If you have the opportunity to work at investment banking in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, which one would you choose? Why?

I will chose mainland China because it will allow me to learn a lot more and gain much more experience quickly. Investment banking in Hong Kong is just business as usual, sort of very common and risk averse activity.Life will be easier and sweeter in HK but I will end up being just one in the million person working in traditional investment banking. The job will be the job - until the next financial crisis. It may be an interesting career but not really an exciting one.

On the other side, working in the mainland may be messy. There is a clear lack of proper regulations or defined processes. The ways to handle usual things will differ largely so if may push me far away from my comfort zone. I may have to create and invent many things from scratch, understand and solve tricky issues and sometimes get out of complicated situations. That will be more challenging and tiring but at the end of the day I will have gain very valuable practical knowledge, made an interesting network and tons of inedit experience.

So I will chose the mainland to start my career because it offer so much better opportunity for the future. And I will chose HK if I am already used to the western ways of doing business and want to keep learning at a slower pace.

This text was originally published in quora.