Here’s how to get into Bank of China in Hong Kong

Bank of China is hiring experienced staff across the board in Hong Kong right now (click here for details of where the jobs are). But where should you study if you want a graduate role at the bank?

To find out, we looked at online profiles of current BoC employees to see how many of them attended leading universities in Hong Kong, China and globally. We then ranked the 15 most popular of these universities among the firm’s Hong Kong-based workforce (and gave each one a percentage based on the total for all 15 institutions).

The results, displayed in the table below, show that University of Hong Kong graduates make up the largest alumni group at BoC in Hong Kong (19% of those who attended one of the top-15 colleges went to HKU, according to online profiles).

The university’s Bachelor of Economics and Finance degree, a four-year double-major programme, has traditionally supplied graduates to large banks. And its newer Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Finance, a more in-depth course, is proving increasingly popular.

Four other local schools make up the top-five most popular universities, while 80% of Hong Kong staff at BoC studied in the city. This local percentage is even higher than for Hong Kong-headquartered rival Bank of East Asia (70%).

It also stands in dramatic contrast to the staff composition of global banks in Hong Kong. As we previously reported, only 20% of their workforces studied locally on average. Even at HSBC and Standard Chartered – two of the most Asia-focused foreign banks – the proportions are 28% and 25% respectively.

Mainland Chinese universities supply a surprisingly low proportion (10%) of BoC’s staff, suggesting that the bank’s workforce is dominated by local Hongkongers rather than transferees from the mainland.

Our table also indicates that investing in an expensive foreign degree may not be worth it, if you want to work for Bank of China. Only three Western universities feature in the top-15, although The University of New South Wales ranks in 6th position.

Image credit: samxmeg, Getty