Meet Sean, Trade finance graduate

Sean is thriving in an international environment

Sean found out about the Deutsche Bank graduate programme through a friend who had joined in the previous year. At the time Sean was on a graduate programme with an FMCG company but was still craving an environment with a more global outlook.

“Having spent time studying in London & Sydney, I knew that I wanted an international career and for that I needed to be with a company that allowed me to have a career path that was global. Working with a world famous, powerful foreign bank with a strong presence in China has allowed me to achieve that goal. It is great to be speaking to and also be around colleagues from our offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan when they visit us in Shanghai, and I am looking forward to be able to do more travelling in the future.”

Influence and impact

Sean is currently working in our Corporate Bank as part of the Trade Finance team. He liaises with internal and external parties to facilitate different trade finance products.

“My role is a really interesting mix. I play a key part in supporting the Senior Trade Funding Sales Team leader by providing analysis on team performance. The data and insights I capture influences the team’s future planning, for example helping us decide which products we should develop and which types of clients we should approach.”

Sean has been able to contribute to the bank’s ongoing digital transformation strategy, his role within the Business Management function has enabled him to get involved in digitising a number of middle and back-office activities.

“We no longer accept handwritten signatures and I have been working on a project that embeds an e-chop and e-signature into our systems.”

This system will soon be rolled out across the bank and Sean has been training his colleagues on how it works. Automating these processes makes us more efficient and Sean has been able to see the impact of his work very quickly.

Everyone working together

One of the aspects of his working life that Sean enjoys most is the collaborative and inclusive nature of working at Deutsche Bank. Graduates are able to interact and learn from senior colleagues with a lot more experience on a day- to-day basis.

“It makes me feel good to walk out onto my floor and see colleagues from all kinds of backgrounds all working together with a common purpose. Everyone is always very patient in answering any questions you might have, and my colleagues are genuinely nice, decent people that want to share their experience.”

Learning all the time

In fact, Sean has found that there are numerous learning opportunities to be had. From essential training and workshops that showcase the global business strategies of other parts of the bank, through to the ‘micro training’ you get from just talking to your boss. He’s also learned that the ability to be an expert multi-tasker comes in very useful.

When he is not working Sean heads to the gym, or takes in a movie or a concert, but his real passion is playing board games. Sean has identified some core skills gained when playing board games that he has also been able to apply in his work.

“My favourite (board game) is a strategic role-playing game where you learn to anticipate and respond to the behaviours associated with a personality type. You really need to use your imagination to get inside the heads of the different identities and the games can last for nearly 2 hours. I have learnt a lot about how to influence and interact with people and I have even managed to use some of what I have I have learned in my job!”