I echo with what this guy has mentioned earlier on... In finance industry, its all about connections and personal branding. I'm currently a year 2 student studying Bsc Banking & Finance, but through connections (not family but through networking events & rapport over a course of 6months) I've interned in one of the bulge bracket banks during my year 1 summer break. Another piece of advice: do not have that self-defeating mentality just because you are studying in a private universities and therefore having to settle for a job with lower pay or unpopular roles. You have to strategise and plan your roadmap - if you know if you are not academically inclined PLEASE BY ALL MEANS find a niche for yourself - and it can be as simple as applying the porter's five force model on yourself!
Now many of you might be curious, how is this freshman in his year 1 able to break into the scene? My formula is quite simple - you have to plan and start early. As early as in army days, I've developed a passion for investments and did my due diligence by reading up ALOT on the financial markets and thereafter explored the realm of banking & finance sector. I knew this will be something that I can see myself working countless hours on without lamenting and cursing about the nature of the work.
Thereafter, I focus and channel my research into the skill sets that are highly valued by individual financial institutions. I shall not elaborate too much on it over here. A quick look at
Understanding Investment Banking | Mergers & Inquisitions will give you a much better idea what is required from the respective departments.
CV & Resume should be viewed as forms of ART. Just over a year, I have at least edited my resume over 10 times to polish and refine every time I've accomplished something new - such as winning a nationwide competition or getting involved in school activities.
As for my interview, I faired reasonably well because I did have a few referees and testimonials from my past employers, schools & army. I also came prepared with some research work on companies & stocks (Yes, I was interning in ER) that I did out of my own time to showcase my passion in this line of work. I would also like to highlight that it is important to be have a strong self-concept coming to interviews as you need to be truthful and sincere in answering interview questions. Smoking in these top calibre companies just won't get you anywhere as these prominent companies are well staffed with HR managers who can scrutinise you inside-out, detecting lies and reading body languages. Of course, you've also got to be someone that can be gel in well with the rest of the department. An easy way of putting things into perspective is to visualise yourself on the other side of the interviewing room - would you want to hire a first class honor candidate with nothing else in particular to boost or a second upper honor candidate that has a lot similar & interesting hobbies as you do?
Ultimately, 天时地利人和 plays a very important part as well. What you can change and do from now is, to equip yourself with the right skill sets, knowledge and expertise in area of your targeted area of job. It might be daunting to identify your career path too early in your undergraduate life but YOU JUST HAVE TO DO IT. You need whatever edge you can gain on your hand to stand ahead of the rest. Do attend networking sessions regularly. CFA Singapore Society is one good avenue to start off with. As the adage goes: "One door leads to many other doors." If people find comfortable talking to you, they will usually share some news and whisper exclusive networking groups that are per-invite-basis base on how sincere & humble you are. Another way to quickly understand the skill sets required for the industry is to go linkedin and check out on the public profiles of individuals who have interned in your targeted companies to see what they have done leading up to their internship or graduate programmes.
Hope the rest of the SIM peeps who have seen this will start taking more actions from today! Believe in yourself!