Originally Posted by Unregistered
For people who wanna get into Investment Banking and do Corporate Finance/Advisory from UOL and think it's hopeless. It's not hopeless, h*ck... if you know what you are doing, am proactive and patient, even third class honors don't matter. Most important things are network and luck. Academic pedigree, since already lacking, you cannot aim this angle. Trust me, some IBs in sg have Harvard MBA applying for analyst role. Meaning.. you cannot expect to send your application with nothing outstanding (just FCH don't cut it) to show, knows no one inside and expects an interview. Even if you have 2-3 years job experience, if not in CF, utterly useless - unless you damn veteran in a niche technical industry like Metals and Mining. Some IB practice generalist approach, most are split into industry, especially if you are in deal origination. I've seen alot of IB directors in a certain industry possess non-finance background. They are there cause they have technical knowledge and know enough people in the industry.
So even if you have third class honors, there's 3 ways..
First, you come from a rich family, someone in your family happens to be a client of an IB, etc.. This is the easiest and most sure-fire way. Too many white horses running around man... So if you fall into this category, Check around, ask around. I dunno how this works in a rich family, I come from a very poor family.
Second, You damn ninja at networking. Figure this out yourself, not easy. Be a great person, be daring and talk to industry people. For IB/CF, the network in Singapore is smaller than you think.
Third, You are very lucky, work in a role where you can access and network to people in the relevant industry who can help you. But of course, for this to work, your work performance have to be superb and you have to be likeable.
IB doesn't really need brilliant people, they just need 3-4 extra brilliant individual at the top doing deals, talk big picture and structure and then have the rest do grunt work. Due to supply and demand, well, they can cherry pick all brilliant people for junior role and drop most along the way in an attempt to get the survivor. So if you are not brilliant, be tenacious.
Of course, saying all these, you are fighting for a limited number of position in a hyper competitive industry. Even if it's not hopeless, you can try very very hard, and still don't get in. But seriously... this isn't the only job that can make you rich if that's what you want.
I wish you all luck.
P.S. That being said, personally I don't know anyone who got lousy grades and become a high flyer in CF. So if you do get in, please do something to improve your academic profile, you are supposed to be tenacious anyway. For people who are curious, yes, I was from UOL (Upper second) and currently doing CF.
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