Pros
I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent at Birchstone.
The company is filled with smart, ambitious and (most importantly) good people, with an established / successful leadership team and mix of experienced / young sales guys. CEO / MD encourage and stand by a flat, horizontal culture where input is valued irrespective of how junior you are. The vast majority of the time they find the balance right, something evidenced by the growth over the past few years.
From previous XP. elsewhere departments can feel quite silo’d, but this certainly isn’t the case here. Everyone is open to helping everyone, and you’ll never be short of a second opinion / piece of advice, with the Head of Sales being particularly knowledgeable and leading from the front.
Trust is a big thing; if you are confident in what you are doing you’ll be given autonomy to crack on with your work, whilst training is there for all levels (derivatives down to simple hedging) should you need / want it. The company is happy (and keen!) to invest in you to do your exams which helps professional development as well as when it comes to bettering client relationships / the service to stakeholders (I completed mine whilst at the company and noticed a big difference).
Providing three different services and not just FX is a massive plus. The FX space is v congested and being able to assist on yields / lending enables a far more holistic approach when servicing clients compared to other brokers / providers. The bespoke offering has yielded success for a lot of the team and should continue to do so.
Regardless, the FX offering in itself stands out - CEO & mgmt. investing heavily in tech offering with quantitative / qualitative data being available to aid client decisions / strategies if deemed necessary.
Finally, kudo’s to overall brand image - a lot of work has gone into pinpointing what resonates and that definitely shines through the collateral available which Head of Marketing has done a great job on.
Cons
Limited scope for working / travel abroad.