Mike is driving his own future, as well as the bank’s.

Everyone wants to make a great impression when they start a new job. But getting to grips with your new role while finding your way around a new set of relationships and responsibilities can make it tricky. That can be even harder when you join one of our priority programmes like Mike did. The work is exciting but it’s complex. Fortunately, Mike had already worked with his new team, the Investment Bank’s Debt Strategy team, in his previous role and had the inside scoop on how he could ensure his success.

He’s now a Programme Manager, taking responsibility for the roll out in our new price management system and looking at regulatory issues impacting his team. But that’s not all. For Mike, this is only the beginning. Every day he’s unlocking opportunities to support his colleagues with new and exciting projects.

“The role is quite varied and I’m still defining it. There’s a lot of opportunities so to an extent it’s up to me which areas I want to focus on”, he said.

Mike joined us as a business analyst/project manager from another investment bank in 2014. He worked in product valuations, building up his responsibilities and expanding his role. But after four years he realised it was time for something new.

“It just felt like the right time for a change and a new challenge. I wanted to learn new skills, meet new people again and generally vary what I was doing.”

Sometimes telling your manager you need to take the next step in your career isn’t an option, but here everyone is encouraged to speak honestly about their aspirations. Mike’s manager not only understood, they helped him decide what his next move would be.

“He put me in contact with people in other departments. HR put some talks on for potential movers and I met with an internal mobility consultant and told them what I was looking for.”

For Mike, moving externally was an option but he knew how quickly he could be effective with a network already in place. Because he had worked with his new team before, he knew how he could add value straight away.

“I was a downstream consumer of this team and could see how transformational the work was. I wanted to be a part of it. It’s dynamic, it’s fast-paced, industry-leading change management kind of stuff.”

And now that he’s there? He’s using his portfolio of skills and relevant experience to take on big, exciting work as quickly as possible. He’s already helping roll out a new valuation system across Europe, building strong relationships with regulators to help maintain confidence and utilising his cross-divisional knowledge to keep colleagues updated with what’s happening within the programme.

Mike has made big steps quickly, but he thinks the opportunity is there for anyone.

“It’s a large, global international bank. If you want it and you push for it, there are opportunities throughout the organisation.”