EVER WONDER: “What does my firm’s CTOs and Managing Directors think about our industry?” Well today you’re in luck!
Today I wanted to provide insight to my audience on how senior management views (Career Management, Team Building, Potential hires, and the Current Trends of Post Recession Wall St.) I was lucky enough to have Peter Carrara, Managing Director of Global Technology Infrastructure at JPMorgan Chase. Peter is recently departed from JPMC to take on a more senior level role in another financial institution to be announced over the next couple of weeks.
Peter thank you for sparing a couple minutes out of your day to chat with me. You have worked in Historic Financial Firms. Starting at Salomon Brothers which Merged with SmithBarney which Merged with (and into) Citigroup. You were also a key Executive at Credit-Suisse, when they were a key player on the street. Currently you’re the MD of Global Technology Infrastructure at the Largest Successful Investment banking house on Wall Street, JPMorgan Chase. I think it is safe to say you have seen a lot! From my viewpoint, you have always been working for stellar firms when they are at their best.
Tracey:
“What truths have you followed to guide your career trajectory?”
Peter:
I think there are 3 key focus areas where every professional at every level needs to make an impact. The first is team chemistry.
· “Are you contributing positively to the dynamics of the team that you are on?”
· If your a manager, “Have you built a team that has great team chemistry?”
· “Is your team the team that everyone wants to be on?”
Your goal should be to constantly strive toward being able to answer YES to all of these questions.
The second is to treat the recipient of your services as a client that you do not want to lose. It’s not very often, in the industry that we are in, that a “client” gets to choose whether or not they’d like to receive services from you. However, I’ve always asked myself, if they were to choose, would I be the choice?
Lastly….you need to execute and deliver! If you’re not executing and delivering against commitments you will quickly lose credibility. These 3 focus areas are key to building a great reputation, or brand for yourself….and that you will take with you for the rest of your career.
Tracey:
Great point Peter, I constantly hammer home in this blog that one needs to constantly execute and deliver in their career. There is a small market for people that ‘Just Maintain’.
“Once one decides to go into Management, team building becomes a major concern. What have you learned about Building a Team? And More importantly, what methods/manners of team building have you seen to be counter-productive?”
Peter:
Team building is key and it’s very important that team members feel that they are empowered to create a positive team chemistry. A great example is to have team members play a role in the interview process for new team members. If the key players on you team have chosen who their new teammate will be, not only will they feel like they have some skin in the game, they will naturally pick someone that will fit in well, and be excited about working with them. Your new candidate will integrate in well with the team because they’ll know through the interview process, that the team has chosen them to join.
I am also a big believer in delegating to the lowest level in the organization that can handle the task. This will help the more junior folks on the team grow, make the organization scale, and create a nice balance across the organization of accountability.
The counterproductive trap that a manager does not want to fall into is the individual contributor problem. Managers who are individual contributors have a tendency to not delegate effectively, have inefficient teams, take the spotlight themselves, and have problems hiring strong team players. Because of the manager’s style of doing many things themselves, he or she will have a tendency to place less value on who is a part of the team. Strong players will shy away from joining teams like this and they will never get stronger.
Tracey:
These management traps are a significant reason many of the people I deal with daily are looking to move on to new firms. They feel as if they aren’t empowered and their ‘skin in the game’ is minimal at best.
“What have been some of the challenges of Managing Off-Shore teams? And with the recent trend of In-Shoring (Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah), what challenges have you come across?”
Peter:
Finding the right level of talent is always a challenge in the “lower cost” locations. It has definitely improved being that some of the more mature locations now have individuals with over 5 years of experience there.
Secondly, teams have a tendency to manage these locations differently than they do NY, or London as an example. The best approach is to stop differentiating between in-shoring, off-shoring, and primary locations, and treat all staff in all locations as a global team. Both in-shore and off-shore staff should be tied in organizationally to the global team they are performing work for. This will integrate them better and tie them in to the workload, which will better utilize the staff. Managers just need to focus on managing global teams, and stop focusing on what roles should be in-shore, and off-shore and how can we leverage them differently than other staff. Make them part of the team.
Lastly, it often happens that roles are moved into these scenarios with the goal of the staff performing the “commoditized support functions”. They are often moved prior to the workload being “commoditized”. In this scenario you are now faced with doing more, or the same, with less, because the environment was not prepared to be supported in such a way. Organizations need to be careful not to commit to move jobs, or cut jobs, prior to developing a strategy to become more efficient. Moving jobs to these locations should be the last step in the process, and often times it isn’t.
Tracey:
The lack of preparation before moving jobs is becoming more and more visible. This impact is not only felt on those that have their responsibilities moved, but also by those that are not directly impacted. This outcome leaves many with a confused impression of their senior management……Once this happens, these same ‘A-Players’ tend to second quess corporate direction and feasibility of staying with the firm career wise.
“A big part of team building is the selection your team. What do you look for in potential hires? Specifically, what are some traits you see candidates are missing? And what are some of the traits successful candidates display that can’t be stated on a resume”
Peter:
Clearly the level of experience needs to match the job requirements. In addition to that it’s really important to talk about what differentiates you from other potential candidates. That starts with the resume. There are so many resumes that look like job postings. Resumes should be the headlines of what your proud of in each role you’ve filled. Take an SA as an example. We all know that SA’s know how to build, patch, and deploy software to servers. But, if you’ve automated these tasks and are managing 25% more servers than anyone else in your firm….that’s what the resume should say, and that’s what you should be talking about on the interview.
Another key point on this subject is to relax on the interview and be yourself. You want to be able to see if you connect with the hiring manager. If you don’t connect he or she may not want to move forward and you shouldn’t either. You shouldn’t want to work for someone that you didn’t feel a connection with on the interview.
Tracey:
I see this in a lot of resume of stellar candidates. Lack of statements in the resume that show direct impact of what they currently do. Managers want to bring someone in that has a resume which reflects the candidate can come in day 1 and hit the ground running. When it comes to fit between candidates and management, you bring up great points. Too many times people keep ‘personal connection’ out of their decision making.
“What trends in Infrastructure do you see emerging (i.e. Low Latency, Reference Data, Virtualization, etc) and how are they effecting Wall Street’s new solutions?”
Peter:
Low Latency skills are still in demand, but I’ve personally seen a more recent need for virtualization and service management skills. The 2 go hand in hand. The more you consolidate the data center footprint through virtualization technologies, the greater the need to manage the environment as a service. Capacity and Performance Management skills are key here too. I think everyone (candidates) understands the need for service management and virtualization skills, but really good people in this space are hard to find. As far as service management is concerned, I believe it is a discipline that all managers should bake into their skill set. This will make them much more marketable, as organizations are looking to transform their models from functional one to services based. Let’s go back to Capacity and Performance Management lastly….everyone says they do it….but very few are experts in this field. The need for experts in this discipline is imminent, as it is a key part of service transformation.
Tracey:
Thanks for taking time out of your hectic schedule Peter to sit down and open up about your views on the market and how one can be successful on Wall Street. It has been a turbulent 4 years. I think that many people in my audience appreciate not only getting this insight, but hearing it from someone that not only has maintained their status but increased their roles, responsibilities, and status during this period. Good luck on your next role.
Thank you for your Time and Efforts,
Tracey Greene
TechExec Inc.
Senior Vice President, Financial Risk & Compliance & Technology Division
O: (914)-235-5901
E: Tracey.Greene@TechExeconline.com
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