The 27-year-old woman teaching bankers how to shake hands

Lisa Tyshchenko is a 27-year-old woman with an elite qualification that gives her insights into the advancement in financial services. It’s not an MBA. It’s not even a Level 1 CFA® exam passport. It’s an etiquette course from an elite Swiss graduating school.

That summer, Tyshchenko spent six weeks at the Institut Villa Pierrefeu (IVP) in Glion, a small village near Montreux, where she studied the art of small talk, business meetings, formal meals, dress code, manners, hostess and subtle differences between them was trained cultures. Since then she has spent her time spreading the arcane knowledge she gathered there for a fee among current and aspiring bankers.

“In the past, graduating from high school was all about learning manners and being a housewife,” says Tyshchenko. “Many schools have died because of this, but this is a full diploma in etiquette for international business. ”

The Institut Villa Pierrefeu, featured in The New Yorker in 2018, claims to be “the last Swiss graduating school”. Alumni include Princess Diana and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The students are mostly women, although some courses (the “European Art of Eating”) are receptive to men. In addition to leaking revelations like, “Employees may be illiterate, so care should be taken to instruct employees verbally rather than with a printed schedule,” the New Yorker recognized the school’s mission as educating people not in the art of making money, but in to teach ‘the gestures of having inherited it.’

It’s the resulting behavior that, according to Tyshchenko, makes such a difference in bank interviews and bank jobs. “I teach my clients how to impress people,” she says. “How to shake hands, how to introduce yourself, how to talk to the front desk clerk, how to make small talk without being awkward, how to introduce people…”

For the untrained, Tyshchenko says, such things can be a minefield of misbehavior and false signals. Women tend to shake hands weakly; men too strong; People who wear rings accidentally hurt their trembling partner and get off to a bad start. Knowing these things will set you apart: “People gain the confidence to behave appropriately in any situation.”

Tyshchenko herself cannot claim to have directly implemented her observations in banking, but she worked in the industry before studying. In 2020, she spent a year in Deutsche Bank’s wealth management program, followed by seven months as a private banker in Geneva. She founded her coaching company last September, five months after leaving CIM Banque.

Understanding etiquette makes all the differences in bank interviews, says Tyshchenko. It helps with initial screening interviews; it helps in assessment centers. Some of their suggestions sound like simple body language (don’t cross your arms or legs). Some sound slightly sexist (women should fold their hands slightly during the interview, men should rest their hands on the armrests of the chair). but Tyshchenko says it works and her clients can attest to its effectiveness: “They say it’s about a lot more than an interview and technical tips; it’s life lessons.”

Of course, people with a passion for international etiquette could always take the IVP themselves, but the course doesn’t come cheap. Tyshchenko says tuition alone cost her $25,000, and living expenses added another $5,000. Some of the participants lived in hotels and spent $60,000 to $70,000. This makes a short stint at IVP a similar price to a Masters in Finance qualification. But everyone these days has a Masters in Finance. Not everyone knows how to look polished and pull off the perfect handshake.

Click here to create a profile on eFinancialCareers. Make yourself visible to companies hiring for positions in financial services and technology where the handshake is optional.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: [email protected] in first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available (Telegram: @SarahButcher)

Please be patient when leaving a comment at the end of this article: All of our comments are human moderated. Sometimes these people are asleep or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will—unless it’s offensive or defamatory (in which case it won’t.)