David Chidozie Okonkwo

Did you do an internship before joining?
In the summer of 2004 I did an internship at Citigroup which was actually very useful.

Why did you join Barclays Wealth?
I decided to join Barclays for a number of reasons really - it was an exciting and new work opportunity because Barclays Wealth had only just launched as a self contained brand or a new entity in October 06. So you have the excitement of a start up company but the security of a big institution, Barclays being one of the biggest financial institutions in the world.

What support and training have you received?
The training has been fantastic. We started with a two month training programme which started with training courses on the financial markets including economics, maths, finance all that kind of stuff. We then did the Investment Management Certificate and then since then I’ve started the Chartered Analyst qualification this year. I just took the exam two weeks ago so, there’s ongoing training throughout the whole of the grad programme.

Can you describe what your current role entails?
My current role involves providing advisory services to clients as well as discretionary portfolio management. So, a client could phone up and ask how a particular stock is doing, how the performance has been, if there are any corporate actions or anything going on. I need to be aware of what’s happening. We mainly cover the FTSE 100 stocks but we also look at the FTSE 250 as well and then it also involves making recommendations on asset allocation on the different structures available as well as different instruments in any given portfolio.

What did you do yesterday?
Yesterday, I was involved in putting together a kind of letter out to clients. We had basically run a book build which is a mass trade across many client accounts and I was involved in working out how to correspond to a number of clients and inform them what’s happened. I was also involved in looking at some client accounts and how best to maximise their returns. I also had quite a few meetings where I was working with different parts of the business to work out how best to improve systems etc., so it can be quite varied and it does depend on which rotation you are in. The graduates programme is rotation based, so depending on your rotation will depend on what you do for a six-month stint.

Typically, what other areas of the business might you work with?
We interact quite closely with compliance. A new law was passed November 2007 called MiFID which is the markets and financial instruments directive and effectively means there are a lot more controls now as to how you can sell products to clients. So, we are now very much, constantly in discussion with compliance. We also interact with the legal teams, our investment and product office because they actually produce, or create, the financial solutions that we sell to our clients, and we also interact with our operational areas to ensure that our trades get processed efficiently and correctly.

What qualities do you need to work here?
I think the three main qualities for working in Barclays Wealth are to be driven, to be a self starter and to be a free thinker. I think with a new business like ours there’s a huge opportunity for people to make a difference and the ability to look at the problem and actually provide a solution rather than complain about it, and actually speak to your management and see if there are any ways they can help is something that’s valuable here. 

What’s it like working here?
I think working here has been fantastic. As I say, I have had great opportunities very early on in my career. There is also an international element to the graduate programme where you get to spend six months abroad and I will be going to South Africa in September which is fantastic. So, I think there’s a huge amount of opportunity and if potential graduates are, as I say, quite driven, self starters and free thinkers, I think there’s a huge amount of potential here.

Why should someone come and work at Barclays Wealth?
If I had to tell somebody about Barclays Wealth or why they should join here, I think I would say that if you want the excitement of a start up company but the security of a huge financial service organisation, then this is the place to be.

What excites you about your future here?
I think for the short period of time that I have been here, I’ve seen its quite meritocratic and I think there is a huge amount of opportunity available. So as long as I apply myself correctly I think there’s scope to do well.