Banking Sector - Career Path

[Yaco99]

Best paying positions are sales & trading and investment banking.

If you wanna just talk about starting pay, even operations pays well for the biggest banks, but upside potential is of course more limited.

Unless the job needs specific skills like accounting or IT, banks don't bother too much about your discipline of study.

QFT.

10char

Edit: This is weird. I think I multiquote wrongly and managed to get my post inbetween what I quoted. Bug?

 

[Agravaine]

Hmm... What are the other high paying job in a bank??
Is there anything for accounting student??

I seem to be stuck and not aiming for anything right now?

Best paying positions are sales & trading and investment banking.

If you wanna just talk about starting pay, even operations pays well for the biggest banks, but upside potential is of course more limited.

Unless the job needs specific skills like accounting or IT, banks don't bother too much about your discipline of study.

 

[low_key_goer]

One way is to go to those job website like jobdb and browse their website for any jobs or internship. The other way would be to contact their hr and let them know that you like to work as an intern and whether they could offer you an internship program.

To contact their hr, the most easy method would be going to their website. There should be a link like 'join xxx as a as career' or smth similar..

Wah, like that it's not easy to even get the temp jobs. Most banks have already started their internship prgramme from May onwards. Think they cater more to local uni than to UOL BnF students.

 

[Agravaine]

Wah, like that it's not easy to even get the temp jobs. Most banks have already started their internship prgramme from May onwards. Think they cater more to local uni than to UOL BnF students.

Temp jobs have to find from jobsdb, jobstreet, etc. Try applying for next year's internships lor.

 

[Yaco99]

You don't really have to rely on the jobs website. Can just walk into the agencies banking and finance branch to register since the sites is just for the agents to get your contacts anyway.

Might have to wait awhile to get a job you want if you are applying during peak periods like uni school holidays or poly internship period though. It's easier the rest of the time since banks always need temps to do work that perms don't want to do.

Trading and risk positions also have high pay, not only investment banking. But they would most likely require you to have an MFE or a stats degree, minimum.

IT positions are also well-sought after.

You can go and youtube on those financial analyst positions, each got different job characteristics, but most of them are focused on equities research and asset management.

Hmm...from what I know though, most IT positions at BB banks are now all outsourced. You got an IT prob? Call the IT guy in India and they will remote access your com and fix it for you. If it's hardware, it will be local but still outsourced. Unless you meant program developing? That one i have no idea about.

Next Question: If i decide to study Accountancy/Taxation, what are the jobs in the bank that require such skills??

A loan manager ?? who is In charge of approving loan to customers? or what are they called??

Depending on what kind of loans it is. If it's like a large personal loan, there's a risk manager who will look through the client's profile and determine if the client is suitable. Those normal standard loans like study loans and local housing loans usually just have a check list where it will be approved if everything pass.

I believe that are some local banks who offer temp jobs and internship all yr round, so i would rather advise him to email HR and ask..

One way is to go to those job website like jobdb and browse their website for any jobs or internship. The other way would be to contact their hr and let them know that you like to work as an intern and whether they could offer you an internship program.

To contact their hr, the most easy method would be going to their website. There should be a link like 'join xxx as a as career' or smth similar..

For temp jobs, it is totally pointless to contact the bank HR dept. It is outsourced to recruitment agencies like Kelly service's and Recruit express and the bank HR will just refer you there anyway. Every bank got their fixed agency. DBS, Citibank, Stand chart is under Kelly. Barclays, NAB, ANZ, BNP Paribus is under recruit express. There are some more under each but these are just the ones I know for sure.

For internship, you do need to contact the bank's HR dept but there are very specific period and application window. Find out more from your school's career center or whatever.

Wah, like that it's not easy to even get the temp jobs. Most banks have already started their internship prgramme from May onwards. Think they cater more to local uni than to UOL BnF students.

Temp jobs are not that hard to find la. I am already doing my 3rd one at a different bank each since because I want to find out more about each and also to network. And I have not even entered uni yet. Sadly, I think the internship part is true, all the more sad since I am taking UOL's BnF. Time to pull strings when the time comes lol.

 

[ctzehock]

so if i want to be a risk manager or equivant, what should be my next step?
Taking accountancy or banking would be better??

Since i took before accounting, i know what are the stuffs that i will be learning.. But for banking, what should i expect to learn ??

