Consultant Life on Site in Paris

The team representing FDM Group (left to right): Brandon Johnson, Labib Haque, Erranveer Randhawa, Tristan Guest, Ganesh Ravindran, Bile Abdulle and Qaasim Abid.

We spoke with one of our consultants, Erranveer Randhawa who made the move from London to Paris to join BNP Paribas, to find out about his experience both on the pitch and professionally.

I graduated with a degree in Forensic Science and had some previous work experience in accountancy before I joined FDM. Wanting to continue working in the financial industry, and also use the analytical skills I developed through university, I trained in the Risk, Regulation and Compliance stream in London.

Prior to joining FDM, I had heard that there were opportunities to work with clients in different cities globally. As this was something I wanted to pursue, I made sure to let the account managers know that I was flexible, but would ideally want to move to a new city following my completion of the training. Then in my last week of training I was successfully selected for a role at BNP Paribas in Paris.

When I initially moved to Paris, there were only around 35 other FDM consultants placed there. Fortunately, I arrived just in time for the summer party, which enabled me to meet everyone in the first couple of weeks. This made my transition across borders to France so much easier. Also, I only knew some French from GCSE and a short language course I took at university, which helped me when speaking outside of the FDM and BNPP bubble. Some of my peers moved to Paris with next to no French, but still found it an easy move with the aid of Google Translate.

Fast-forward six months and there are now 60 FDM consultants in Paris as the community continues to grow. This growth is both helpful within the business environment, where the FDM network is so supportive of each other and also on the social side. One example of this is football. In Paris, FDMers get together every week to play football, which is usually followed by a beer or two afterwards!

Recently, our football squad was invited to participate in a business’-only tournament at our local football centre. We entered, competing with other Paris operating companies such as Banque De France, Uber Eats and Sidem Veolia. We had a successful night and were able to win the ‘Europa League’ tournament, showcasing our great energy, collaboration and ambition.

Life in Paris is an opportunity not to be missed.

Check out all the global opportunities that FDM can present, or apply for our Careers Programme.