Jon Woo did NOT graduate with honors. That's a fact. He left after 3 years.

Also, his results were not on track for first, but second upper because of slippages along the way.

It helps my case because, as I said, you don't have to be a FCH to get in. 2nd upper, or even in the case of Jon, NO honors is fine.

This is a very small sample set that I took off my NUS circle; if you widen it to other local unis, the same thing applies. So, again, I have shown you will proof that I am not talking out of my ass.

If you want to, as I said, feel free to add them or talk to these people. All will freely admit they are 2nd upper; Sam ting is working in Macquarie as an investment banking analyst. Don't believe, just go around too:)

I can flood this thread with more names, but what's the point? If it can't get convince you that investment banking is more about a certain personality, a real desire for the job and good interview skills MUCH more than academics, it doesn't matter :))

This is an interesting topic - Can someone secure a role as an investment banker without FCH from a local university or graduate from a top tier overseas university?

I don't know any of these people listed, but it's good to see some quality discussion instead of the usual senseless boasting or hearsay sort of thing. But one thing did strike me going through these pofiles that can help us to answer the question a little better.

Let's give the benefit of the doubt and assume all 5 of these individuals were not FCH or had no honours to begin with and manged to become an investment banker. However if you look through their CVs, you will realise they aren't exactly your typical run of the mill local university graduate either.

These people appear to be very talented in a wide variety of fields besides just studying for honours. From their CVs you can see they have many achievements in areas like business competition, debate, volunteer, trading challenge, prominence in certain interest groups, dean's list etc

Maybe the answer to the question is really a Yes & No. Yes in the sense that it is possible to be an investment banker without a very strong degree if your other areas of strength way exceed what your degree shows, but also No in the sense for most of the people in this forum who are thinking of becoming an investment banker with just a typical bachelor's degree and 1 or 2 standard CCAs and part time jobs or internships.

Ok, fair enough.

I never said these people were your run of the mill graduate. BUT they aren't some mystical unicorn as well. I will say they are good but definitely not the best academically. In fact, most banks simply require a second upper; the only exception is probably Goldman FO which is super elitist and the hardest to break into.

That said, they are more well-rounded, and not complete nerds. The total nerds type typically don't cut it otherwise you will see more engineers in IB (LOL). You need to be able to talk to people, and work well with others. That's more important than grades-- presentation and presentation skills have been entirely missing from this thread and many; but it's a very big differentiator, trust me. And yes, strong extracurriculars help!

this really hits the nail right on the head. that is the danger of hearsays that don't present the full story. you can see a lot of private uni / average local uni guys here latching on these exceptions think that somehow they also got hope just click apply button for some IB job wait for interview & offer.

the lesson to all those here is if you need to ask how to get in then sorry you will not get in. those who get in spend a lot of time preparing either through formal education or outide activities & networking throughout their life, it is absurd to think that some normal guy can just pay school fees go through motion get a cert then expect to get offered a $200k starting salary.

Dude very soon you are going to get all the SIM coming here telling you thats BS and they know a lot of grads working at a top investment bank.

Of course not.

But what irks me, as someone in the know, is how some people pontificate and coo about what you need to be to be an investment banker. I work in the industry, and I know it's complete BS to focus on grades and grades alone.

I also know that there is a bit of self selection at work-- meaning a good number of FCH don't apply to banks, some apply to big oil, some to FMCG, even some to other marketing places. It's false to think that the best of brightest go into banking. As a newly minted graduate, I can assure you that there are diverse interests, and many don't enter banking as well. And sweeping statements like "only the best become investment bankers" are,
IMO, highly misleading.

Btw, when I talk about FCH, I mean local Uni FCH.

SIM is not a local Uni, not to any employers eyes.

true. for eg. i hear occassionally big oil about even more power than investment banking. but somehow nobody seems interested in them at least in this forum, there are so many banking questions but so far only 1 exxon technician topic & so far nothing on the likes of shell, bp, chevron etc. at all.

maybe big oil is just not as good as upselling themselves like the investment banking industry. or maybe is because the posh offices in downtown marina bay and pretty girls attract a lot of freshies.

plz.. these losers go ard polluting any topic that hurt their ego.

Here are the pay of fresh 23/24yr old graduates working in investment banking

M&A analyst/trading analyst program : 10k
Quant Research/Risk Management analyst program : 6.5k
Finance/compliance analyst program : 4 k

For those who survived to progress to associate and VP, package will hit 200k in 5 years for front office, 7 years in risk management, 10yrs in compliance, 12years in back office..