Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi... I am the local accountancy grad who ended up in IB and I thought I'd share some of my experiences / lessons I have learnt.

Ask yourself again, do you really really really want to join IB? If so, read further:

Some of my advice may not sound too pleasing, but I will be as honest with you as I possibly can.

Statistically speaking, less than 1% of finance graduates from local universities in Singapore end up in a pure IB front office position upon graduation. I define this as starting pay >$10,000 pm, we sometimes refer to these employers as the BB "bulge brackets". You would have read about such salaries in the papers, so I won't bother to mask this truth from you.

You are competing with not only the top of your cohort, but also the top of the cohorts from other fields of study (engineering, finance, arts etc). Since IB hiring is Global, you are also competing with applicants from the region. Remember all those smart friends in JC who went overseas on scholarships? They will break their bond and come back to compete with you for that IB job.

Getting into IB is tough, and there is a lot of luck and chance involved. I hope this gives you a better view of the path towards IB and perhaps manages your expectations as well.

Plus u have a bunch of kids of connected people (tycoons, ceos, ministers etc) getting first dip into that very limited pool...

... and students from Harvard, Stanford, oxbridge etc using their alumni connections in the firm

... not to mention additional competition from experienced and recently fired analysts and associates in the market

... all set against the backdrop of a downsizing industry with very very limited hiring capacity

Honestly, I'm in the industry and its so so much harder now than it was in my time cos in my time no one really knew what ib is and how much it pays. Now everyone knows, in a time there are fewer slots available than in most yrs.