Originally Posted by Unregistered
Hi everyone from SIM,
i was reading the forum and just want to give a few tips as i do know how hard it is to get a finance job from SIM. I took around 4mths to find a desired finance job. it's about my 3rd yr working.
Currently, Im in a front office, dealing role in a bank. i deal with forex, swaps, FI, repos and also does market making etc... It is the department that does the fixed rate, floating rate swaps kinda thing we study.
my path basically goes like this..
trading with my own money, start studying in SIM, holiday spent proprietary trading at a legitimate firm (not 6cap), Holiday spent in private bank, grad, dealing in fund, dealing in Bank.
tips.
1) Try to work part time in bank. I didnt know it was important until people actually called me up for interview because i have work as scanner-boy in a private banking environment
2) try to pick up skills. Bloomberg, reuters, excel functions, algos, programming does help
3) prepare for interview & apply for the right job. local banks and americans are super paper chase.. i think it is fine to skip applying to them if u want front office jobs.
Interview is everything. When employers tested me on options, excel and every finance qns, they are usually beyond textbk. E.g. I was asked what are the 3 ways to form a butterfly with options.. calculate swap pts, substantiate view of usd/sgd in 1yr, number of rate hikes, taylor rule....
4) i do not wish to encourage paper chasing but sadly CFA and Masters do help. All my colleagues have master degree.
And in regards to trading, let me clarify a few pts:
i) proprietary trading firm do exist.. but i advise u to trade 2yrs, 364days/yr b4 u decide to sign up.
ii) no prop trading in banks due to volcker & dodd frank. we unwind position fast.
iii) very little chance to run your own book in banks. it is a business model.
iv) buy-side punters are the most fun with highest variable bonus, but least job security and easily exploited.
FO can get about 5to6k payroll in about 3 to 5 years.
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