Msc Applied Finance from SMU

[chanceux]

Hi All

I guess I will be asking a frequently asked qn. We all face mide life crisis when u reached this age.

Is it worth it to spend the money to enroll in SMU's Applied finance programme.

I come from a non finance background, mid 30s


Is there a good chance to get a job after graduating. I heard that getting a job is no easy task

Starting salaries and chance of moving up?

Hope to get some idea and "hard truth" from ppl in the industries / HR

I heard the same too. Even Insead grads have a hard time getting into management consulting, investment banking and trading jobs. Less glam jobs are risk management and tech& ops in banks, but not easy too. Some of them are even trying to do tech startups after graduating. Sad.

[chanceux]

Ya, was hoping if any one with experience or insight can weight in with an unbiased view.any successful story

Hi,

I am an engineer that successfully switched to finance after passing CFA level 2(at the age of 28-29), but that's because there is friend that introduce me to the job. The first step is always hard as I know some of my friends that passed CFA level 3 still not able to secure a finance job and a graduate of Msc Finance from SMU took a year before he finally found a job. He mentioned that most of the coursemates have already went back to China to find job because of the tough competition in SG

If you are mid 30 I would advice not to switch job as there is too much competition now in finance, unless you have a passion for finance or investing.

[chanceux]

HI Thanks for your advice.
I know that I am a slow off the starting block compare to a lot of ppl switching careers, thus the dilemma. If I am going to take another year to find a job after graduating , that will be a serious consideration.

By the way do you see mid career change ppl in your office?

you mention your friend's class mate going back to china to look for a job? Did your friend mention anything about the make up of the students in the course. Locals more or age group?

I know i ask alot of qn here, if you know pls do drop a note

Thanks in advance

Originally Posted by chanceux

HI Thanks for your advice.
I know that I am a slow off the starting block compare to a lot of ppl switching careers, thus the dilemma. If I am going to take another year to find a job after graduating , that will be a serious consideration.

By the way do you see mid career change ppl in your office?

you mention your friend's class mate going back to china to look for a job? Did your friend mention anything about the make up of the students in the course. Locals more or age group?

I know i ask alot of qn here, if you know pls do drop a note

Thanks in advance

I think the most important thing is to find out what you like to do in your life and work towards the direction. For my view, there are so many ppl trying to get into finance without realising whether finance is the cup of tea for them or not and in my opinion, not every one is suitable to be in finance line.

Anyway if an engineer moved to finance, most of the time they will be doing Financial Engineering related stuff(for eg structured product, model valuation for complex product or risk management), this is something that you can consider too.

My 2cents of advice is go through the CFA level 1 curriculum and see whether you have the interest in finance, study for half a year and if you think you have the interest, then just go for the career switch, else think of something that you trutly interested to do in your life.

[chanceux]

Yah, I think many ppl are like me or I am like many ppl in the same situation.

Its not that every one is aiming to earn big money , its just that its a possible
way although it can be pretty tough.

If you are from an engineering back ground, you probably are more likely to think of a career switch to finance than to say hotel management or tourism. I mean many are more scare of ppl than numbers. Doing a logical evaluation is probably easier to engineer than trying to maybe teach a class of screaming students. u get my drift..

Is starting off in Bank Ops a bad move? Could one actually cut out a decent career in the back office?
Entry level Engineering grad here.
I'm thinking about leaving engineering altogether and Ops seems like the most viable option.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is starting off in Bank Ops a bad move? Could one actually cut out a decent career in the back office?
Entry level Engineering grad here.
I'm thinking about leaving engineering altogether and Ops seems like the most viable option.

Ops is actually not bad. You can already make more money than most engineers.

If you want big money, you can try to get into front office, but it's almost impossible to achieve that unless you are really special or really lucky.

Thanks. That's what I needed to know.

How about CFA?
Is it really a value-added qualification in the back/middle office?