Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 62598)

This thread is going way off topic. Can we stop the bickering and get back on topic please? Insecure local and SIM grads, the reality is that SIM degree is discriminated upon and that is the truth.

I want to know if any UOL grads managed to get into management associate programs at banks or managed to secure an equity or fixed income analyst position. What are your honors and starting pay?

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 62605)

2nd upper. starting pay 7.5k.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 62641)

hmm? And what do you do?

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 63015)

SIM people only good at talking nonsense. No substance or knowledge
****ing low level people in society, they should all be put down

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 64278)

Grad from uol in 2011 with FCH accountancy. Did insurance sales first 2 years, then moved to local bank front office for 3.5k basic. Top performers can come from pte uni or diploma holders, just need to sell and be prepared for long hours. It's not all glam in banking industry and many grads (local or pte) who signed up for management associate program, graduate associate program etc that gives them "shortcut" to management regrets signing 2 to 3 years bond once they realize they can't cope with sales pressure. You need to run sales and perform well for at least 1 year. Yes it pays them slightly better (fresh grad from 3.2k to 4k range) but many would have left if not for the bond. With that said, if you can survive 2 years in the bank, there are opportunities to move laterally into back offices dealing with operations etc.
Thread wisely. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 64284)

oh dear... I'm a UOL grad not in the financial sector and i feel embarrassed by your understanding of banking...

Consumer bank sales of insurance and investment products are not considered front office, and the MA programs referred to here with top salaries do not refer to these sales roles.....

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 64297)

when ppl tok about front office, we are usually referring to ppl who are earning more than 8k as a fresh grad.

same for MA... i don't know what kind of MA you are signing up for... but the real one typically pays around 4.3-5k.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 64301)

I'm not from SIM but this is a f**king stupid comment. Front office basically means any revenue generating role and that includes any form of commercial sales.

To even insinuate that you have to earn a minimum salary to consider yourself front office is inherently idiotic. Are you suggesting that an Ibanker for a local bank that makes 4-5k is not front office?

Also, when people say FO they would include IB with it - the front office that you were alluding to. The previous poster did not say that he was in IB FO, he was not wrong when he said that he was working in front office. I do concede that perhaps he is not privy to the various tier of MA programmes available, and hence might have misunderstood or not appreciate the 'quality' of candidates in some of the programmes.

However, that fella was just trying to share his experience in consumer sales. For God sake, don't belittle his contributions just because it is not an elite and exclusive front office job. IB FO is not the only revenue-generating job in the world, so please do yourself a favour and try not to look ignorant!

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 64321)

+1 to the poster. I agree with most of what you said, but just to add to this - I can see why the original poster mentioned that commercial sales may not be considered front office. There are arguments to suggest that the main front office roles in banks are Investment Banking and Markets, both of which pay their graduates extremely well. It is also important to note that roles within Markets include (Sales, Trading, Research..) so I would say that commercial sales is a FO role.

I notice there are a lot of elitist snobs in this forum for whatever reason. Please understand that this is not the place for dick-measuring and the majority of people on here want to educate themselves in the employment space.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 64329)

I was the one who posted the comment you quoted. I definitely do agree that this is a good space for people to learn of opportunity and advance their career, regardless of where they do currently stand now.

The problem with many undergraduates and graduates today when they quote information online is that a lot of what they quote might not necessary be relatable to Singapore. I can see where you are coming when you say that there are many people who only see the lucrative FO jobs as FOs - especially in wallstreetoasis or TSR. However, it is also important to remember that IB only accounts for a small portion of revenues in SG, which is very different from wall street. The biggest IPO in SG in 2014 is only worth SGD$800mil. There is a reason why goldman sachs is cutting headcount in sg.

If people bother to read the financial statements of our local banks, you will see that the bulk of the revenues come from non-IB work. So are those client facing bankers in the consumer and corporate divisions not revenue generating bankers?

At the end of the day, it is all about revenue-generating and making profits, and banks do whatever they can to achieve that. Why do you think british banks like RBS and Barclays today are re-engineering themselves and focusing on work that many here would scoff here and claim that they are non-FO?

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 64331)

Cheers for the response. What you said is very true. If anyone here plows through WSO like I do (sadly), it is easy to begin to assimilate your own career path with the many graduates and students on those forums. However, as you mentioned, Singapore's employment landscape is immensely different, and the prestigious IBD, SnT and consulting positions may not carry the same weight around here.

That said, while we have established that commercial sales IS a FO role, I guess the crux of the matter is that regardless of this, the simple fact that the salaries paid out in IB, big law and consulting eclipse those of your typical RM or PB, many will continue to understate the importance (read: prestige) of those positions. Perhaps an important point to note here is how hiring practices differ within those roles. While IB/HF/PE hires only the very best, the minimum job requirement for a PB/RM role is a diploma. Regardless of banks' strategies to pull back on IB and leverage comm sales, I can't say that a RM will be likely to ever be spoken in the same breath as IBers. I guess money talks around here :)

Wishing you a good evening, sir!

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 39363)

why would anyone be jealous of SIM grads? And stop sprouting nonsensical remarks here.

SIM grads are not worth anything.

Junk.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 66954)

Hello all! I'm currently a fresh graduate and I have some questions regarding Personal Bankers.
May I know what is the minimum requirement to become a Personal Banker?
What banks do you guys recommend joining?
Would it be a good platform, in terms of venturing into the banking industry as a first job?
How's the life of a PB like?