 

[Agravaine]

so if i want to be a risk manager or equivant, what should be my next step?
Taking accountancy or banking would be better??

Since i took before accounting, i know what are the stuffs that i will be learning.. But for banking, what should i expect to learn ??

Do whichever course you can score well in. Banks can afford to train ppl, and they want ppl who have proven that they're good. All other things being equal, first class in engin will get the job over 2nd upper in business.

That being said, accountancy would be a good background for risk management (in fact its a more useful course to take than generic business).

Btw Yaco, there are non-outsourced depts for IT in BB, got a few friends there.

 

[Yaco99]

yep there always will be in case of any emergency but it's the trend for quite a large part of them to be outsourced now.

taking accountancy would logically be better for a risk manager but the difference in the chances of you getting that position because of that degree would really be minimal since you don't start as a risk manager.

you will have to start off some place where you can learn about more of the products and workflow of a bank and their interactions to be able to fully understand the risk of each while working your way up.

from there it would depend much much more on your work performance and your human relations rather then what degree you have.

 

[Agravaine]

And that kinda kills off your chances of moving into the front office, both for formal and informal reasons

 

[friendlyguy]

Best paying positions are sales & trading and investment banking.

If you wanna just talk about starting pay, even operations pays well for the biggest banks, but upside potential is of course more limited.

Unless the job needs specific skills like accounting or IT, banks don't bother too much about your discipline of study.

I think banks job are overrated. Everybody says wanna work in banks but dunno which role they wanna work. If you landed the sales&trading,IB,M&A,equities&Fixed income analysts, then go ahead. But the others will not make you go further, you will stuck at that role forever. No learning curve.

 

[friendlyguy]

Do whichever course you can score well in. Banks can afford to train ppl, and they want ppl who have proven that they're good. All other things being equal, first class in engin will get the job over 2nd upper in business.

That being said, accountancy would be a good background for risk management (in fact its a more useful course to take than generic business).

Btw Yaco, there are non-outsourced depts for IT in BB, got a few friends there.

Training in bank is worse la..no learning curve, just learn about the banking products..especially if u work in consumer banking not IB banks... u should try IB banks.

 

[Agravaine]

I think banks job are overrated. Everybody says wanna work in banks but dunno which role they wanna work. If you landed the sales&trading,IB,M&A,equities&Fixed income analysts, then go ahead. But the others will not make you go further, you will stuck at that role forever. No learning curve.

Actually I'm only talking about BB banks. The work might be boring and monotonous n operations, but you still earn a pretty decent salary compared to ppl doing 'dynamic' work in a local bank.

Many jobs also require you to do some repetitive and/or mind-numbing stuff, so why not earn more while you're at it?

 

[friendlyguy]

Actually I'm only talking about BB banks. The work might be boring and monotonous n operations, but you still earn a pretty decent salary compared to ppl doing 'dynamic' work in a local bank.

Many jobs also require you to do some repetitive and/or mind-numbing stuff, so why not earn more while you're at it?

what is BB banks? Local bank is not good for learning. Btw, once you got retrenched you are not easy to move to other banks especially in recession.

How much will you earn at operation banking? I thought the pay will stuck once you reach 10 years exp.

 

[Agravaine]

what is BB banks? Local bank is not good for learning. Btw, once you got retrenched you are not easy to move to other banks especially in recession.

How much will you earn at operation banking? I thought the pay will stuck once you reach 10 years exp.

Bulge bracket.

I've seen computer engineers in IT dept earning 6k+ at under 30 years old. Work longer, rise up the ranks if you can, and with 10 years experience you'll earn more than what most ppl will ever reach in their whole lives in local companies.

 

[Yaco99]

Agra, I really don't think that when most people are inquiring about working banks, they are talking about the IT side and more along the routes of finance related departments. But it's always good to hear from different sides though, your friends may have heard things that others don't while working in the IT side.

friendlyguy, what makes you think that working in any other industries apart from banking ensures that you have a lot of things to learn? When you get thrown into almost any MNCs, you will pretty much have a really narrow jobscope that is no different from the quantity of stuff you learn at banks. You just learn about different stuff. Let's say you are working at GE, do you think you will be hopping all over the depts from research to marketing to sales? You will still be employed for your particular skill set and placed where you are most useful to the coy.

