Ben

In 2019, Ben completed his Master of Laws from Newcastle University. He found his passion for anti-money laundering during his degree and now, after four weeks of Wiley Edge's banking services training, he’s joined the Alumni programme and will start his career at a leading investment bank.

We caught up with Ben to find out about the training he received and how he felt about starting his role. 

What did you learn during our banking services training?  

"The training has provided me with the knowledge I need to go into the job and feel confident.

We were taught the fundamentals of how investment banks and anti-financial crime teams work. I learnt about commodities, stocks and shares, bonds, financial crime, anti-money laundering and fraud. I also learnt more detail about things I only touched upon in my degree, like dividends, which I’ve found really useful.

Another learning has been getting used to working via Zoom. It was very new to me and I found it daunting at first, but now after four weeks of working remotely I feel much more relaxed and confident."

What were your assumptions of the industry and how is it different now?

"I thought that the roles were for people who went to Ivy League colleges or Oxbridge. There’s also the presumption that you’re always going to be working crazy long hours. However, when speaking to the instructors who’ve actually worked in investment banks, they reassured me that’s not the case. Like any other industry, it depends on your workload. During busier times we’ll have to stay longer but at quieter times we finish at a normal time.

Our instructor Samantha brought in quite a few experts to talk to us and everybody I've met provided me with an insight into what it’s really like working in investment banking. It isn't just one type of personality that fits in, I’ve seen that it’s open to everybody.

I like to classify myself as creative so I didn't know whether I’d be the right fit for investment banking but these four weeks of training have settled my nerves."