What do you spend your salary on ?

Graduated from local university with first class honors at age 24. True blue Singaporean male. Born and bred in SG. Served 2 years national service and paid my dues.

Working in an investment bank.

Not so young when compared to colleagues. Some of them (FT) have never been in SG in their life except to work. No need serve NS. 2-3 years younger. Earning same pay & holding same rank!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Wow!! What do you work as?? Your age seem to suggest you are only a recent graduate but your salary is amazing!!! What qualifications do you possess and what are you do at work?? Amazing!!

nowadays saving up salary for 2 times annual overseas trip with wife for Marathon races... costly to run overseas but the feeling is very shiok!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Graduated from local university with first class honors at age 24. True blue Singaporean male. Born and bred in SG. Served 2 years national service and paid my dues.

Working in an investment bank.

Not so young when compared to colleagues. Some of them (FT) have never been in SG in their life except to work. No need serve NS. 2-3 years younger. Earning same pay & holding same rank!

Is it true that it's extremely stressful working in ibanking? Or is it an urban legend spread by people who can't make it?

Is it true that attrition rate is very high among the high earners in finance?

By your estimate, how many will continue to move up to become MDs? How many will "retire" quietly into some back office positions?

[ditto1]

Housing, Wife, Car. What else? Typical Singaporean life. haha

Originally Posted by ditto1

Housing, Wife, Car. What else? Typical Singaporean life. haha

What about mistress and illegitimate children in batam??

[Hermit]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What about mistress and illegitimate children in batam??

Are you talking about my cousin ??

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is it true that it's extremely stressful working in ibanking? Or is it an urban legend spread by people who can't make it?

In general, it is really stressful working in iBanking. If you want to know the reasons why, I would first describe the job functions within iBanking:

An investment bank have a few business lines. Job functions include, Equities sales/research, Fixed Income, FX, Commodities and the Corporate Finance team. Typically when we say Investment Banking we are referring to the corporate finance, DCM/ECM employees.

Equities Research / Corporate Finance have very long hours. Workload is heavy and whilst tasks are not complex, work is very tedious and we have to check, check , check every single detail. Aside from the fact that everyone is in a hurry to meet dateline/timelines, the general culture in an IB is not forgiving. Your mind and body is constantly tired and yet you need to maintain a high level of accuracy and concentration throughout the long day. If you make a mistake (e.g. link cells wrongly, miss a decimal point, etc etc there are alot of possibilities for things to go wrong), you are lucky if you seniors catch it (you'd just get scolded badly) but if it gets public (or sent to client) and there is a material error, you can lose your job or worse get into real legal trouble.

Sales & trading have the typical stress related to sales jobs. However the product you are selling is quite complex plus there is alot of time-pressure. Work is intense and mistakes (e.g. quoting the wrong spread) directly impact the P&L and real losses can be in the millions. You need to mantain a high level of alertness, concentration.

Then, there is job security. In downturn, investment banks tend to cut staff fast. Compensation also varies greatly during cycles. All these adds to the job stress.

Attrition rate is higher in sales functions, due to the nature of the job. There are a few reasons why people leave:

1. Job hop: higher earners are usually front office / sales persons / income generators. It is easy to attribute a value to such people and firms are always keen to poach. Also, the concept of a "high watermark" applies: If you hit 150% of your revenue target for 3 years in a row, it is likely your benchmarks will be raised. It will reach a point where it becomes difficult to achieve the same level of performance, then it is a good strategy to hop to a competitor and re-start from a low base.

2. Progression: You'd reach a point where directly above you is an incumbent whom will not leave / not ready to leave his post. The only way for you to continue progressing is to join another firm. This is pretty common in the finance industry

3. Hard to mantain performance for long periods: To do well in front office, it is a mix of luck, hardwork and talent. Even if you are talented, it does not mean you'd do well all the time. It is actually difficult to continually perform. This is something I learnt in front office (Applies to junior to senior levels) 1st year strategy: Create a good impression. Make sure you look good infront of superiors. Nobody really drills down into details and people evaluate your performance based on impression. 2nd year strategy: Stay below the radar. Network. Mantain good relationship with everyone who evaluate you. 3rd year strategy: Attempt to hop / change job. Leave on a high note. If you stay beyond the 3rd year, make sure you are very good at what you are doing because the performance of your first 2 years will start to show up.
Most high performers in banking change job / firm every 3 years.

MDs? About 5% I think.

There are some really talented people who continually do well in the same function year after year. After 10-15 years, they become MD. I would say this is the minority.

Most of the people who become MD have switched firms 3-4 times. Job functions even more. Are they good at what they do? I hope so. What I see is that the key to become MD
is good career planning, good EQ skills and networking.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is it true that attrition rate is very high among the high earners in finance?

By your estimate, how many will continue to move up to become MDs? How many will "retire" quietly into some back office positions?

[Hermit]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Attrition rate is higher in sales functions, due to the nature of the job. There are a few reasons why people leave:

1. Job hop: higher earners are usually front office / sales persons / income generators. It is easy to attribute a value to such people and firms are always keen to poach. Also, the concept of a "high watermark" applies: If you hit 150% of your revenue target for 3 years in a row, it is likely your benchmarks will be raised. It will reach a point where it becomes difficult to achieve the same level of performance, then it is a good strategy to hop to a competitor and re-start from a low base.

2. Progression: You'd reach a point where directly above you is an incumbent whom will not leave / not ready to leave his post. The only way for you to continue progressing is to join another firm. This is pretty common in the finance industry

3. Hard to mantain performance for long periods: To do well in front office, it is a mix of luck, hardwork and talent. Even if you are talented, it does not mean you'd do well all the time. It is actually difficult to continually perform. This is something I learnt in front office (Applies to junior to senior levels) 1st year strategy: Create a good impression. Make sure you look good infront of superiors. Nobody really drills down into details and people evaluate your performance based on impression. 2nd year strategy: Stay below the radar. Network. Mantain good relationship with everyone who evaluate you. 3rd year strategy: Attempt to hop / change job. Leave on a high note. If you stay beyond the 3rd year, make sure you are very good at what you are doing because the performance of your first 2 years will start to show up.
Most high performers in banking change job / firm every 3 years.

MDs? About 5% I think.

There are some really talented people who continually do well in the same function year after year. After 10-15 years, they become MD. I would say this is the minority.

Most of the people who become MD have switched firms 3-4 times. Job functions even more. Are they good at what they do? I hope so. What I see is that the key to become MD
is good career planning, good EQ skills and networking.

What happens to the average-performing ones, those who do not become MDs when they are at 45-55 years of age?