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Old 27-09-2011, 01:59 PM
tcyeric tcyeric is offline
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Default Career Advice Needed

Hey all, am at a career stand point currently and am in the midst of evaluating what i should do :| i apologise if my post is too long and potentially whiny :|

TLDR: i feel like my current job shows no future potential and i would want to know how to progress on career and $ wise, either through a job change or upgrading myself through academic qualifications

Just a slight background, i've always wanted to be the chap on the newspapers giving suggestions as to which stocks to buy/hold/sell (along the lines of financial research la), felt that such a job would give me the skill set needed for me to survive should my employer ever were to retrench me etc in bad times, more of a long term perspective.

But yea, thats what i would want to do, in reality this is how my job history has been like:

i graduated with distinction (similar to NUS' merit) - Bachelor of Business Management (major: finance, 'minor': HR) from SIM/RMIT

since graduation my first job was in an audit firm in the department called 'business restructuring services', call me naive but my impression was that of, literally, business restructuring, which i felt complemented what i learnt in my business modules etc but in reality was more of liquidation services. after a year (13 months to be specific) i left mainly due to the depressing nature of the job. its kinda like working as an executioner, you do your job but the people impacted view you as the enemy etc.

since then i was unemployed for 6 months before i got a contract job as a 'procurement administrator' for a medical equipment R&D firm whereby my main tasks were purchasing of components in support of the R&D engineers and slightly in support of production of upcoming products, a large chunk of my work was also in relation to providing logistical administration for the office's shift (which of course has no value in a resume anyways). i did this job cause it was the only job offered to me in my times of unemployment and for then next 10 months i was with this job (as per my contract).

a little something to add: within these 2 jobs i had attempted at CFA level 1 which both times i failed (its always failing ONE topic sigh)

since then i was unemployed for 2 months till i got my present job, that of a business analyst for a hotel. it was a job i felt was a little more towards my 'ideal' job, a job whereby i did analytical work (to a certain extent). You could say that my current job was 'a foot' inside finance (financial analysis) and that of revenue (revenue management). A little more than a year into this job, i am starting to feel a sense of stagnation in this job. Maybe its just me (hopefully not), but i am starting to feel that i have no 'future' within this job (i.e. no direction from my position as a business analyst). I do have colleagues in fellow hotels that have been business analysts for years and have had no form of career progression and within a hotel there is nothing beyond the position of that of a business analyst (to lightly put it its almost like a secretary, you join as one and for the rest of your career you are stuck as one)

As such this brings me to my problem:-
1) The hospitality industry does not pay well and as i move on in life (marriage, home, family, etc) my financial obligations are in time going to take up a larger proportion of my salary (which sadly currently, my salary is lesser than that of a fresh grad )

2) I feel a sense of career stagnation. Do i move on to another job? If so what job? I would still love to do some form of financial research though it seems given my academic background and job experience i am doubtful any company would give the chance to an individual no matter how much they are willing to learn or step up to the role. Or should i take 'upgrade' myself academically so as to get that first job towards that in financial research? This itself leads to a whole bunch of questions of whether to take a MBA/CFA/ MFE

Pardon my 'random' rabbling, its just that i feel really lost as to what i should do. The most low risk solution is to stay where i am at and just collect that pay check, but with the reality of rising prices and cost of living, i feel the need to do 'something' to get myself out of this.

Thank you for your time to read this wall of text and i do hope that you could provide some advice :|

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