Mizuho seeks Google hopefuls in tech-race

Bloomberg

One of Japan’s biggest banks is throwing away the cookie cutter when it comes to hiring fresh graduates.
Realising it was recruiting “exactly the same” types of people each year, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. now wants to hire more creative thinkers who can help it meet challenges such as the technological upheaval facing banks, said Shinya Uda, a human resources manager at Japan’s third-biggest lender. That includes science majors, foreigners, and people who are looking to work for technology giants such as Google owner Alphabet Inc.
“I told my team to go out and find people who aren’t interested in finance,” Uda said. “It was kind of an impossible request, but I said ‘Find me someone who’s weighing up going to Google.”’
Global banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. are also seeking to diversify away from finance graduates to adapt their workforces to a rapidly changing business environment. Japan’s biggest lenders are slashing branches and headcount as customers go mobile and near-zero interest rates reduce profitability, forcing banks to find ways to do more than just lend.
“It’s a recruiting policy that’s in line with the times,” said Nana Otsuki, chief analyst at Monex Inc. in Tokyo. “Banks can’t make profits from traditional banking business as long as interest rates stay low, so if they’re going to grow earnings from other businesses, it makes sense to seek a new type of talent.”
Mizuho plans to cut 19,000 positions over the next decade, and those who remain will need to build an organisation that can survive in a world where technology is spawning new rivals and partners. The Tokyo-based bank recently appointed a digital innovation chief and has been working on initiatives ranging from electronic payments to AI-driven lending.
Like most major companies in Japan, Mizuho courts university students in a lengthy ritual of tests, seminars and interviews during their final year of school.
This year, it sent out 70,000 copies of a recruitment brochure bearing the slogan, “We want to meet people who aren’t Mizuho types.” It plans to hire about 400 graduates for the year starting April 2019, down from more than 600 two years earlier as the bank moves towards shrinking its workforce.