GECD Structuring Capital Markets chez BNP Paribas

GECD Structuring Capital Markets at BNP Paribas

My name is Xiaying Xang, I studied at San Diego State University. I joined BNP Paribas back in 2008. I work currently at the Structuring team in the Hong Kong office. What I do in layman’s terms is for example if you walk into a bank and then your banker is introducing you to several products that you can purchase for your own account. My job is particularly focused on how we structure these types of products, at which kind of price you can buy them from and which kind of access they give you to different markets around the world. The markets that we’re focused on are mainly Asian countries and obviously those products can give you exposure to either the Asian markets or actually European, African, Latin America…it’s all around the world.

From the very beginning when you first join the bank, it’s very difficult the transition from school to a work environment and there’s things you know back in school that are perhaps not that useful to you anymore. Once you start learning from people and once you start receiving training, then you are actually able to talk to people around you in a more technical and more professional way.

“ - As you can see here, I have a very fancy telephone machine; in fact you can pick up several lines at the same time and do conference calls and stuff. Usually we have two panels for the computer, so you can work if you have different things that you need to compare. We still have some fun stuff. It’s just funny toys that we use to relax and hit people with when the time comes around. But as you can see here, there’s a little mirror. We’re usually, you know… sometimes we’re on the phone or we’re really focused at work so, if somebody walks behind us and asks us a question, we can quickly see who that person is.”

What I find in my role very appealing is the fact that my job is not monotonous, it’s not routine, on a daily basis I have to solve issues that I’ve never seen before and so it’s not boring at all. And what I like about the culture at BNP Paribas is that it doesn’t really have much hierarchy, so your manager, your line manager, might well sit next to you and when you have a question it’s a very open environment, when you can just direct the question to him or to anyone around you.

BNP Paribas is about collaboration, about teamwork, about diversity, but most importantly it’s somewhere that can give you the opportunity to fully realise your potential.