front office - career advice

Agreed but the salaries they offer are also pretty bad right?

I mean you pay peanuts, you get monkey, that's an age old adage that is true.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Word.

Yeah i dont see how it is cool. So the 3 local unis are target schools for big 4. Big whoop. Not even real finance. Its not like they are the london schools (imperial, lse, ucl) that are target schools for the global banks and IB shops. In the US biz schools, the top tier firms also do on campus recruiting. The difference is that they are Goldman sachs and Lazard, not pwc.

Lastly, u overestimate the no of local uni biz students going to good MA or grad programmes. Id say about 20-30%? Majority also go to middling stat boards or GLCs.

Btw im not in finance, so this is an objective outsiders perspective.

I'm from SMU. The bulge bracket banks, MBB, fmcgs, etc do conduct recruitment drives here, but these are normally by invitation (i.e. they send an email invite only to certain people, probably those above a certain cut-off GPA). So you're right in that grads in target UK/US schools probably get general recruitment drives but that is not to say that we don't also get similar opportunities (just that they're a lot harder to come by, and justifiably so)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm from SMU. The bulge bracket banks, MBB, fmcgs, etc do conduct recruitment drives here, but these are normally by invitation (i.e. they send an email invite only to certain people, probably those above a certain cut-off GPA). So you're right in that grads in target UK/US schools probably get general recruitment drives but that is not to say that we don't also get similar opportunities (just that they're a lot harder to come by, and justifiably so)

I would say that SMU is not generally a target ground for the top companies. SMU is poorly ranked internationally and is largely unknown. NUS and NTU students stand better chances.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I would say that SMU is not generally a target ground for the top companies. SMU is poorly ranked internationally and is largely unknown. NUS and NTU students stand better chances.

hahahahaha... joke of the day.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I would say that SMU is not generally a target ground for the top companies. SMU is poorly ranked internationally and is largely unknown. NUS and NTU students stand better chances.

Definitely the case.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hahahahaha... joke of the day.

Really meh? I am another poster.... but I don't see why SMU kids are so arrogant. They aren't that smart by any means... Rich maybe.. but smart? Not as much as the top kids in NUS/NTU.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Really meh? I am another poster.... but I don't see why SMU kids are so arrogant. They aren't that smart by any means... Rich maybe.. but smart? Not as much as the top kids in NUS/NTU.

The top companies simply treat NUS/NTU/SMU as the same tier and then zoom in to the individual's achievements.

Singaporeans, especially those who have not worked overseas, always like to nitpick and make retarded statements like NUS is more internationally recognised, etc etc.

I worked overseas in a bank and nobody knows whats unis there are in Singapore.

When you tell people you are from NUS, nobody knows what that is. You tell ppl you are from NTU, they think you are from Nottingham Trent University. SMU, they think Southern Methodist University.

That's right, lower "internationally ranked" universities are more recognised than our local unis.

You think all the people from 1st world countries are fighting to take their MBA in NUS and NTU?

Hello, please wake up your idea. Only India, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar are fighting to get in.

The fact that this sort of statements appear in a front office thread is a joke.

No wonder there is this saying, sinkie own sinkie.

Frogs in a well croaking at each other on the best advice for surviving outside.

How brilliant of you to use your singular anecdotal examples in ONE industry from your experiences deployed "overseas" as proof that you're right!

Broadly speaking a 2.1 grad from a top 100 ranked uni with interesting resume that can catch the attention of recruiting companies, he stands a chance to compete. A lot would depend on how the candidate pass the selection tests and position himself as a right fit rather than he or she is from which university. Common sense and performance sustainability shall prevail!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The top companies simply treat NUS/NTU/SMU as the same tier and then zoom in to the individual's achievements.

Singaporeans, especially those who have not worked overseas, always like to nitpick and make retarded statements like NUS is more internationally recognised, etc etc.

I worked overseas in a bank and nobody knows whats unis there are in Singapore.

When you tell people you are from NUS, nobody knows what that is. You tell ppl you are from NTU, they think you are from Nottingham Trent University. SMU, they think Southern Methodist University.

That's right, lower "internationally ranked" universities are more recognised than our local unis.

You think all the people from 1st world countries are fighting to take their MBA in NUS and NTU?

Hello, please wake up your idea. Only India, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar are fighting to get in.

The fact that this sort of statements appear in a front office thread is a joke.

No wonder there is this saying, sinkie own sinkie.

Frogs in a well croaking at each other on the best advice for surviving outside.

You may perhaps be right in relation to NTU. Some people (who are not in the HR department) of international companies may not have heard of NTU. And of course not SMU. Even for these schools, it is naive to say that the HR recruiters of international companies, especially those who have a presence in Singapore, have not heard of NTU/SMU.

In relation to NUS, the people you have met must be truly ignorant to not know NUS which is ranked #1 in Asia. Please see the QS rankings at ://.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2015 . If those people do not know NUS, it means they do not know any of the Asian universities. That is true ignorance.

SMU is generally on a level competing ground with NUS/NTU in local companies. It is well known that SMU grads are outspoken, and that is an advantage. I'm being objective. However, the fact remains that SMU is generally unknown internationally as compared to NUS which is the number 1 university in Asia. This will be one of the factors taken into account by top international companies.