OLIVER JAMES ASSOCIATES I WWW.OJASSOCIATES.COM I 2013

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MOVING TO Asia FROM THE UK

ue to the positive feedback from my previous ar-ticles I have decided to interview five qualifieds

who recently relocated from the UK to Asia. The panel is made up of Robert Gow (FIA 2010, HSBC), Gareth Jones (FIA 2010, Towers Watson), Graham Watson (FIA 2012, Deloitte), Matt Price (ACA 2000, Pruden-tial), & Voon Chong (FIA 2012, PwC), all of whom are now based in Asia.

1. What instigated a move to Asia?Robert: A sense of adventure plus the desire to try something new and expand my horizons! I also rec-ognised Hong Kong as a regional hub for South-East Asia meaning that it is full of opportunities for actuar-ies. There is plenty of room for continued economic growth in Asia so it should prove to be an exciting business environment in which I can further my career.

Gareth: I had just come to the end of my actuarial qualification and thought that it was a great oppor-tunity to have a bit of an adventure. I had heard that the standard of living in Singapore was high and that it was a safe place to live. I had also heard that it was a wonderful place to be based if you are interested in travelling because of the prevalence of reasonably priced flights to pretty much the rest of Asia. Graham: Reaching of a couple of key milestones made me think “What’s next?” and “What do I really want to do now?”, resulted in my search for new opportu-nities. I’d always enjoyed travelling and had consid-ered working overseas, although I had not necessarily thought it was possible, but it is! For me Asia offered

great prospects with the insurance markets still de-veloping rapidly providing excellent opportunities to grow my career more rapidly. The possibility of living in Asia was also a great draw for me, enabling me to experience new cultures, was another attraction.

Matt: I had previously worked in the UK with leading insurance companies, but wanted a completely new challenge for both work and lifestyle. I first came to Hong Kong on holiday in 2006 and, having experienced the sights and vibrancy of the city, I wanted to come back at some stage on a permanent basis. From a work perspective, the insurance markets in Asia are experi-encing very strong growth, and there is still more to come with many coun-tries still in the early stages of having a private insurance industry. Outside of work, HK excels in its role as a 24 hour regional capital city and most of SE Asia is accessible with a short flight.

Voon: I wanted to be closer to family in Malaysia, then there was the prospect of weekend breaks in exotic Asian cities and beaches. The idea of living some-where with a clubhouse, pool and sauna very much helped too.

How did you find the job search and interview process?Robert: I found that there were numerous opportuni-ties open to UK qualified actuaries. There are many global insurance companies using Hong Kong as their regional hub which means actuaries are in strong de-mand. The interview process was less structured than I was used to, with less involvement from HR at an early stage leaving the questions to the whim of the interviewer. That said, I’d still recommend preparing thoroughly (e.g. detailed career history) as interviews can range from a friendly chat to a more formal set-piece meeting.

Gareth: There were plenty of attractive jobs being ad-vertised across all of the non-life fields, which made

that aspect of the hunt quite easy. However, my con-tract at the time had a six month notice period which compared unfavourably to the rest of Asian actuarial jobs which traditionally have only one or two months notice period at my level of experience. When I inter-viewed for the job I eventually took, it was actually all very convenient in that I had two phone interviews and that was it.

Graham: The job search and interview pro-cess was very similar to that if you were

looking for a new position in the UK. On occasions things may have taken a little longer because of the time differ-ence, hence the opportunity for dis-cussions were more limited, however with a bit of flexibility things could move on. Overall things taking a little

longer was useful, allowing time for it to sink in that a move could be possible, but

it is by no way definitely going to take a long time as companies can move quickly to secure

the resources they want.

Matt: I had planned to come to live and work in Asia for some time, and had spoken with people in my search network about available opportunities. I was keen on a role with a global insurance company and had ex-plored the benefits and challenges of living and work-ing in Hong Kong. I worked with a specialist financial services recruitment agency in Hong Kong, and when the right role came up, I was ready to for-ward my candidacy. The inter-view process itself was very ef-ficient; two telephone interviews from the UK followed by a full day of interviews at my employ-er’s offices in HK, all in the space of two weeks. The whole process from interview through to starting work in HK took about three months.

Voon: The job search was fairly easy once I got in touch with a recruitment company. I sent my CV over and told them a bit about myself and what I was look-

ing for. A couple of friendly chats later, I found myself lined up for an interview pretty quickly. The interview process was reasonably straightforward and painless, made up of a series of two phone interviews which were easy to organise.

