My little dilemma

mikeruurds

Hi all. I was hoping for a little advice. I've been interviewing for the last 3 weeks with the intention to transition from industry to financial services.

I have been through 3 rounds of interviews with Merrill Lynch spanning a 4 week period for a back office financial analyst position, and they finally made me a brilliant offer on Wednesday evening. The problem is that, while waiting for Merrill to make a decision, I had a telephonic interview with Citi who then offered me an interview which I had today. Citi got back to me immediately to tell me that they would be making me an offer tomorrow.

Here's the thing. Merrill is 10 minutes drive from where I live (Blackrock), while Citi is in the IFSC. Both have offered me very challenging and interesting roles. Citi have indicated that they will be aiming to better the ML offer. Both are making more than generous offers. Merrill is geographically more convenient than Citi. Both are top-notch companies that offer the right individual amazing career growth potential.

How does one figure out which to choose when both offers look so good? I've been working as an accountant for 13 years and I've never had a choice like this one.

I'd really appreciate any input from anyone who has more experience with the Financial services sector and specifically with these two multi-national behemoths.

Thanks for your help guys and ladies!

Mike

SoupyNorman

So whats your dilemma exactly? You're too brilliant??? !

Seriously however, Ive not heard the most favourable things from employees of CITI. The they say is up to you.

mikeruurds

Thanks Bravestarr082

I am leaning towards Merrill, but this is a major step for me and I want to make the right decision. I've been living in Ireland for 6 years and have been working for the same employer for all of that time. My wife and I also have no support structure here.

I'm with one agency for both positions, so at least I don't have separate agencies trying to force me into making the wrong choice

Thanks again for you input.

Edit: And strictly speaking it's not a dilemma as both options are good ones rather than bad

Mike

MIN2511

Congrats!!! I don't have your experience:) but a few things come to mind
Which offers you the best opportunities, i.e. promotions, pensions e.t.c.

I find that all these little perks do add up

mikeruurds

MIN2511 wrote: »

Congrats!!! I don't have your experience:) but a few things come to mind
Which offers you the best opportunities, i.e. promotions, pensions e.t.c.

I find that all these little perks do add up

That's the problem. Citi need a day to knock together the offer. In the meantime Merrill are scratching their heads wondering why I haven't accepted their offer yet. I will probably end up going for Merrill, but it's always nice to have a choice. I would not like to give Merrill the idea that I'm losing interest in their offer.

I would have no idea as to which company would have the better opportunities for promotion in the long run. I hadn't even considered the financial services sector until I saw the ML job ad on the net while helping my wife look for a new position. I'm sure some boardsies would be able to give me more advice as to growth potential within the two banks. I do know that both had equally bad 4th quarter results due to CDO exposure and subsequent write-downs.

Thanks!
Mike

MIN2511

I thought so too, but Citi were hit really bad! My friends dad works there and there's been some firing if you know what i mean but all the same it's a brilliant company(he says). For a while there was a recruitment freeze-i think that has been lifted.
If by the close of business tomorrow there is still no news then i guess you should take the Merrill.. It's always nice to know you have a choice

mikeruurds

MIN2511 wrote: »

I thought so too, but Citi were hit really bad! My friends dad works there and there's been some firing if you know what i mean but all the same it's a brilliant company(he says). For a while there was a recruitment freeze-i think that has been lifted.
If by the close of business tomorrow there is still no news then i guess you should take the Merrill.. It's always nice to know you have a choice

The chap that interviewed me informed me that the recruitment freeze is still in force except where the position has been ear-marked as critical. They also have a ban on unecessary travel in effect.

Yes... I think I will follow your advice and accept Merrill by end of business day tomorrow if I haven't heard from Citi. To be honest, Citi would really have to make a good offer as a 1.5 hour travel time savings per day by choosing Merrill is a massive bonus.

I've only ever had crappy jobs, so it is really nice to be wanted by the likes of Merrill and Citi

mikeruurds

Thanks for the input. My wife and I have decided that a work-life balance is more likely if I'm cutting 1.5 hours off of my daily commute.

I've officially accepted the Merrill offer

MIN2511

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!

Although you know you would have a nagging feeling in your head when you know the Citi offer(especially if it's better) but then again not everything in life has a price

KTRIC

mikeruurds wrote: »

Thanks for the input. My wife and I have decided that a work-life balance is more likely if I'm cutting 1.5 hours off of my daily commute.

I've officially accepted the Merrill offer

Good for you, that travel time would sour the deal with CITI in the long term.

mikeruurds

I think it'd be better that I not hear the Citi offer when they finally have it ready

Merrill have really made a good offer which is a major improvement on my current package, so I'm not complaining!