Thanks alot!

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 66954)

Hello all! I'm currently a fresh graduate and I have some questions regarding Personal Bankers.
May I know what is the minimum requirement to become a Personal Banker?
What banks do you guys recommend joining?
Would it be a good platform, in terms of venturing into the banking industry as a first job?
How's the life of a PB like?

Thanks alot!

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 66959)

not mch needed. personal banker is just a sexier name for consumer banking operations. main job is operations/admin related + sales component

for this type of basic level, doesn't really matter which bank, all about the same. anyway high turnover and most dun stay for long. just join then hop when u sian or get another offer.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 66965)

I see. Thank you so much for your insights! I have heard from some people that the high sales quota is rather difficult to attain, bank will ask you to leave after not hitting quota for 3 months. However others said that's not true. So contradicting.
Trying to seek more views from the rest.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 67021)

as a UOL grad, the best advice i could ever give, is to not follow the convention that most grads go through, i.e. :

1. study hard
2. get good grades
3. get into a top uni
4. study hard
5. get good grades
6. get into a top bank/big4 firm
7. be a salaried employee for life

prove to the nation what SIM grads are worth, get out of your comfort zone, and take the uncharted path. Build your own (honest) business, grow it, and you will work what you do, keep what you earn.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 67021)

as a UOL grad, the best advice i could ever give, is to not follow the convention that most grads go through, i.e. :

1. study hard
2. get good grades
3. get into a top uni
4. study hard
5. get good grades
6. get into a top bank/big4 firm
7. be a salaried employee for life

prove to the nation what SIM grads are worth, get out of your comfort zone, and take the uncharted path. Build your own (honest) business, grow it, and you will work what you do, keep what you earn.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 67005)

Many girls, and maybe one third of them are hot
Heard from others, get to drink coffee even after branch opens, chit chat till lunch, sit in office for few hours, then prepare to go home.
To me, I think is possible only for the exception 20%, who either have connections and hit the target for the month or those just getting by .

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 61914)

As a fresh grad, an employer would obviously take local U over private U. Take it that one does have anything under their belt such as a CFA or other certifications, fresh grad to fresh grad, private U candidates will have a harder time finding the type of employment they want. I say this because a lot of business students always want to aim for a banking position which is a joke to begin with seeing as how these people have to idea what the business organisation entails and what is the job scope.

That being said, SIM love to pride themselves on being street smart. Lets face it, if you have good academic qualifications, you wouldn't need to latch onto these intangible qualities to try and feel relevant to society. You will never hear SMU NTU NUS business students claiming they are street smart even though they are. These people know that to get a foot through the door in the finance industry, they have to more than being loud mouths.

SIM people, be humble and ask yourself. Its simple
Didn't make it to local U? Fine, you aren't smart enough. Go private U.
Go private U, employment prospects not as even.
So face it, your not smart enough. Be it genetic or lazy, you are where you are today, accept it and move on. Stop harpering on the fact that you see yourself as equal or more to local U students.
Seriously, just admit it. "I didn't study hard enough". "I just can't". "I'm not smart enough"

I find it pretty disgusting that people are unwilling to accept their flaws and try to bring themselves up with arrogance or bring others down with jealousy.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 67260)

I don't understand the logic behind this stigma; lumping SIM students together and conveniently labeling all as inferior in comparison to local grads.

What is the meaning of intelligence? Just because they are not attending prestigious schools they are intellectually inferior? Intelligent people come from all walks of life, and they are few and far between. It is statistically impossible for all or most of the local grads to be considered intelligent. Hard work and rote memorization does not equate to intellect either. Of course people who are hardworking deserve all the credit, but to blindly conform to and insist that a system is 100% efficient in singling out intelligent people and ensuring that they are placed at the top is a fallacy. Many intelligent people struggle to fit in with society and its system, so it comes to no surprise that some of them may fall behind.

I'm not defending SIM or addressing the issue of "who is better", but this constant bashing of SIM grads just because they are SIM grads is disturbing. Your hypocritical behaviour of calling people out for being disgusting while simultaneously putting SIM grads down is equally disgusting. Calling them out for bad behaviour does not constitute a need for you to put them down.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 67260)

I don't understand the logic behind this stigma; lumping SIM students together and conveniently labeling all as inferior in comparison to local grads.

What is the meaning of intelligence? Just because they are not attending prestigious schools they are intellectually inferior? Intelligent people come from all walks of life, and they are few and far between. It is statistically impossible for all or most of the local grads to be considered intelligent. Hard work and rote memorization does not equate to intellect either. Of course people who are hardworking deserve all the credit, but to blindly conform to and insist that a system is 100% efficient in singling out intelligent people and ensuring that they are placed at the top is a fallacy. Many intelligent people struggle to fit in with society and its system, so it comes to no surprise that some of them may fall behind.

I'm not defending SIM or addressing the issue of "who is better", but this constant bashing of SIM grads just because they are SIM grads is disturbing. Your hypocritical behaviour of calling people out for being disgusting while simultaneously putting SIM grads down is equally disgusting. Calling them out for bad behaviour does not constitute a need for you to put them down.

Originally Posted by xxl (Post 67423)

Hi everyone. I am a fresh graduate from SIM UOL currently looking for a marketing job in the FMCG industry. Do let me know if there is any opening!

Thank you :)

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 67453)

Why specifically FMCG?