After I joined ABN AMRO bank, I finally got to know why I could get the interview and the job. The bank hired people with various backgrounds from sales of real estate to public functionary, and from junior college to postgraduates from famous overseas universities. But the only passport to survive is to prove yourself with performance. It is fair and effective, although sometimes cruel. I think it is also one of the most attractive things about Shanghai as a super big city.
There were no weekends and no rest except sleep in the first 10 months before I was promoted to relationship manager of a newly established sub-branch. My job was to make 80-100 phone calls to possible customers to sell foreign exchange and structural products linked to stock index, commodities, stocks or hedge funds. You had to tell and persuade the client to exchange their CNY to FX, and then tell them what they should invest in. The year was 2006 when the CNY was going up rapidly and the stock market in China was bull. So it was extremely hard to make our clients to do what we suggest. So the only way out was to build up our professional skills and knowledge in the shortest time possible. If the client was assured of your expertise and the value of your information, they might give you a chance by listening for a few minutes. On average, two invitations would be answered out of 100 calls, and one of them would eventually open an account. This was the highest success rate in the bank during that period.
Every month we saw colleagues quit or fired, either because of the heavy work load or for failure to reach the KPI. Everyone was under great pressure and everyone set the goal of being promoted to RM. Most of us came to Shanghai and wanted to be able to stay here and change their life. We were eager to keep the job, earn the money, and be successful, but only 30 percent of us could get a promotion.
I think I was lucky to join a top team with an extremely tough team leader. 90 percent of our team members were promoted, including me after only 10 months. Also I built up my financial knowledge and sales techniques. It was like I switched my major to finance with the help of the second job.
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