And in a recession, when you get retrenched, in exactly which industry would it be easy to find another job?

I agree with you about many people wanting to work in banks without knowing exactly what they want to do but isn't the purpose of this whole thread to let everyone have a discussion and learn more about the exact specifics?

Pay do get stagnant after awhile in ops so your main variance in pay would be how much your coy earned that year and how much bonus you are getting unless you are really good and manage to keep getting promoted to ever higher managerial roles.

Also, you do realise that your comment of working in IB banks not really possible right? In the US, there are still boutiques banks that only do IB but all of the major IBs have already been taken out. Lehman collapsed. Merrill got taken over by BOA. Bear sterns went to JP Morgan. The only survivors, Goldman and Morgan Stanley have also both been converted to normal bank holding companies. So there are no IB banks for you to work in at all in Singapore.

 

[ctzehock]

That was my point of creating this thread as well. After hearing so many people who mention that they regret not choosing properly the course they wanna study during their uni days and
I do not want to follow their footstep.

 

[friendlyguy]

Agra, I really don't think that when most people are inquiring about working banks, they are talking about the IT side and more along the routes of finance related departments. But it's always good to hear from different sides though, your friends may have heard things that others don't while working in the IT side.

friendlyguy, what makes you think that working in any other industries apart from banking ensures that you have a lot of things to learn? When you get thrown into almost any MNCs, you will pretty much have a really narrow jobscope that is no different from the quantity of stuff you learn at banks. You just learn about different stuff. Let's say you are working at GE, do you think you will be hopping all over the depts from research to marketing to sales? You will still be employed for your particular skill set and placed where you are most useful to the coy.

And in a recession, when you get retrenched, in exactly which industry would it be easy to find another job?

I agree with you about many people wanting to work in banks without knowing exactly what they want to do but isn't the purpose of this whole thread to let everyone have a discussion and learn more about the exact specifics?

Pay do get stagnant after awhile in ops so your main variance in pay would be how much your coy earned that year and how much bonus you are getting unless you are really good and manage to keep getting promoted to ever higher managerial roles.

I don't see any bright future of banking ops, they stuck in that position and maybe no bonuses?
Most local banks offer bank ops jobs.

But in MnC, maybe if you are capable person then you can climb become a director? You will learn a lot of strategic and management skills.

 

[friendlyguy]

That was my point of creating this thread as well. After hearing so many people who mention that they regret not choosing properly the course they wanna study during their uni days and
I do not want to follow their footstep.

can Courses during uni days help you in your jobs? I thought it's only 5% relevant to your jobs. Don't join bank ops if u don't want to follow their footstep.

 

[Yaco99]

I don't see any bright future of banking ops, they stuck in that position and maybe no bonuses?
Most local banks offer bank ops jobs.

But in MnC, maybe if you are capable person then you can climb become a director? You will learn a lot of strategic and management skills.

There's pretty much no such thing as no bonuses unless you resign or get sacked before the bonus period. It's just how much you get, depending on your performance and the bank's performance that year.

And so if you are a capable person in a bank you won't be able to climb?? That really makes no sense to me. How is management different at at MNCs any different from that at banks? And by definations, most banks are MNCs since their holdings span over many countries.

If you just want to become a director, banks would be the easiest place to become one with the inflated ranks in the consumer banking side. Directors and VPs are all over the place so it really doesn't mean anything.

 

[friendlyguy]

There's pretty much no such thing as no bonuses unless you resign or get sacked before the bonus period. It's just how much you get, depending on your performance and the bank's performance that year.

And so if you are a capable person in a bank you won't be able to climb?? That really makes no sense to me. How is management different at at MNCs any different from that at banks? And by definations, most banks are MNCs since their holdings span over many countries.

If you just want to become a director, banks would be the easiest place to become one with the inflated ranks in the consumer banking side. Directors and VPs are all over the place so it really doesn't mean anything.

ok..im wrong about it.. by the way, why banks also pay bonuses for bank ops too since they are in the back office, they are more likely cost centre than profit centre.

And how many times bonuses they get? My friend in the treasury gets 23x of his monthly salary. But my friend suggested me not to join bank ops if I wanna learn more since bank ops is only 9-5 day job. That is for ppl who want work life balance. So personal banking is not my route.

Mncs that I mean are 500 fortune list.