correction: 3 points

1. 4yrs ago when i learnt abt 6cap, they r more of a model of educatiom than trading. more income from prop trade or education? and patr.. teng was a chief dealer??
they eventually got a small prop desk.. i heard.

for prop trading, nv pay to learn.. thr may be cost but should be deducted from profit. omega trading at uob is gd and legit.

2. prop trading is stressful cuz what u hunt is what u eat. thr r days you hope to reach ur target of 8k sgd profit. but market start to reverse and u end up with 3k left. there r days u live on last mth paychk.. u practically live breathe mkt with no social life and skillset is not transferrable.

i have a house cmg up with reno and things to pay.. so i join a bank for stable job. being a market maker/dealer/trader is bank makes ur skills much more transferrable, easier to find job and stable invome. im working on a business model whr i hedge my risk away immediately, earning a tiny spread out of big amount. easy to live a life.

3. physucal trader call us screen trader.. physical trading gotta do with lots of logistic, chking quality of comm and specifixation. lots of OT on weekends, snatching rivals' container..a logistic game and more client sales..

as u can see between prop trader, bank trader and physical trader. depends on what u like more.. i will love to be prop trader if i nv had a gf/wife

appreciate the insight!

any graduating batch from 2016? i have been sending out many resumes but no luck in securing job. some of my jc friends who are in ntu/nus applied same company as me and were called into first round interview the very next day. life is tough as sim student :(

Harsh truth and tips
 

just wanna provide some tips and advice for SIM-UOL juniors. I always believe in letting people know harsh truths of life and it will in return provide the best learning lesson. Just look at all the good graduation speech delivered by successful people to their ivy league counterparts, absolutely no sugar coating at all. Its filled with harsh words and criticim in order to better prepare them.

I've always felt it is the school's flaw to not bring awareness to students about the tough competition for jobs, especially with participation of local u counterparts. Instead they went on to encourage and celebrate mediocrity and provide this fake bubble to students. I was lucky enough to be aware of the harsh truths of it.

I will not share much of my details sadly, i do not need to convince anyone but if just one person is willing to open up his or her mind to what i said, Ive done my part. The tips I provided are the things Ive done in my uni life (yes all4 points).

Here are some tips I can provide:

1) Job hunting begins first day you begin your degree. Tons of people only start this process at their final year which is too late.

You need the participation in sch activities and relevant CCAs(to demonstrate teamwork), competitions (to demonstrate you can work under pressure). So it is advisable to join relevant CCAs in your year 1 and 2. 1st year for member another year for exco. Within this 2 years u must strive to win something from competitions. Because competitions are usually at national level with local uni counterparts and professional judges, it is your rare shot to showcase you have a competitive edge at something. Key note here is Relevant CCAs

2) During your summer holidays and final year you have to do some form of part time job and internship. Yes final year you dont need to stay in your CCA. Convert to part time and work and study (to demonstrate hard work ethic) In UOL, we dont have the luxury like the local u students with much more holidays and breaks. They can afford to go on exchanges and holidays, we cant. If you are feeling gutted by this then dont regret or complain if you cant find a job. You do not need months of travelling to recharge yourself. Please wake up. The fact that you guys bother to come to this forum and read means you wanna make a change so just do it. Sacrifice the holidays, dont even bother with the exchange programe the school is providing. Get a job and gain some real world experience. Which leads me to my next point...

3) Whatever jobs you are in (even contract jobs in banks) you work your ass off and network with people. You dont have to be the most popular guy in the office. Just work hard and perform well for employers, they will remember you and even write a letter of recommendation for you. The more places you work, the more people you know from different organizations. Who gives a **** even if its admin/non relevant jobs. You clock work experiences like this during your life as a student so that when you graduate, you are a level higher. (of course dont be stupid to do all admin/basic jobs in your 3 years in UOL)

4) Hard skills. Thanks to UOL curriculum, we are absolutely in a disadvantageous position for this. For those who want a front office role in banking/finance I think it was mention in previous posts these are crucial. Financial modelling, CFA level 1, excel, bloomberg, understanding of financial instruments and jargons, FA and TA all these are to be understood and able to apply in the rather basic way. Likewise other jobs have their hardskills and it is your job to find out what they are and have an understanding for them. I think it is important to know which functions interest you and figure out what are the hard skills needed. Not going to spoon feed you guys but there are ways to have some basic form of understanding without actually securing internships/jobs.

