Krishan Dave is forging a successful career in finance – and this term he gave current QE pupils some guidance on how they could follow his lead.
Krishan (OE 2002–2009) works at Canary Wharf for Northern Trust Corporation, an international, US-based financial services company. He was recently promoted from his role as an analyst, becoming an investment performance team leader.
His talk at the School’s Careers Convention, which is for Year 11 pupils and their parents, looked at finance, with a focus on investment banking. “The room was very full, so clearly a lot of boys at QE are keen to go into a career in finance,” he said. As well as discussing the different areas of a typical investment bank – front office, middle office and back office – he talked about how the culture varies both between firms and according to the type of job.
Looking at entry routes into finance, he highlighted the importance of work experience, summer internships and ‘spring weeks’ (short programmes run for first-year university students by all the leading investment banks in London during March and April). Krishan’s own CV reflects this: he spent two months with ADM Capital as a summer intern during 2011. There were now ways to get into finance straight from school, he pointed out, and he touched on the “dark world of networking”.
“I was asked about university courses, too. My response was broad: you can do any course, but it needs to be from a good university. If there is a numerical bias to the course, that’s better.” Krishan went to King’s College London to read Mathematics on leaving School in 2009.
“The parents had some interesting questions, especially regarding the impact of Brexit on the financial industry. I replied that it won’t be as bad as most people are saying – London is a huge financial centre – but there may be some gentle impact.”
Having been at Northern Trust since June 2014, Krishan plans to remain with the firm for some time to come and is ambitious to rise further there. “Northern Trust is an excellent place to learn.”
He looks back on his School days with some fondness. “QE gave me a lot and provided a great foundation for my career. I started the same year as Mr Enright did, so it’s great to see him as Headmaster and to see that he has maintained the extremely high standards of the School whilst also overseeing phenomenal redevelopment there.
“The two stand-out things I was involved with were the India Appeal [a charity which raises money for a school in India] and cricket: I was part of the School cricket teams from Year 7 all the way until I left, sacrificing all those Saturdays!”
Krishan still meets up with friends from QE. His spare time is also spent in going to the gym and he is a keen Arsenal fan. Food is a particular interest, and he enjoys visiting food markets as well as eating in restaurants.