Source: cyprus-mail
Cyprus FX candidates urged to show practical knowledge in interviews
Candidates with years of brokerage experience can still struggle to secure dealing positions because they often lack the practical understanding needed to apply their knowledge under pressure, according to Marios C. Kyriakou, head of the Cyprus-based FX Dealer Academy.
Kyriakou explained that the main gap was often not experience but whether candidates could connect what they knew to how a dealing desk actually operated.
In an piece of analysis released this week, the academy examined why candidates with established brokerage backgrounds can falter during dealing interviews, an issue of particular relevance to Cyprus given the country’s sizeable FX and contracts-for-difference (CFD) brokerage sector and workforce.
It pointed out that candidates can arrive at interviews with experience at recognised brokers, several years of desk exposure and relevant qualifications, but can struggle when questions move beyond basic terminology and into practical situations.
Kyriakou drew on around a decade of experience working on dealing desks at mid-sized retail brokers, where he progressed from junior positions to senior and managerial roles before moving into training new dealers, running desks and assessing candidates for senior positions.
He said one of the recurring weaknesses he encountered was an inability to link individual concepts together and understand how one decision could affect another.
Areas where candidates could struggle included profit and loss calculations, corporate actions, broker revenue from CFDs, market structure and toxic flow, according to the academy.
The weaknesses became more apparent when candidates were asked to deal with hypothetical situations rather than simply define industry terms.
For example, an interview candidate might be asked what they would check first following an unexpected market movement, what risks they identified and how their response would change if one factor in the situation were altered.
Strong candidates were generally able to work through the problem logically and explain their reasoning step by step, even if their initial answer was not completely correct.
“A CV shows you what someone was exposed to. It doesn’t show you whether they actually understood it or could apply it under a bit of pressure,” Kyriakou said.
The distinction is also relevant to people already working in brokerages who are seeking to move into dealing from other parts of the business.
Employees in operations, client support, administration and technical roles can demonstrate relevant experience by showing how their existing work connects with the movement of trades, client behaviour and risk.
People applying for entry-level dealing positions are not expected to have made decisions involving live market risk, Kyriakou said.
They are, however, expected to understand the basic mechanics of dealing and the business reasoning behind the role.
For dealers who are already working on trading desks, progression into more senior positions is similarly not simply a question of how long they have been in the job.
Instead, Kyriakou said advancement increasingly depended on taking responsibility for judgement, trading limits, hedging, communication and the wider operation of the dealing desk.
“What separates dealers ready to progress is the shift from executing decisions to owning them,” Kyriakou said.