Originally Posted by lonewalker (Post 21083)

Hi Jerry,

What kind of finance job are you looking at?

1) Bankers?
2) Traders?
3) Insurance Agents/ Financial Planners?
4) Brokers?
5) Financial Analyst?
6) Fund managers?
7) Accountants?


Finance sector is wide. Perhaps you would want to scale down the area of your interests.

Originally Posted by maze (Post 21071)

Why is it that every engineer likes to claim to have passion in investments and analyzing financial numbers because people around them have investments and therefore they want to enter banking sector?

Want to join banking just be upfront and admit that you love money and wish to pursue a field that lets you reap big material rewards instead of a low paying engineering job.

There's no need for this standard BS about being passionate in Finance, people who are really passionate in analyzing financial numbers can join any MNC as risk analyst, business analyst, sales intelligence support or even pursue a career in teaching & coaching in finance.

Nothing against TS, it's just that as an interviewer I have heard this same old story from so many people from non-Finance (usually engineering) background in the past 2 years that I sometimes wonder if there is some engineering professional body that teaches them to say the same thing.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 21089)

So if there is one interviewee come to you and say he/she wants to join banking because he/she is obsessed with money, will you consider to hire him/her? Will you be impressed by the straightforwardness? Be frank dude...

Originally Posted by rbh (Post 21091)

Most interviewers will not accept honest answer although they know its true. That being said, I think people who want to join finance & banking ought to come out with a more credible story.

Quite lame to say that you suddenly have passion in investments because your friends, parents, relatives around made investments or do business.

One possible story is to say you did some long term project in your current work that involve working with finance, bankers closely and after you got to understand what they do you realise finance might be the calling.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 21092)

Best answer I've heard: (1) Singapore is a finance and banking hub, so it makes sense to build a career in this sector. (2) Analytical skills in engineering are transferable to finance. (3) It's fair to say everyone strives for a good living, and finance is the sector that is able to provide just that for capable diligent people.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 21094)

Above only works for fresh grads entering banking. People who mid-career switch, (1) and (3) not applicable and will be shot back with a "You mean you just realise that after working for so many years?"

(2) is only useful to answer if people question your ability on technical skills, but no use in explaining why he want to change industry.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 21095)

So what's your best answer if you were the engineer?

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 21097)

Something along the line what rbh mention above saying you get some exposure to banking in your current work.

Not 100% convincing, but better than jerrykoh82's reason about friend doing business and like financial metric

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 21099)

How many people have truly worked on long projects with dealings with finance and bankers? So, even if you don't have such experience, do you smoke your way through?