Originally Posted by Unregistered

Happen to chance upon this forum. Very interesting information and discussion. Thought I will throw in my views as well, hopefully freshies will not make similar mistakes some of my peers made when they graduated from uni. I have worked in the financial industry about 7 years, moved around different foreign banks and spent some time in HK as well, and fortunately not in BO - thanks to my internship experience in a local bank ops during uni time, it helped steer my career away from Ops / BO, almost went into this function like many other local grads.

Singapore is like support centre hub, so many of the bank jobs tend to be more ops / BO related, and there are lesser FO opp cuz we are not like HK with very active IPO / debt market, so it is very easy to land yourself in Ops / BO in SG.

Like what some people said, do not join BO when you are a fresh grad (especially if your ultimate goal is to get out of BO and into other functions), no matter it is BB or local bank or what not, once in BO, it is close to impossible to get out of the BO no matter where you go. Your salary will remain depressed and much lower than other functions. BO is also unfortunately where all the cuts tend to go too as these functions tend to be more easily replaced or streamlined with automation and AI etc. With the rapid development in AI / digitization in banking, it will be too complacent for any of us to say our jobs will nt be replaced by machines in the near future. But it is a double whammy for BO. Low salary + high risk of job cuts....

And anyway banking is going sunset, if you can, consider other industries like tech while it is not too late. For me, i am kinda stuck in banking, having already spent sizable amt of time in this industry, part of me wish that i have the ability to acquire new knowledge and jump into another industry, but i cannt stand going thru the study, start career anew as a junior staff and then move up....