How was the relocation?Robert: Hong Kong, like most major world cities is a transient place and well set up for people relocating. I also found that there is lots of advice out there on in-ternet forums from people who have relocated here. To anyone actually making the move, I recommend stay-ing a month or two in a serviced apartment to get the lay of the land and to give time to find more permanent accommodation.

Gareth: Much easier than I anticipated. The HR depart-ment sorted out my employment pass, my temporary apartment, shipping all of my belongings, getting me in touch with estate agents, everything. Packing the bags themselves was probably the most onerous thing about the whole process and that can only be a good thing.

Graham: Relocating to Asia does take a bit of planning and organising, hence it is probably a bit more difficult than moving to a new town/city within the UK. How-ever, there is support on hand to guide you through the process to help you decide how much stuff you want to bring, where you want to live etc.

Matt: I moved from the UK in late Febru-ary and spent the first month in a ser-viced apartment; my wife and daughter followed on six weeks later. This gave me the time to decide in which neigh-bourhood I wanted to live, as all have their pros and cons. A specialist relo-cation company in Hong Kong helped me greatly through the whole relocation

process; negotiating the apartment rental contract, ad-vising on everything from banking to nurseries, and of course managing the relocation of our possessions to HK. By mid-May I was in a new apartment with all of my belongings from the UK. Other colleagues in my office had made similar journeys from the UK and the

“There are many global insurance companies using Hong Kong as their regional hub which means actuaries are in strong demand.”

Robert Gow (FIA 2010, HSBC)

Robert is FIA qualified and moved from the UK to Hong Kong in September 2012 to join HSBC within their high net worth business.

Gareth Jones (FIA 2010, Towers Watson)

Gareth is FIA qualified and moved from the UK to Singapore in 2010 to join Towers Watson working with non-life clients across South East Asia.

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Graham Watson (FIA 2012, Deloitte)

Graham is a UK qualified (2012) and moved out to Hong Kong in 2012 to work with Deloitte in their APAC regional life team.

Matt Price (ACA 2000, Prudential)

Matt is a qualified accountant (ACA 2000), and moved to Hong Kong in 2013 to join Prudential in their regional office as Head of FPA.

Voon Chong (FIA 2012, PwC)

Voon is FIA 2012 qualifed and after growing up in the UK, she made the move to Hong Kong in 2012 to join PwC in their life actuarial team.

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US, and their advice and experiences also contrib-uted to a very smooth relocation process.

Voon: At the time it didn’t feel like it, but in hindsight it actually went somewhat smoothly. To be fair, it was only stressful because I left everything to the very last minute to organise. There were a lot of things to sort out - packing up and all the things associated with moving out of a home, selling my car, finding a place to live in Hong Kong, organising finances and saying goodbye to friends amongst a hundred other things. Fortunately and most importantly, expats moving to Hong Kong isn’t a new thing and there is lots of ad-vice out there and lots of people who are more than happy to help. I was told that the relocation can be as easy or as challenging as you want to make it, and I found that to be very true.

How have you (and your family) settled in to live in HK/Sing?Robert: Hong Kong is an easy place to settle and make friends with people in a similar situation to myself. It has everything you’d want in a city: there’s plenty to do, an excellent transportation network, a huge variety of food, and lots of countryside just a stone’s throw away meaning that it is easy to escape the hustle and bustle.

Gareth: I was originally somewhat concerned that the work-to-life balance would be too difficult here and that Singapore would be a dull place to live (these being things which I had been told by friends and col-leagues). Much to my relief, these worries turned out to be totally unfounded. The cultural diversity here is actually pretty surprising and affords a fun and varied lifestyle. One day you could be enjoying water-sports

off the coast of Malaysia, the next you could be in the organised chaos of a local hawker centre, the next you might be dodging fireworks from Chinese New Year celebrations. It is quite an easy life here as well; the weather is pretty consistently warm, everything is conducted in English (although I am attempting to learn Mandarin, with less than successful results), the public transport is cheap yet efficient, and the people are interesting and interested (the idea of dealing with snow is a novelty to many). All in all, a great place to live.

Graham: Hong Kong now feels very much like home. The British influences in Hong Kong are still evident, e.g. street names and businesses, so there are always references to the UK providing a degree of familiarity.