Well at this point you may question if all these are actually doable, on top of that we still have to juggle with school. Thats the harsh truth I am trying to let you know. If the quality of degree isnt there , therefore we must do more to make up for it. While what i say doesnt necessary guarantee a job, but rather than sit and cry and waste time looking at every thread in this forum, why not try to make a change. If you are already in your year 2 and 3, just forget the CCAs and get a job, gain some real world experience and connections.

I remember my first year in school i consulted this career coach. She said to me " it is expected of UOL student to get FCH and gain working experience in yr 3 years, so dont come cry and bitch to her if i cannot get a job when i grad cause i failed to do any of it"

Lastly, I left out the part on writing a proper resume, brush up interview skills etc. Not going to spoonfeed you guys but you should know where to get those done.

Cant take what I mentioned above then dont go into finance.

Good advice that is applicable to any university grad actually. It's just that for some reason this seems to lost to most private grads; further exacerbating the wide difference in marketability compared to local grads.

I got to agree with this. I was from UOL and did all the above. Sch term break will be doing jobs. Then CCA during school term. I started job hunting half a year before I graduated. Got a job 2 months before graduation. Happily just go pass my final exams as I know I dont need to strive for FCH etc.
I seek career advice from coach. During interviews I was able to share about what I have done in my past jobs and also CCA.

huh? what's the big deal? tons of sim students did everything u mentioned

I agree with most of these guy's advice. But pertaining to the above, I just give my opinion which was beneficial to me.

Job hunting, and by that I mean actual job hunting of polishing up resume and sending it to employers, begins on your second last year. So if you're in 3 year program, start on your 2nd year, 4 year program, start on your 3rd year.

Sure, you can always start early. And you can always party, which please do not do. But I believe you should use your time in university before job hunting to focus on the academics. Strive to learn as much, if you're thinking of pursuing a technical role, and work towards a high GPA.

Job hunting is like admin - formatting resume, polishing key words, writing over letter, networking, sending out resumes on the company website. You need to make yourself a finished and refined product for your employers. By focusing on the academics, you'll internalize the knowledge needed to perform on the interview and subsequently on the job. It is only through focusing on just the academics will you internalize the material.

I've learnt that I'm more comfortable talking about markets and trading when I have internalized the knowledge, not when I've nailed an interview and studied the night before. The latter wouldn't equip you with a good grounding of the last five economic crises which when discussed to the interviewer could get you the job. Studying would.

In short, you got 3 years in university. Just STUDY and keep up a GPA on your first year. People don't get quality internships in your first summer anyway. Then when the job hunting comes, you'll feel much more confident with the knowledge, and hopefully with the 4.0 GPA.

Job Opportunities for SIM and Private universities Graduates
 

Hey all,

Heads up for the following graduates, Macdonalds, KFC and Long John Silver are hiring. Do keep a look out!!

Cheers!

Hey, I have tried applying, but they reject me. They told me that I'm under qualified. Will be looking forward to Cisco Security

I passed the first round for restaurant manager at Mcdonalds on Thursday. Looking forward to the final round next week. Thank god I planned properly during year 1 and did many internships and temp jobs at various fast food restaurants during study break. It helped give me an edge over the other mostly diploma applicants.

How come you got degree go & apply for restaurant manager at Macs? My bro got the job 2 years ago after NS and he was only ITE... Economy really so bad?

well planned on your part!

have you considered taking further certification courses to boost your chances of climbing the f&b ladder?

I heard nowadays there will always be networking Q&A sessions amongst the F&B professionals, hosted at various fast food joints. The recent one was at Ya Kun, Causeway point. It is good to network with the various Counter crew staffs, Kitchen staffs and restaurant managers and to benefit from their insights

Tons of sims students have relevant CCAs?

Tons of sim students actually win something from competitions?

This is all news to me.



Perhaps its some burger making competition.

Let's take a look at his statement:

"huh? what's the big deal? tons of sim students did everything u mentioned"

Tons (plural) meaning >=2 tons, so as long as 2 tons of SIM students "did everything u mentioned", his statement is valid.

We assume that there's an equal number of guys and girls in this set and the average weight (averaging guys and girls) is approximately 55 kg. (no stats available).

so 2 tons / 55kg = 36.36.

