SEA IBD FT or Asian Target Uni MFin?

I'm hoping to get some of yall opinions on two offers that I have outstanding at the moment. Some context about myself:

Working Exp: 2 non IBD internships (1 mgmt consulting type & 1 wealth management )

Nationality: third world SEA country (Indonesia/Malaysia/etc)

Goal: Work IBD/S&T in first world financial centre-> HK/SG/ Ldn (less likely)

Language proficiency: Fluent english/ basic mandarin 

Age: 22 

My two offers are as follows:

  • Work Full time IBD in large regional bank in my home country
  • MFIN at asian target uni (Peking/Tsinghua/NUS/HKU). Two year program which gives me a chance to do one more SA before FT recruiting. 

As mentioned above, my ultimate goal is to work outside of my home country, despite having gotten a really good IBD offer in a large bank at my home country. The MFIN option is great as well, but it's additional two years of studying and I do have some concerns which are as follows:

  • Visa restrictions for all aforementioned countries
  • Language requirements (For HK & SG). I do not speak mandarin or a SEA language fluently. I only have basic mandarin and Malay proficiency. It is likely that after 2 years I will graduate and have full mandarin fluency but I am afraid of the timing because I hear no one gives you time to improve your language proficiency

What would everyone here do? Where I live, IBD here still has brutal hours, but being a third world country, the compensation is seriously horrible (and not at all paying a premium compared to other jobs at least at the analyst level)

1 Comments
 

Tempore voluptas explicabo voluptate distinctio natus ut voluptate. Est voluptatem repellat repudiandae iusto. Cupiditate saepe optio ut quam.

Ab ad dolore sapiente esse sed porro occaecati autem. Et voluptatum non voluptatem et perferendis magni rerum. Nostrum sed iure velit quos dolore asperiores ea. Voluptas amet molestiae fugiat rerum.

Et animi sequi in pariatur optio distinctio ut dolorem. Sit exercitationem sint et aperiam sequi quo voluptas. Itaque autem sed eligendi ullam. Sit ratione molestiae ipsam nam rem aut aut laborum.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (46) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (80) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”