Experience of working in the city in Equities-Trading/Broking/Sales and looking to go back to work in a job share role-anyone!??

[ahallam]

I am thinking about going back to work after Baby No. 2 (May). I spent 12 years building up a pretty good career in the city working for various brokers/banks.I did try and return to work after Baby No.1 but my flexible working agreement was turned down and I had no choice but to leave quietly. I think I am still in shock at the complete lack of flexibility and compromise for women in such large Global organisations especially as so much time is spent promoting diversity for women in the workplace!

If anyone has any similar working experience to mine and would like to go back to work on a part-time/flexible basis possibly in a job share role then I would love to hear from you. I have been looking and speaking to recruitment companies in the city but as expected part-time/flexible roles are unheard of in the Equities/Investment Banking world. If I could look at full time roles and 'sell the benefit of jobsharing' within that role then it would be a good start.

Just to hear of anyones similar experiences of finding part-time/flexible work in professional industries would also be beneficial!

Can't really offer any job share experience in the city.
I am just about to return to the city (am a fund manager) after my 3rd mat leave in 4 years (yep they really love me) and have been in that world for 16 years. Sadly most of the women I know in similar positions have come back to work for a while after baby and then given up a year or so.
It's a sad fact that it is still not very working mum friendly and it has been a real struggle for me at times to deal with some of the attitudes.
I really hope you manage to find something as it is such a shame the city loses talent!

Isn't the problem at the moment that at the moment you would be a candidate looking for a 4 day week in an area of work where other candidates are likely to have recently been made redundant from similar jobs and ready and willing to work all the hours necessary to do the same position? Also I find that many companies recruit on a headcount basis so it is much harder to get approval to recruit say 2 x 4 day week AVPs than to get approval to hire 1 FT director, even if the cost of 2 AVPs is cheaper. To be honest I do not know anyone in the City on a 4 day week who has come straight in with that arrangement, I only know some lucky people in infrastructure departments who have been able to agree flexible working on their return from maternity leave.

I suspect there may be more scope for 4 day weeks in the personal banking / wealth management world - would recommend speaking to a recruitment agent in that area and seeing if that might work out as a good move for you?

I think that there is an agency called 'Capability Jane' who support job-sharing in city-type roles, though I am not sure if they do much in the equities trading area.

Have come back to the thread to say that Capability Jane have a banking type vacancy on their website right now.

Hi All...thank you for your replies and 'branching out' for getting in touch...... I have been in touch with Capability Jane. Fingers crossed something works out!

Problem is that these roles are 'lifestyle' roles. I was a bond trader and have worked in M&A, and the expectation is that you have your passport in your briefcase at all times and you always kept yourself potentially free on the evenings of Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays to meet with clients/brokers/bosses from out of town. So even a job-share doesn't address that kind of stuff.

I found it huge fun recently when a very family orientated colleague of mine who ran a very busy desk had a child and moved out of town. He switched his work around so that he arrived every day at 5.30am but left on the dot at 6. It lasted about 5 months before he gave up and went back to normal hours

I've been in industry around 20 years now and have done research on this (how's this for a relevant title - "Flexi-working and the family friendly backlash at senior levels in the banking industry" hahahaa) - There's absolutely nothing to stop flexi working in fornt office roles - we pass over positions to NY at the end of the day and pick them up from Asia every morning and it's no different to share the books/clients in the same time zone. But it won't happen because there is a (partly true/partly perceived) 'need' for felxibility, and if you do job-sharing, it's like waving a banner saying 'I'm not flexible'.

Having been through it myself I will say 4 things are key.

1. You can get by in FO investment banking/brokerage with one child. With two it gets very very tough to juggle everything (esp when they start school). All my research showed women dropping off hugely after baby no2. Bosses are aware of this. I suspect you will make very little headway trying to get back in to a front office part time role, so it is probably not worth the fight.
2. There are loads of options open if you can swallow the medicine and move out of the Front Office. Business Mgmt, Wealth Mgmt, Research, Programme Mgmt are all open to more understanding hours. Consultancy/training also an option. Mid-office trading support and compliance could also use your skills (but might not pay you very well). I know two people who have successfully transitioned to the FSA which is V child friendly by their accounts.
3. Companies that aren't interested in your CV for a perm role might be interested for an interim role. At the moment there is so much transformation going on that there are opportunities here (even if they are only advertised as full-time). Have a look at the banking websites for temp/contract jobs and take it form there. Go to interviews and show them how good you are then explain that you are 'finishing off another interim assignment' ('looking after the baby' but they don't need to know that) and are therefore only available 3 days a week. People filling these types of roles are more interested in skill set than in the hours
4. Don't get angry about it. It really really sucks that the industry will fight to get a skilled brain for 75 hours a week but aren't interested in having the same brain for 30 hours a week. It is totally bonkers, but you can't change it.

By the way, Sapphire partners another house that specialise in helping women get back into the city.