Mr. Shangkong | Big-sounding job titles in HK can cause confusion and embarrassment

Job titles for certain financial professionals are becoming the butt of jokes around Central, Hong Kong’s answer to Wall Street. It seems like five out of 10 investment bankers and private equity dealmakers you bump into these days in Central are vice-presidents.

Their colleagues who populate the district boast a dizzying array of titles, from managing partner to senior managing partner to all manner of directors – associate directors, executive directors and managing directors. But being a director doesn’t necessarily mean he or she actually sits on any company’s board.

This “title inflation” is even catching on at many Chinese banks and securities firms on the mainland. How long will it be before they are also laughing about it in the financial centre of Shanghai as well?

One of my friends has an MBA degree from a prestigious American university. He returned to Hong Kong after graduation, and joined a newly established private-equity firm as an associate, a typical entry-level job nowadays for MBAs looking for a career in the financial industry.

About a year later, my friend  was promoted to a more senior position and his boss created a new title for him: associate partner.

In Chinese, “associate partner” literally means more like a “co-partner”. But, technically, he was more like a senior associate.

One day my friend, then at the tender age of 27, visited a client on the mainland with his line manager whose title was director. It led to an awkward situation when the mainland client jumped to the conclusion that my friend was the boss.