I've been meaning to blog about my life here. Not like just life in general, but more of my typical work day. This blog has just crossed the 6 year mark (hooray!) and I honestly never imagined I could blog and keep it going for so long. Although comments have dwindled a lot, I am not so sure who is reading this anymore. (Hello, anyone out there??) Nonetheless for the handful who are still reading this, I thought I would blog about a typical day in the life of… me.
The daily alarm rings at 7.11am. I know, it's a random time but I like it. Other times I set the alarm for 7.24am. I am proud to say that I think I am one of the faster girls amongst my friends who can get out of the house in 20min flat with make up and all. Like everyone else on planet earth, I snooze. Sometimes with phone in hand so I can swipe it away conveniently when the alarm goes off again. I jump up at 7.35am and stumble out of bed into the bathroom. K stumbles (and I mean really stumble) out of bed at 7.45am and I still cannot fathom how he can get out of the house in 10min flat. I wonder if he even looks at himself in the mirror. In case you didn't know, he is one of the few guys who does not (and I repeat again- does not) care about appearances. As long as you have a shirt that looks ok (used in the most loosely definition here), everything is fine. Doesn't even matter if the tie does not match. Everything is fine.
We leave the house hurriedly at 7.55am, sometimes 8am the latest, and walk to the train station which is like 2min away. If the weather is cold, we go into the waiting room with the heater on. It is usually quiet in the train. I notice that people appear very awake (unlike us two and most Singaporeans where we love to somehow continue on our snooze in the train) - they read their books, the Metro newspaper, check their Facebook or some ladies might be putting on make up en route… very seldom do I see someone snoozing - how come? I take 3 stops to Lewisham where I change to the DLR to Canary Wharf. K continues the journey to Cannon Street where he will take a 10min walk to office.
I reach office at 8.40am and very often my team is already in. People value punctuality a lot here and in fact, they love to get in earlier than needed. Plus we are seated with the bankers and they come in really early. If you recall I used to support traders and sat on the trading floor where it is very noisy with all of them hollering around. Now I'm seated with the investment bankers where activity is more muted (and somewhat refined). These are the bankers who help companies raise capital by issuing bonds, debt or equity in short. In many ways I much prefer here because of the nature of the business. I am in the business management team and us folks support the Debt capital markets, Equity capital markets and the M&A bankers. That means hundreds of them across Europe. By "support" I mean everything and anything that keeps the business going. My job is more specialised - I work more with the corporate bankers and leverage finance bankers who work with clients that need loans from the bank. I look at the returns for the firm for each loan, and I need to be aware of regulatory stuff which affects the returns on each loan, and the loan book for Europe overall. I can get asked by the CFO what is the overall loan book exposure for Europe and be aware of what big loans are coming our way due to some x and y deal happening. I need to know which clients owe us the most money (hundreds of millions) and when they are rolling off.. things like that. Politics and world events affect my work too. During the crisis two years ago, I remember everyone were on their toes on the outcome of the Greek elections. Everyday we were being asked to monitor our exposures and loads of what we term "fire drills".
We are privy to all the big deals happening across Europe, be it some highly confidential merger or acquisition, some IPO happening to be announced, or some company wanting to issue a bond. Times when I am in the appreciative or thankful mode, I feel all so privileged to do what I do, and see the cool stuff happening working with the movers and shakers of the finance world. The MD sitting behind me was just featured in some financial news saying he and his team have been involved in all the high profile IPOs happening since January this year - they are on a roll. On a roll indeed, the market is hot and there is so much buzz around. Which means so much work for my team who are supporting these bankers.
A typical work day is intense I won't deny. People generally grab lunch and have it at their desk- 1.5h or even 2h lunch breaks are unheard of. I mean if I take a full hour lunch break, I feel guilty and wish I hadn't taken so long. Tea break means to go to the pantry to make a cup of tea and then straight back to the desk because my phone rings frequently from bankers asking me to review their loan model, and emails come fast and furious.
And then there are days. Where you sit there and wonder what all these fuss is about. Like what K says, capital markets is only a means for the rich to get richer. I mean the guy who came up with Candy Crush - he just did an IPO and it was for like what - $7bn? For an app no less. (I keep telling my manager it is time for us to come up with an app and IPO it. He figures it's time for an app to have cats in it. He loves cats you see.) On the other hand you see the less privileged in the world - what a great difference these two spectrums are. And then my heart is filled with "I want to do something meaningful with my life". It's like a struggle from within.
Stuggle aside, I leave work at about 7.30pm, sometimes 8pm which is considered late by London standards. I rush to take the train always hoping I won't miss it otherwise I need to wait 30min and I will become very unhappy. Whoever reaches home first will start cooking dinner. So dinner can be quite late, at 9pm. We finish dinner, wash up and then take a shower which by that time would be 10ish. Too short a night. We cuddle in front of the TV before going upstairs to bed. And soon it would be another day.. same same but different.
The daily alarm rings at 7.11am. I know, it's a random time but I like it. Other times I set the alarm for 7.24am. I am proud to say that I think I am one of the faster girls amongst my friends who can get out of the house in 20min flat with make up and all. Like everyone else on planet earth, I snooze. Sometimes with phone in hand so I can swipe it away conveniently when the alarm goes off again. I jump up at 7.35am and stumble out of bed into the bathroom. K stumbles (and I mean really stumble) out of bed at 7.45am and I still cannot fathom how he can get out of the house in 10min flat. I wonder if he even looks at himself in the mirror. In case you didn't know, he is one of the few guys who does not (and I repeat again- does not) care about appearances. As long as you have a shirt that looks ok (used in the most loosely definition here), everything is fine. Doesn't even matter if the tie does not match. Everything is fine.
