Fahd Gondal

Hedge Fund Credit Sales
Mathematics with Management (BSc) – Imperial College
Fahd Gondal
Hedge Fund Credit Sales
Mathematics with Management (BSc) – Imperial College


I wanted to work in an exciting and energetic environment, so the financial markets had always held a certain allure. I also enjoy interacting with others, so the client-facing aspect of a salesperson’s appealed to me completely.

When I first joined RBS I was surprised at how easy it was to fit in – and how much I enjoyed working with the people on my desk. They are extremely bright and motivated. I get a lot of inspiration from them.

I received intensive training at the start of the programme to develop our cross-asset technical skills. The focus then switched to our client and communication skills on the desk.

The emphasis was always on practical application, to get us up and running as soon as possible. I was supported by my buddy, mentor and management team throughout. All of them helped me to succeed, and I am now being sponsored to complete the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

The Trading floor here is very non-hierarchical and meritocratic. The atmosphere and culture are amazing, but the things I enjoy most are the fact that every day is different and you’re rewarded for the amount of effort you put in.

In the short term, I’m looking forward to increasing the number of my clients in my portfolio, and breaking new thresholds in my revenue generation. Beyond that, who knows? The only thing I’m sure of is that there’ll be lots of other exciting opportunities ahead. 

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What is it like working for RBS?

RBS is a fantastic place to work. Obviously every person's different and they want a variety of things from their profession with the multitude of opportunities there are at RBS I can honestly say that I think that it would suit almost everyone that's looking to go into the financial services.

How would you describe the working environment?

The culture's very important in the industry I work with it's all a reflection of the way people behave towards each other, I work on the trading floor and there's a very flat structure in terms of .. you sit with the managing director's at the desk side by side. And you've got the youngest graduates sitting right next to people that have been there 15-20 years in the same industry and you can talk to them absolutely no problem whatsoever, in fact, they actively encourage it. That's just reflective of the supportive culture that there is at RBS.

How do you see your future with RBS?

I love working at RBS and I've been here two years now and at this point in time I really don't see any need for why I should want to change what I'm currently doing and the aim is to become managing director of the desk one day.

What attracted you to working for RBS?

I suppose the initial attraction in terms of working for RBS, it all stemmed from attending a series of career presentations on campus. The big thing is obviously if you're going to work for somewhere and you're working 11 hours a day, 5 days a week the most important thing's the people that you work with and I've got to say that the people that I found at the RBS presentations were absolutely fantastic and did a brilliant job of representing the firm itself and so that's what really swayed me towards putting the application in.