Computer science prospects in SG

the wall street talk is just plain crap. u r living in sillypore i presume. in sillypore, everything just works according to our dear govtment's plan.

ask yourself: what do u want to do in future? studying CS, u can choose a career path as a researcher, a pHd and then lecturer, or a teaching assistant. in govt sector, CS pays pretty well for programmers because they employ singaporeans and not PR. Yes FT may be taking up most of our jobs, but in the IT field if you work hard enough, you can progress to nonprogrammer skillset. Y nonprogrammer? bcos FT mainly are programmers, but not good managers.

if finance is not really your cup of tea, try to forget about it. bcos IT in finance is a cost factor. my advise is to go for IT consultancy.... NCS, IBM are looking for these kind of graduates.

[ballacksanjay]

Oic. Thx a lot for the replies guys esp Joat. I have a also been doing a lot of researching and realise that IT is still gonna be in demand in the future. My current plan is to study computer science degree in NTU but i am still deciding whether to apply for masters after bachelors degree or to work for 1-2 years after bachelors degree before applying for an MBA in finance or business. Because i heard that companies would hire talented It professionals. So i am wondering whether is a bachelor's degree is enough or a masters is more required? Anyway after 2 years of working, my ultimate aim is to study a MBA in finance or business since I also have interest in the finance side. BTW my reason for taking a computer sci degree instead of business bachelors degree is my personal reasons of wanting some good technical knowledge before going into finance. Anyway anyone please offer me your guidance on my dilemma on deciding my educational qualifications. thx

Nice...We generally dont find people interested in knowledge. The point is which of the three choices will make you the maximum money in the safest possible way. Is it CS, Mech or Business related stuff.

Undergrads dont really matter much. I will recommend u not to study CS. Let someone who has genuine interest in Technology study it. Why waste a seat when there is such a calamity in the number of seats in NUS/NTU.

If you so dead keen on Finance, why not study finance. Or maybe u lack confidence and need a backup. In that case, study CS.

Dont look for assurances from others. Trust ur instinct.

I would recommend you to follow your interest. No point studying something which you are not interested it. And going into a career where you have no interest in.

I was very interested in computer stuffs and took a degree in Computer Engineering from NUS. That was after the dot com bubble. When I graduated in 2005, I took a different path from my friends/classmates (most of them went into finance/banking industry), while I went into the technological industry in a MNC.

The reality about the IT industry now is that most of them are foreigners as there is just not enough locals. Most locals go into finance/banking and that explains the intense competition going on there. Comparatively, I find the pay in the IT industry to be quite good and balance due to the absence of competition. I'm earning more than my peers in the finance/banking industry, rose up to management pretty fast and had lots of fun from the multiple overseas postings.

So pursue based on your interest and not the market trend. And never follow the advice of the government. From Life Science, to Law, to Business, the graduates from these fields are having difficulties finding jobs after they graduate.

Do a double major in com science and biz

[chnrxn]

Originally Posted by vanc

So pursue based on your interest and not the market trend. And never follow the advice of the government. From Life Science, to Law, to Business, the graduates from these fields are having difficulties finding jobs after they graduate.

And never blindly follow the advice of the government

Yes, very very true. They will get you in to meet their targets, but then after that, you are on your own. It is very easy for someone to take a 2 week course in bioscience and go back to what they are doing. But once you spend 4 years of your life specializing in it, you have a hard time getting out.

STRAITS TIMES: Yes, there are job enclaves

I CONCUR with Ms Laurelle Ho ("Employment enclaves"; last Tuesday) about ethnic enclaves of foreign nationals in multinational companies in Singapore.

About three years ago, my nephew, who had been working in an IT department in Citibank for a number of years, had his service terminated, together with all his Singaporean colleagues, due to restructuring.

But all his Indian national colleagues were retained. Incidentally, the senior officers in the department were Indian nationals.

The Government should consider introducing a quota for foreign nationals in companies based in Singapore.

Rohim Kalil

Yes, there are job enclaves

[chnrxn]

Actually I would agree that Finance ON ITS OWN has no value. Money is only a representation of value. In a world with ZERO goods and services, money has no value. Of course, such a world is very unlikely to exist, so this idea remains a theory. Finance will always have its value in this world.

Hi ballacksanjay, just wondering what area of finance attracts you? Do you plan to be an investment analyst or financial engineering or someone that uses IT to improve financial systems?

Dunno if u know this, but this is what i gathered from friends who graduated together with me in 2009-2010 period.

I would just like to simply state starting salaries of IT positions in banks/financial institutions with presence in Singapore. The lowest starting pay is around 3.3k in a local bank, and the highest, as far as I know, is 5.8k per month in a top-tier investment bank.(i.e. 40K - 70K per annum).

Many fellow fresh grads who are in technology graduate/analyst/associate (whatever it's called in each bank) are from varying academic backgrounds, such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, mathematics, physics and business/finance.

One thing is similar in all these banks & their hiring strategies: they DO hire nerds, who can get the job done. they PREFER smart people who get decent grades and at the same time participate in activities/committees/volunteer services.

Apart from banks, there are also MNCs and statboards which pay decently. Mindef and DSTA pays the best for 1st class honours guys with NS, among the IT statboard.
MNCs pays are more varied. From automobile, aerospace,oil&gas and manufacturing industries, these companies also require competent graduates. Amazingly, my friends who are working in R&D or Product Management in semi-con factories earn quite a lot. The base pay may seem low, somewhere around 2.8-3.5k depending on companies, when you factor in OT and allowances, it could work out to as much as 4.5-5k !!! NO JOKE.
Banks don't pay OT hahahaha!!

IT pay surely is not as high as those in Front Office, such as corporate finance/sales/trading roles (starting pay offer of at least 6k to as high as 10k SGD per month for a fresh grad). You can expect VERY long hours for these high-paying jobs, averaging 80-100 working hours PER WEEK, while in IT, it generally averages about 50-60 hours per week. I'd rather enjoy life while that lasts.

Imagine you've a few hundreds of thousands of dollars in your bank account, but tsunami/earthquake strikes out of the blue. How will you get to spend it, if you die. And if you survive? Give away as donations or make more money as market is closing low?

Look at Japan right now. Some traders are getting richer by 'shorting' the market. They're laughing their asses off now with $$$ flowing into their PnL sheets. But is it... moral? That's up to you to define...