Securities Times reporter Li Xuefeng

Intern Yulin Huang

"Golden three silver four", March and April of each year is a popular window period for enterprise recruitment. However, the reporter found that this year's bank talent market came earlier than in previous years, such as Ping An Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank in mid-February to open spring recruitment, China Merchants Bank set up a "winter recruitment session" to attract talents, and continued to release recruitment information in December last year and January this year.

"We all say that this year's spring recruitment season is the 'busiest spring recruitment season'!" The relevant person in charge of the Recruitment and Employment Office of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics told reporters that this year's spring recruitment is the first open recruitment season after the end of the epidemic, and there is strong demand for recruitment of various parties such as financial institutions and government units.

After combing through the spring recruitment information of 6 large state-owned banks and 12 joint-stock banks (excluding subsidiaries), the reporter found that the banking institutions recruited on the spring campus were mainly domestic branches, and the recruitment scope covered various positions such as management trainees, marketing, and information technology, among which financial technology talents were still popular targets for banks to recruit.

The ratio of reports is 100:1

"Bank fever" swept through school recruitment

"The class of 2023 will have 1158.3 million college graduates." At a press conference held by the State Council's new office in early March, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping introduced that with the overall improvement of economic operation, the employment situation will continue to warm up this year and maintain overall stability, but the structural contradiction of difficulty in recruiting workers and difficulty in employment is still prominent.

At a time when the cold wave of employment difficulties is coming, the banking industry is contributing to "stable employment". Taking the campus spring recruitment of state-owned banks as an example, the Agricultural Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have released more than 4000,4 jobs, and the Bank of China and the Construction Bank also have more than 3,<> recruitment positions, and the total number of jobs provided by these four state-owned banks exceeds <>,<>. The relevant person in charge of a university employment center in East China said that in the many financial job search sessions opened by the school, "each bank accounted for the lion's share".

"The overall reporting ratio is about 100:1." An employee in charge of recruitment at a stock bank revealed to reporters that the bank was indeed very popular in this year's campus recruitment. In order to do a more efficient job in recruitment, the bank has also temporarily trained a group of recruiters internally to screen and review candidates' resumes.

Attracted by the large number of recruitment positions and a wide range of types, banks are becoming the first choice for many fresh graduates to find jobs. Ms. Li, a fresh graduate of the Central University of Finance and Economics, told reporters that she applied for positions in a number of banks in the autumn recruitment last year and this spring recruitment. In addition to competitive salaries and systematic training programs, Ms. Li regards the ability to "resist risks" as an important criterion for job search considerations - "As a pillar industry in the financial industry, banks are prudent in their development and more resistant to risks. ”

"Spring recruitment coincides with the optimization of epidemic control measures, and the economic recovery has increased the demand for jobs in various enterprises to a certain extent." Some college teachers told reporters that although the overall scale of spring campus recruitment is usually smaller than that of autumn, this year's spring recruitment positions are quite high, and many students have received satisfactory bank job offers.

Compete for "fragrant food"

Banks have their own tricks

In this year's spring recruitment, fintech talents are still the "sweet potato" of the job market. The reporter combed and found that more than two-thirds of the 6 state-owned banks and 12 joint-stock banks posted fintech-related positions in the spring recruitment.

With the deepening of the digital transformation of banks, the rapid increase of compound talents who "understand both finance and technology" has become inevitable. This trend is also reflected in the optimization of the personnel structure of many banks in 2022. Bank of Communications and Industrial Bank have specifically indicated the investment of talents and funds in the field of financial technology in their 2022 performance reports.

Bank of Communications' 2022 annual report shows that driven by the bank's "Fintech 70,30 Talents Program", the number of fintech personnel in the bank has increased by nearly 7% compared with three years ago, and the average annual growth rate of technology investment in the past three years has been close to 6%. Among the 2022 head office positions released by the bank's spring recruitment, <> are under the Fintech Department and the Digital Transformation Office, covering different directions such as IT, data management, and software development. Industrial Bank doubled its investment in technology and technology talents in <>, and the bank also released a number of fintech-related positions in this year's spring campus recruitment.

In order to target fintech talent, banks have made their own moves. A number of banks have set up special recruitment plans for fintech talents, such as Minsheng Bank's "Minxin" Fintech Talent Program, ICBC's "Technology Elite" positions, etc., focusing on perfect training plans and career development paths.

In addition, talent acquisition is becoming more and more forward-looking. The spring recruitment has not yet ended, and all walks of life have been in full swing to carry out fintech talent training camps and summer internship recruitment. Recently, China Merchants Bank held the opening ceremony of the 7th Quarter FinTech Training Camp. Qi Xiangyu, General Manager of Human Resources Department of China Merchants Bank, said at the ceremony that the FinTech training camp is a great tool for China Merchants Bank to consolidate the core competitiveness of scientific and technological talents.

A student of Shanghai Jiao Tong University who signed up for the China Merchants Bank FinTech training camp told reporters that joining the financial technology training camp, on the one hand, hopes to gain more professional practical experience, on the other hand, he hopes to win a "pre-approved offer" through the training camp.

It is worth noting that urban commercial banks and rural commercial banks in various places are also accelerating the construction of financial technology talents, and the campus spring recruitment of many regional banks such as Bank of Qingdao and Bank of Chengdu has released financial technology positions. The relevant person in charge of the admissions and employment office of the above-mentioned Shanghai University of Finance and Economics also confirmed to reporters that in this year's job fair, the demand for financial technology talents in urban commercial banks and rural commercial banks has increased compared with last year.

Digital transformation accelerates

Optimize the training of fintech talents

Since 2017, 85 domestic universities have filed with the Ministry of Education and obtained approval to set up financial technology majors.

"There is still a big gap in the supply of fintech talents in China." Zhang Kai, dean of the School of Financial Science and Technology of Shenzhen University, said in an interview with reporters that although attaching importance to the cultivation of financial technology talents has become the consensus of financial institutions, talent training requires a certain cycle, and the current talent supply cannot fully match market demand.

"Young fintech talents want to be able to apply and improve what they have learned in their work." Zhang Kai said that the banking industry is at the forefront of financial technology transformation, and the financial business is highly comprehensive and large, which is an excellent place for relevant talents. As a result, nearly half of the graduates of the program go on to work in banking every year.

It is understood that after fresh fintech talents enter the bank, they will generally be diverted to three types of positions: product manager, data governance and back-office research and development. In addition to data management and product development at the operational level, many banks have begun to create differentiated development routes such as fintech empowered retail finance, inclusive finance, and green finance.

"Last year, we refined the direction of professional talent training on the basis of the original." Zhang Kai said that according to the extension of the application field of financial technology, the path of campus talent training also needs to be optimized and adjusted. In addition to the original comprehensive financial technology major, the School of Financial Science and Technology of Shenzhen University has newly opened three major directions, including financial system and product development, big data management and application, and blockchain information management and information system, which correspond to the different business needs of the front office, middle office and back office of bank financial technology. (Securities Times)