Zhaoyi Wang -- Job Market Research

This time, I did some job research about the area of microfinance, which is famous for Muhammad Yunus, the recipient of Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Inside US

Microfinance in US is targeting immigration workers mainly from Latin America. In the broad definition, microfinance means remittance money to their home country, micro lending and micro insurance business.

・Kiva:portfolio manager (http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.11.153641/)

Basically, the jobs offered in side US is managers in the microfinance organization. For example, KIVA, a global microfinance lending organization, is looking for a portfolio manager. The qualification for this job is 3 years or more of professional experience in microfinance, banking, or a management consulting firm, BS/BA degree in business, finance, or economics, MS/MBA is desirable Knowledge of international microfinance, or work or volunteer experience in South Asia and so on.

・ACCION:Chicago Loan Officer (http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.11.150400/)

We can see the almost same thing in the second inside US job, ACCION Chicago, a small business loan company, is looking for a loan officer. The qualification in this case is less demanding than KIVA’s case, though, it’s still looking for somebody who can manage people or make consulting jobs to their customers.

Outside US

・Daiwa Securities Group Inc. (http://www.daiwa-grp.jp/recruit/)

On the other hand, jobs outside US I found are different. In Asia, compared US, which is one of the developed country in microfinance, the social institution is still underdeveloped. For example, in the case of Japan, there is little organization which can run it as company through microfinance business. Therefore, in Japan, if you want to find jobs related to microfinance, the best way is to get internship status or job in financing companies. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. is the only company which is treating microfinance bond.

・Internships-Global Costa Rica, India, Uganda

(http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.11.149156/)

Talking about internship, there is a lot of internship status around the world. In Asia, the area offering internship status the most is India and Bangladesh.

Compensation for microfinance jobs is usually unclear. It seems that people individually negotiate with organizations.

Through the whole research, I found a very interesting company. This company is called Microfinance International Corporation, which is founded by Japanese, Atumasa Tochisako. The main business is remittance service for immigrant workers from Latin America. Usually, immigrant workers had to pay high charge to remit money to their home countries. However, MFI succeeded to build a remittance system through cellphone.

Basically, the approach for this company is same with the others. However, it is new that this company introduced high technology to the poor people. How to apply the new system, financial products, technology is the most important notion for applying this company.