Fifteen years ago, Kobi Rahman arrived in London with just enough money for a roof over his head and a Ford Fiesta he couldn’t afford to run. A self-funded history graduate from the Midlands – he was the first person in his family to go to university – he’d landed a role in wealth management at a financial advisory firm.
“Those first two years were a baptism of fire,” he says. “I sat at tables with no idea why there were two forks and knives. I was a fish out of water. I survived because I had supportive managers from the start.”
Now senior vice-president, Treasury and Trade Solutions at Citi, he helps others from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds climb up the ladder. Last summer, he spoke to students taking part in the first Citi Social Mobility programme, a pioneering pilot scheme that aims to prepare talented people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to apply for a summer internship.
“I told them my own story and made them aware that they can get a foot in the door,” says Rahman, a co-chair of Citi’s social mobility network. “I’d had no pathway or guidance, but we are changing that.”
Many university students don’t apply for spring insight programmes and summer internships – an established route to a full-time job in competitive sectors such as banking – because they feel they don’t fit, says Charlotte Antell, head of early career for international at Citi. “But we want to bust the myth that to work in financial services you need to speak in a certain way or come from a particular background or attend an elite university.”
Students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds may be held back by a host of factors, she says: lack of confidence (“confidence is a massive barrier,” says Antell); impostor syndrome; lack of awareness of opportunities; the need to earn; or responsibilities at home, for example being a carer.
“If you don’t have parents or peers who know about these schemes, you won’t apply in time,” she says. And that’s a loss for the banking sector as well as for the students themselves.
This scheme aims to address that imbalance, says Antell. Last summer, the first group of eligible participants – students who were alumni of social mobility charities Sutton Trust and Career Ready – gathered at Citi’s head office in Canary Wharf. The six-week programme taught them about career opportunities and prepared and encouraged them to apply for summer internships.
“London can be intimidating – not everyone can afford to come here to do an internship. We wanted to help people who might think: ‘I’ve got no contacts, there’s no place for me in finance’,” she says.
Part-time, paid and with travel and accommodation covered, the largely virtual course aimed to allow students to attend despite logistical difficulties, says Antell. With a deliberately flexible programme structure, students with other responsibilities, such as caring duties, are able to participate.
They learned about the variety of careers within financial services and opportunities at Citi. “We wanted to show the breadth of areas and help students navigate Citi to choose somewhere that suited them.”
Participants also learned how to negotiate, how to combat impostor syndrome, how to make an impact and, crucially, how to network. “Because nobody teaches you how to do it, how to ask someone for a chat, although this kind of networking is expected of summer interns,” says Antell.
Of those who took part, 50% have gone on to successfully apply for and secure a summer internship at Citi this year, which delights Antell. Many told her they felt more confident, and less likely to fall victim to impostor syndrome, she says.
Today the banking sector is refreshingly more diverse, say Antell and Rahman, with an improvement in the mix of gender and ethnicity. But reaching a healthier social mix is tricky, says Rahman, because it’s harder to define and measure. In the past, industry leaders haven’t understood the value of recruiting beyond their own familiar backgrounds.
“This scheme isn’t about penalising particular groups of people,” says Antell. “It’s really about opening the door.”
There’s work to do, says Rahman. A Sutton Trust study found some 60% of leaders in financial institutions were privately educated, compared with 7% of the population.
Businesses aren’t yet required to report the social mobility of their employees, and gathering data is tricky because it’s hard to define an individual’s socioeconomic status, says Rahman. “And how can you measure mobility if you don’t know where people have come from or how well they have done?” Better data will lead to more effective action, he believes.
“We’re trying to put foundations in place to get a well-rounded view of our workforce and where our shortfalls are.”
Rahman wants not only to recruit more people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, but help them stay on and have career progression through the company too. He’s collaborating with industry groups to ensure middle managers progress further. “We want to ensure that where a person comes from or what they sound like won’t hold them back.”
Find out more about opportunities at Citi at jobs.citi.com