Matt: It has been far easier than my wife and I had expected. Our key requirements were finding a home and securing nursery provision for our daughter, and we sorted both of these out in the first few weeks. The biggest cultural change has been sharing our home with a live-in domestic helper (which is completely nor-mal in HK), but we wouldn’t be able to hold down full-time careers without this service. The use of internet telephone and video calling services has also made it easy to keep in regular con-tact with family and friends; in fact people probably get more calls from us now than when we were in the UK. We really enjoy the lifestyle here and have all the benefits of both living in a capital city and at the same time living two minutes from the beach at Discovery Bay. There are a lot of people from Europe and the

US, and the majority of HK work colleagues speak ex-cellent English, so we have found it very easy to build up a new group of friends. At the risk of sounding like a “Tiger Parent” (HK version of a pushy parent), I am also very excited that my daughter will have the opportunity to learn both English and Mandarin at school, and the potential benefits this will provide to her later on in life.

Voon: We’ve settled in really well. Hong Kong has been very welcoming to expats, and it’s easy to settle in when the quality of life is so high. Almost everything is convenient and runs very efficiently. There’s also so much variety in Hong Kong and the rest of Asia is prac-tically at your doorstep. English is widely spoken and it’s easy to meet people.

Has the job lived up to expectations ?Robert: Actuarial concepts and techniques familiar to the UK are also embedded in Hong Kong (particularly working for a UK headquartered company), so it was perhaps a surprise how much in common the work

was to my previous experi-ence. Of course, there is still a steep learning curve asso-ciated with taking any new job. One of my main expec-tations was to experience different cultures at work and this has certainly been the case, helping to strengthen

my adaptability and other ‘softer’ skills. There is also an appreciable sense of a high-growth business envi-ronment which is in contrast to the economic situation of UK/Europe.

Gareth: I was quite surprised about how similar the role I have here is compared to those I have had back in

“The British influences in Hong Kong are still evident, e.g. street names and businesses, so there are always references to the UK providing a degree of familiarity.”

the UK. My colleagues are very professional and friendly; my work is realistically demanding and varied. The market is in a real state of flux at the moment, whilst Solvency II does not directly impact any of the work done here, the local regulatory body has recently introduced new legisla-tion which has a lot of overlap with SII. The pace at which the regulations are changing here has made the work which is being carried out, both in-house and by cosultan-cies, quite exciting. It is interesting to think of where the market will eventually land on all of these new concepts which have previously rarely featured in the wider Asian insurance market.

Graham: Yes, in all ways and more. I’ve got involved in ar-eas I’d previously not thought would be possible for years to come, providing a challenging working environment with great career development prospects.

Matt: My new role in HK (a regional Head Office role for a multinational insurance company) is both challenging and enjoyable. I work with colleagues based in the regional office and across the 12 countries that the company op-erates in. The working ways in Asia are slightly different, but I think I have learnt the key differences in work culture and applied them to the way I work. People at the office here are very career-motivated, and are thus committed to continuously improve the reporting and forecasting de-liverables to our stakeholders. I find that working hours are generally longer than in the UK, but I benefit far more from an easier commute - a 30 minute ferry ride to work compared to over an hour on the Tube in London.

Voon: In some ways, yes. I expected a steep learning curve and I got one. The work has certainly been inter-esting. There are lots of opportunities to work on many different things as you’d expect in a growing market with companies from all over the world. English is the main business language, but I find that most locals prefer Can-tonese given the choice. People did warn me about long working hours, but it actually hasn’t been that unreason-able.

DIRECTOR - OLIVER JAMES (ASIA)Jonny Plews

Jonny was the first person beyond the founding part-ners to join Oliver James Associates in 2003, and over his ten year recruit-ment career he has been responisible for much of our international growth.

Jonny initially recruited in-ternal auditors and accoun-tants to the insurance sec-tor and after considerable success in this area, he was

given the challenge of setting up the actuarial division in 2005.

Since then Jonny has grown the largest and most suc-cessful actuarial division in Europe, and in 2011 he relo-cated to Hong Kong to develop our offering into the Asian Pacific markets. For a confidential discussion with Jonny about Asian opportunities please get in touch.

Email: jonny.plews@ojassociates.com hongkong@ojassociates.comTelephone: +852 5804 9200

OLIVER JAMES ASSOCIATES I WWW.OJASSOCIATES.COM I 2013