For global financial institutions, remuneration is standardized across functions and geography for entry-level positions. In most cases, before any meaningful hiring in a new market, these employers often engage human resource & compensation consulting firms to carry out market surveys and provide input to develop a suitable compensation system. The key guideline is to look at their comparable competitors in the global markets. For example, if Dell computer is entering the China market, they will look at Hewlett Packard-Compaq and IBM in their analysis. For the financial institutions, they usually benchmark against their leading competitors who are already in the marketplace.

　　Like other MNCs, global financial institutions are very sensitive to the local labor laws and regulations given their global exposure and experience. Hence, they generally follow the best business practices.

　　Negotiation of remuneration is rarely entertained, unless the candidate has meaningful relevant experience. For positions that involved experienced producers with existing clientele, such as the private bankers or brokers servicing high net-worth clients, they may be offered guaranteed year-end bonuses or more attractive commission structure in order for the financial institution to establish beachheads in the new market or increase market share. Typically, asset under management(AUM) and revenue produced over the last 2 years will be used to determine the remuneration package for mid-career hires in such cases.

　　Story About Yourself

　　Telling the story about oneself is probably much harder than most people think, although it is a personal experience that one has lived through. This stems from the fact that we think we know it very well and hence do not spend much time in organizing the information. Besides, it is often awkward to talk about yourself, especially when you have to balance between self-praise and being professional. While growing up, we were often taught to be modest and avoid indulging in self-praise. As a result,we often lack practice even when it comes to narrating our own achievements.

　　Telling your story is not about self-praise. From the interviewer's viewpoint, they need to know more about their potential employees-their values, character, and the various attributes that have been identified as relevant criteria to be a productive member of their organization. You can be assured that superlatives and adjectives are being used in almost every single interview, and recruiters are immune to these beautiful terms and languages. For fresh graduates, there was not much work experience to talk about. Instead, interview questions were mostly designed to measure your skills level to find out who you really are, and your potential for future development within the organization.

　　Interviewees are often asked to give examples of their life story where it relates to the “what counts?factors (see Chapter 6). These are a set of criteria developed by international organizations based on their business needs, organizational culture and past experiences.