We leave the house hurriedly at 7.55am, sometimes 8am the latest, and walk to the train station which is like 2min away. If the weather is cold, we go into the waiting room with the heater on. It is usually quiet in the train. I notice that people appear very awake (unlike us two and most Singaporeans where we love to somehow continue on our snooze in the train) - they read their books, the Metro newspaper, check their Facebook or some ladies might be putting on make up en route… very seldom do I see someone snoozing - how come? I take 3 stops to Lewisham where I change to the DLR to Canary Wharf. K continues the journey to Cannon Street where he will take a 10min walk to office.
I reach office at 8.40am and very often my team is already in. People value punctuality a lot here and in fact, they love to get in earlier than needed. Plus we are seated with the bankers and they come in really early. If you recall I used to support traders and sat on the trading floor where it is very noisy with all of them hollering around. Now I'm seated with the investment bankers where activity is more muted (and somewhat refined). These are the bankers who help companies raise capital by issuing bonds, debt or equity in short. In many ways I much prefer here because of the nature of the business. I am in the business management team and us folks support the Debt capital markets, Equity capital markets and the M&A bankers. That means hundreds of them across Europe. By "support" I mean everything and anything that keeps the business going. My job is more specialised - I work more with the corporate bankers and leverage finance bankers who work with clients that need loans from the bank. I look at the returns for the firm for each loan, and I need to be aware of regulatory stuff which affects the returns on each loan, and the loan book for Europe overall. I can get asked by the CFO what is the overall loan book exposure for Europe and be aware of what big loans are coming our way due to some x and y deal happening. I need to know which clients owe us the most money (hundreds of millions) and when they are rolling off.. things like that. Politics and world events affect my work too. During the crisis two years ago, I remember everyone were on their toes on the outcome of the Greek elections. Everyday we were being asked to monitor our exposures and loads of what we term "fire drills".
We are privy to all the big deals happening across Europe, be it some highly confidential merger or acquisition, some IPO happening to be announced, or some company wanting to issue a bond. Times when I am in the appreciative or thankful mode, I feel all so privileged to do what I do, and see the cool stuff happening working with the movers and shakers of the finance world. The MD sitting behind me was just featured in some financial news saying he and his team have been involved in all the high profile IPOs happening since January this year - they are on a roll. On a roll indeed, the market is hot and there is so much buzz around. Which means so much work for my team who are supporting these bankers.
A typical work day is intense I won't deny. People generally grab lunch and have it at their desk- 1.5h or even 2h lunch breaks are unheard of. I mean if I take a full hour lunch break, I feel guilty and wish I hadn't taken so long. Tea break means to go to the pantry to make a cup of tea and then straight back to the desk because my phone rings frequently from bankers asking me to review their loan model, and emails come fast and furious.
And then there are days. Where you sit there and wonder what all these fuss is about. Like what K says, capital markets is only a means for the rich to get richer. I mean the guy who came up with Candy Crush - he just did an IPO and it was for like what - $7bn? For an app no less. (I keep telling my manager it is time for us to come up with an app and IPO it. He figures it's time for an app to have cats in it. He loves cats you see.) On the other hand you see the less privileged in the world - what a great difference these two spectrums are. And then my heart is filled with "I want to do something meaningful with my life". It's like a struggle from within.
Stuggle aside, I leave work at about 7.30pm, sometimes 8pm which is considered late by London standards. I rush to take the train always hoping I won't miss it otherwise I need to wait 30min and I will become very unhappy. Whoever reaches home first will start cooking dinner. So dinner can be quite late, at 9pm. We finish dinner, wash up and then take a shower which by that time would be 10ish. Too short a night. We cuddle in front of the TV before going upstairs to bed. And soon it would be another day.. same same but different.
Comments
I actually love these day to day post. we always wonder how people in other countries live. haha..
so i got a question - London is literally a global city right (judging from your friends of various nationality), and u mentioned u get a lot of phonecalls at work. so do u have problems deciphering what they are saying due to various accents? more so I'm sure the bankers calling u are barking impatiently, and it's so crucial for u to catch all the important jargon and instructions correctly, right? and u might leave office at 8pm but do the emails continue to harrass u over smart phones?
As u know bank workers in Singapore are a cushy lot, come really late and long lunch etc. I'm abashed to learn of the puncutality culture of working in London, for I am always late!!
and what's a typical lunch at work like? grab a sandwich and starbucks like we see on tv? hahaha or u bring your own food like leftover dinner or smthg? and while we are at it, how much does a typical simple starbucks latte cost in London?
Sorry i've got such tonnes of questions!! it's ok to ignore if its too much, no worries :)
Actually I work with bankers from all across Europe including Russia, and also all the way to Africa. I think I recognise most of the accents by now and I love to do some small talk with them work aside so it's been great learning about other cultures and countries. It's quite fun sometimes guessing where people are from based on their accent! It's funny cos on the other hand I hope these people can understand me in my Singaporean accent.
Yes emails don't stop and I honestly say I dread checking my blackberry outside work. I check it as less frequent as possible and secretly hope it dies on me soon:P
A typical lunch consists of a salad/ soup/ sandwich (followed by a packet of crisps). Not quit eke though. I seldom have sandwiches unless necessary. I have trained myself to have salad or a soup + bread roll for lunch. Most of the time we pack our leftover dinner (Chinese food!) so we just heat them up in the pantry. A Starbucks latte cost just below GBP3. Funny how you mention Starbucks. Your stereotype is quite accurate cos we do have our own in-house Starbucks!