Hi guys,
I am a 19 year old conscript (sergeant) in Singapore. I am heading to an undergraduate business course at a local target university (NUS) in August '16, where banks conduct on campus recruiting.
I aim to have a career in finance, and I have been religiously reading blogs such as Wallstreetoasis and Mergers and Inquisitions. I understand the fundamentals of how to get a job (heavy networking, getting a solid 3.5+ GPA, building modelling skills), but I am still concerned that this is not enough.
I have 3 questions I hope you guys could answer:
1) Should I focus my learning on depth (e.g developing quantitative understanding, studying DCF, learning modelling skills etc) or breadth (e.g learning about the different facets of finance on the surface, reading bloomberg, financial news, finance in general, and developing a macroeconomic perspective)?
2) Should I begin heavily networking now? I have been emailing alumni from NUS who now work in IB, but only for general advice. I also have an uncle who's an MD in Barclays but he's in London; and some of the guys on my rugby team are expats working in finance locally.
3) I leave the military December this year, and uni only begins in August next year, leaving me 8 months of downtime. Should I extend my service and earn 1650USD a month, or just leave and spend my time studying and networking? Also, as I am an infantry instructor in command school, I still have considerable blocks of time to myself which I can use to network and self-study, should I extend my service.
I know that this a huge chunk of text, but I wanted to fully convey my message. I'd really appreciate it if you guys could offer me some advice
Thanks
Disclaimer : I am still a student, and was in your shoes not too long ago.
My advice is to find an internship/part-time job after your NS ends. It will be best if it is related to an area that you're interested in. Some of the big firms have accounting/finance part time jobs and that might be good experience. I would recommend extending your service if you didn't have plans, but it looks like you're determined to have one.
Yes, absolutely.
Yes, but be careful. Network with people like Win (above) or your uncle. For alumni, start with people who are closer to you in age / able to relate to you more. The process of recruiting is fresher for them and they are "friendlies" and won't ding you prematurely.
Up to you. Studying and networking are nice, but we all have bills to pay. I like Win's suggestion.
Also, congrats on NUS. Great school. Even outside of ASEAN.
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For IBD, your greatest asset right now is your enthusiasm and the fact that you are teachable. No one expects you to be able to do anything, especially if you are just starting undergrad (the assumption is you have probably not taken any finance courses, let alone know about DCF etc.)
However, they want to know that you know what you're getting into (hours) and that you like this type of work (spending your own time to learn about DCF helps here).
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