrate that you’re taking steps to learn that, it pays dividends. So I think they hired me for my potential.
“When it came to my dissertation at City, I realised that up until that point my technology knowledge was holding me back. However, I then realised I had a tool box without knowing how to use it.
“Goldmans was extremely supportive about my passion for learning."
With two degrees (including a Master’s) and a job at Goldmans Sachs, before evening beginning an MBA program, you can certainly see why. It is some achievement.
People have been backing Simon’s potential all his life. While studying a BScA at King’s College in 2003, he was sponsored by BBC Technology (later called SBS Media) for his entire degree. They were so impressed that they asked him to come back for a ten week placement in the summers of 2004 and 2005.
Before working at Lehman Brothers, he landed a graduate development role with British Telecommunications and honed his skills working with Java, CVS and Velocity templates.
Simon has been in work all throughout his studies. So why decide, now, to study an EMBA at Imperial? “I felt this would be something to round my skill set,” he explained. “When I began looking at programs, a lot of EMBAs kicked off in January and I had very little time to apply.
“When I looked at Imperial, I went to a sample lecture and it felt like home. The things that they stand for are very close to my heart and everyone feels like family. I immediately signed up after that evening. I was entranced.”
Simon says the EMBA has taught him like a “business tapas” and that it “changes the way you think” about tackling problems, while opening him up to other opportunities at Goldmans.
Simon now tries to help aspiring tech developers by working with the King's College London campus recruitment team. He hopes to increase awareness of careers at Goldmans and to find people who are interested in jobs there. It would be hard to find people who aren’t.
The EMBA at Imperial lets Simon balance work as a VP at the investment firm with a two-year program of learning. He is in no doubt that it has broadened his knowledge. Does he want to stay with the firm once he graduates? “For the foreseeable future, definitely,” he said. “I love Goldman’s and I’ve found a home that I feel very attached to.”
For an MBA (or EMBA), a career in the tech industry has plenty of opportunity. To find out how technology can benefit MBAs and for more news and features stories, see this section.
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