Dilemma in choosing my offer, Help!
 

Hi guys,

I am currently a fresh Local Economics graduate with 2nd upper Honors, without any banking experience and I am in a dilemma on choosing my options, please advice!

Option 1:
4 months contract offer from Tier 1 banks aka, UBS/Credit Suisse/Barclays (One of them) for a Futures/Options settlement Ops position. (most likely have to find a new job after 4 months, but Im able to have some network inside)

Option 2:
Perm Position from Tier 2 Banks aka, SCB/Citi/HSBC for a FX Prime Brokerage Position. Required to work PH, maybe Saturday, maybe start work at 6.30am. (Perm Position good, but working hours much worst, Based salary might be $100-300 more)

Current situation I am having now:
1: I do not have the full picture as I am unable to compare both options as I am going to the 3rd round interview and last round for the Perm position. (I need to wait 2 weeks later to know if I can get the offer).

2: I got the offer for the 4 months contract but I have to sign the contract latest next week.

Dilemma 1: Wait for perm position offer, forgo 4 months contract opportunity and also might not get offered for the perm position.

Dilemma 2: Accept 4 months contact, but after 4 months, have to start to find again, and forgo the perm position (if offered), if not offered then this is the right choice.

Please give ur opinions!

First of all, I would advise you to explore more options outside the 2 Operations positions you are currently considering. Operations roles in Singapore are largely a sunset industry as there is large scale migration going on in the so-called Tier 1 banks. I have seen many contract staff unable to secure a permanent position because their roles keep becoming redundant and they are left to take up temporary roles just to have a job.

However, it's a great position to start out in the banking industry in as you get a lot of exposure to the products and banking operations. Besides, having a 'Tier 1' bank on your CV helps open doors more easily to interviews in the future.

Some questions to think about are - Would you want to be doing back office roles for the rest of your career? If no, what's your exit strategy? Does the role offer you the growth that you need?

All the best!

Generally unless you have financial difficulties (i.e. your family needs you to work asap to contribute to the household), I would advise against taking up any of these positions.

The working hours are brutal and generally these are very operations transactional kind of positions which are likely to be offshored in the future and looked down on in the banking industry. It will damage your CV and make it harder to sell in the future.

Also with a general degree like this, try to broaden the kind of jobs and industries you are applying for. There are a lot of companies that pay much higher than a bank and can offer far better prospects. Don't be like a sheep and just follow whatever is fashionable and look glamarous outside.

Donch wanna dash ur hopes lar bro, but be realistic is all i say. You join a mega bank on a 4 mth contract doing mostly brokerage admin kind of sh1t work and u think u gonna build up ur network in the bank b4 the contract expire?

Not saying u cmi or wat, but even the MAs who are specially groom by the bank for promotion find it hard to establish a strong network footing in their 2 years there and many leave shortly after the program end.

yea, I agree with what you guys say, that there are better positions out there. But because banking positions look for experienced hires and I do not have any experience in the banking industry, hence the reason why I am looking at these opportunities for me to at least step into the banking industry.

From what i know, those without related working experience starts off with a contract based job with the bank, and then from there try to convert to perm position.

So for the 1st tier bank, it allows me to have experience and also look nicer on my CV, open up more interview opportunities after my 4 months contract. At the same time, it allows me to understand if I really like to do backend processing jobs and after 4 months, I can always find another job.

And doing OT is perfectly fine for me as that's the culture of working in a bank. But working during PH and start 6.30am is kind of harsh and might affect my other commitment.

resolving your dilemma
 

Hi,
A bird in hand is better than 2 in the bush. Accept what you have today. Tomorrow is another day. By the way, does the 4 months job come with a bond/penalty? In general, it takes upto 1 month to get the login id, computer, etc. Another month for you to understand what is to be done. Then you have to pack ur bags in another 2 months.

Can you accept the contract job and then resign if you get the perm one? I know Barclays. The moment you threaten to resign, they make you perm.

Good luck.

I believe there will be a penalty if I were to sign the contract and quit earlier. So are you suggesting that getting the perm that requires you to work during PH/start at 6.30am/work on saturday is better? Because I am slightly declined to such working hours as it will affect my other commitment. And also, once perm, i have to stay for at least 1-3 years, even after 1 year, I want to quit, it does not reflect well on my CV isnt it?

Seems to me that u are tilted towards the contract job. I would say no harm in trying out for the contract job to test water while job hunting at the same time.

Yours is a typical newbie mentality mistake made by many.

My sense is you are too enamored with the idea of working inside a nice sounding branded bank and fail to understand the banking industry properly and also miss out all sorts of other much better opportunities by narrowing your job hunt to such a narrow field when you are just starting out. Very close minded and short term thinking.

If you are naive enough to think just putting a 4 month stint in UBS doing trade administration is going to brand your cv and help you break into lucrative banking roles, you are in for a rude shock. Also brokerage ops is a very unconventional backoffice function, you are not going to understand back office function just by doing intern odd jobs like that for 4 months.

he is not the first or the last to think like that. banks need ppl who think like that to do the grunt jobs for low pay.