Are there at least 37 people who "did everything u mentioned"?

I would dare say yes, there indeed are.

SIM has 36,000 students enrolled
source: [dot]sim[dot]edu[dot]sg/about-sim/pages/simfactsfigures.aspx

37 / 36,000 is about ~0.1%.

So are the top 0.1% of SIM students "doing everything u mentioned"? I would say with a high confidence interval that yes, his statement is indeed valid.


local U grad here. stop being a dick to your fellow singaporeans

Dude, obviously he is using the informal meaning of tons...

But seriously stop being dicks to SIM students. Do you guys feel a sense of superiority dissing SIM? Geez i swear EDMW is leaking.

why got 1 person talking to himself here? he got no friends to talk to real life?

dont be sad people, the job market is realli quite bad. it took me 4mths to find my dealer/trader role in a bank. about 200resumes sent and only 10interviews.

for finance students, pin higher hopes on foreign banks and company. my 1st job was with foreign investment firm.

but the name of a private U degree will stick for sometime. my employer waa telling me he hoped he made the right choice choosing me over a columbia grad. keep searching

So what is your role in the bank?

u meant like what i do/job description? market making and institution fx/derivatives.

None of your statistical analysis even contain the important factors, such as the number of SIM students that win finance relevant competitions.

They dun even have 37 winners to make up ur 2 tons.

SIM grad means SIM grad lah. Dun fake local U grad. It's so obvious. Go back and learn your statistics 101.

Yes my family was proud and applauded my foresight at preparing throughout my course, instead of waiting until the last year. Some of my cousins from local unis are still sending out resumes now even though most local grads would be starting their first day of work next week.

It's too soon for any certification courses, I need to see if the company is offering subsidy and figure out which ones are good. Definitely I aim to attend my first course during my second year of work. It will be a good time to attend after learning the daily operations hands on during the first year.

Fingers crossed for the final round tomorrow at HQ!

Managed to get a good job that allows me to travel to multiple countries to participate in trade shows.
Don't give up! It is not the end just because it is a private degree.

I'm from SIM, and my starting pay was 3.8k.. Do not settle for less than 3k! Just spend more time applying and waiting for the right job!

SIM is a good school in the eyes of the Singapore employers.

Been receiving calls on job offers.

Pay is not fantastic but this shows we are highly valued too

Care to share what role and industry?

SIM is getting recognize now as well, I was also offered management trainee in a MNC @ 4.5k after many interviews.

Which MNC?

That's good. Which MNC? What is your background?

I find it hard to believe.. Haven't heard of any real MA programs with SIM kids...

To be honest, it is hard to get to SIM kids to get into MA programs of MNCs etc. If yes, it would be through normal entry level positions. But its not impossible to get into MNC through experienced hires path. You must really have a good track record.

Try smaller firms, but associate position. They will usually try to lowball us since we are from SIM. So you have to negotiate your pay up! I remember some interviewers tried to offer me 2.3K. I told them I won't accept anything less than 3.5K. Mention that SIM is also a local university now.

yea same thing happen to me. put my expectations as 3.6k the mnc try & talk rubbish abt co. policy can only offer 3k to SIM, in the end just tell them not interested then within 3 days suddenly come back and say they make 'exception' to offer me 3.5k.

Exactly! Please guys, don't settle for anything less than 3K!

You guys are lucky. I got less than 3K when I graduated 4 yrs ago. In my industry, 3.5K is for people with 2 years experience.

I got 4k starting salary, but my industry no aws and bonus very little 1.5-2mths (base on what seniors tell me) so in total still less than normal local deg grad in civil service.

What role is this? I think it's very good. Cannot compare with local uni civil service.
I think SIM grad mainly will get below 3K starting pay in general. Any higher will depend on your experience, unique skill sets.

Market insights analyst in a well known consultancy. I don't think it's really that hard to get offers above 3k, it's all about how we interview & negotiate. I got another offer at 3550 with aws, but rejected it because didn't like the industry.

[QUOTE=Unregistered;88749]Market insights analyst in a well known consultancy. I don't think it's really that hard to get offers above 3k, it's all about how we interview & negotiate. I got another offer at 3550 with aws, but rejected it because didn't like the industry.[/QUOTE

I see, good to see such offers for SIM freshies. I think payscale is mainly due to the industry itself. I started with less than 3K, but bonus was around 4 to 5 months.