Dunno if u know this, but this is what i gathered from friends who graduated together with me in 2009-2010 period.
I would just like to simply state starting salaries of IT positions in banks/financial institutions with presence in Singapore. The lowest starting pay is around 3.3k in a local bank, and the highest, as far as I know, is 5.8k per month in a top-tier investment bank.(i.e. 40K - 70K per annum).
Many fellow fresh grads who are in technology graduate/analyst/associate (whatever it's called in each bank) are from varying academic backgrounds, such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, mathematics, physics and business/finance.
One thing is similar in all these banks & their hiring strategies: they DO hire nerds, who can get the job done. they PREFER smart people who get decent grades and at the same time participate in activities/committees/volunteer services.
Apart from banks, there are also MNCs and statboards which pay decently.
Mindef and
DSTA pays the best for 1st class honours guys with
NS, among the IT statboard.
MNCs pays are more varied. From automobile, aerospace,oil&gas and manufacturing industries, these companies also require competent graduates. Amazingly, my friends who are working in R&D or Product Management in semi-con factories earn quite a lot. The base pay may seem low, somewhere around 2.8-3.5k depending on companies, when you factor in OT and allowances, it could work out to as much as 4.5-5k !!! NO JOKE.
Banks don't pay OT hahahaha!!
IT pay surely is not as high as those in Front Office, such as corporate finance/sales/trading roles (starting pay offer of at least 6k to as high as 10k SGD per month for a fresh grad). You can expect VERY long hours for these high-paying jobs, averaging 80-100 working hours PER WEEK, while in IT, it generally averages about 50-60 hours per week. I'd rather enjoy life while that lasts.
Imagine you've a few hundreds of thousands of dollars in your bank account, but tsunami/earthquake strikes out of the blue. How will you get to spend it, if you die. And if you survive? Give away as donations or make more money as market is closing low?
Look at Japan right now. Some traders are getting richer by 'shorting' the market. They're laughing their asses off now with $$$ flowing into their PnL sheets. But is it... moral? That's up to you to define...