Thanks again guys. I know I've made the right decision.

IrishMike

Congrats Mike, enjoy the new challenge

watna

Congrats Mike..... I was actually going to reccomend Merrill based on my dealings with both companies. Good luck in the new job!

mikeruurds

Thanks all!

Citi came back to me today and offered an extra €5k, but I'm Merrill bound .

Have a great weekend fellow boardsies.

ixus

Only saw this thread now, congratulations.

What exactly is your role/title at Merrill going to be? Haven't heard of the back office financial analyst role in there before.

The thing about the money is Citi always seem to pay more than Merrill from my experience. A lot of people leave ML for Citi for the wages.

Oh, and don't be too surprised by the delay in ML getting back to you. There recruitment staff are shocking for this...

If it was down to the commute that's fair enough.

Best of luck.

flash harry

Mike
screw the money you made the right call - never heard a good thing about Citi

Best of luck

MementoMori

Op you've made the right decision - never mind that I've never heard anything good about Citi and heard a lot of bad - just think of the commute

In one year

52 weeks of the year * 5 days a week = 260

less hols and bank hols say 35 => 225 of work

225 days by 1.5 hours = 337.5 hours of commute => that's just over 14
24-hour day or 42 8-hour working days a year.

Re the 5k more - at best you will receive only 2.5kafter tax and PRSI so if you include your commute in your work day you would be getting paid around €7.40 an hour for your commute - this is less than the minimum wage.

Some of the calculations are estimates but I don't think there are any fundamental flaws, but it just shows the point I am trying to make.

Can't for the life of me understand people who commute large distances to work.

Enjoy the new job, but more importantly enjoy your free time - approx 14 full free extra days in the year.

mikeruurds

ixus wrote: »

Only saw this thread now, congratulations.

What exactly is your role/title at Merrill going to be? Haven't heard of the back office financial analyst role in there before.

The thing about the money is Citi always seem to pay more than Merrill from my experience. A lot of people leave ML for Citi for the wages.

Oh, and don't be too surprised by the delay in ML getting back to you. There recruitment staff are shocking for this...

If it was down to the commute that's fair enough.

Best of luck.

Hi Ixus. My role is a finance (not financial - oops) analyst position within the Chief Financial Office. Effectively it is a management accounting role within the bank. I'll be setting budgets and monitoring performance of internal departments within EMEA in different functional areas. I would label it as a financial controller position, but the official title is finance analyst - not to be confused with a finance analyst working in the front office

I've been working as a management accountant within industry for a while now, so I'll just need to adjust to the different business models within financial services.

I can't wait to work my notice period so that I can get started.

It

mikeruurds

MementoMori wrote: »

Op you've made the right decision - never mind that I've never heard anything good about Citi and heard a lot of bad - just think of the commute

In one year

52 weeks of the year * 5 days a week = 260

less hols and bank hols say 35 => 225 of work

225 days by 1.5 hours = 337.5 hours of commute => that's just over 14
24-hour day or 42 8-hour working days a year.

Re the 5k more - at best you will receive only 2.5kafter tax and PRSI so if you include your commute in your work day you would be getting paid around €7.40 an hour for your commute - this is less than the minimum wage.

Some of the calculations are estimates but I don't think there are any fundamental flaws, but it just shows the point I am trying to make.

Can't for the life of me understand people who commute large distances to work.

Enjoy the new job, but more importantly enjoy your free time - approx 14 full free extra days in the year.

That's pretty much the rationale that I was adopting when making my decision. I tend to work pretty long hours anyway, so in the interest of keeping my wife happy I decided to minimise the commute

My mom and dad got divorced when I was very young (South Africa) and one of the biggest factors was that my father was a regional manager in retail and was constantly out on the road for long periods at a time. He advised me to place a high value on my spare time . I don't mind working 10-12 hours a day, but I hate idle time commuting.

Thanks again for all of your input!

skyle

Only found this now.

Consider yourself lucky that you didnt work for citi. Worked there for a year and it was pure hell...overtime, ungrateful management who did sweet f.a., no bonus, meetings during lunch time "so you wont have to stay too late tonight", managers using expletives like "what the fu*k are you doing"...worst place i have ever set foot in. Turnover is shocking with the majority going back to old jobs.


Congrats on both offers...but it even smells like citi are desperate, doesnt surprise me that they offered u more money, they did the same to me when i was leaving...its standard now. I keep in contact with some of the unfortunates who still work there....Best thing I ever did was leave taht place. In a job I love now with managers who actually work and treat you like a human. Citi just makes my blood boil and I would never ever set foot inside the door of that hole again.


I hope ML is going good for you though!!