Singapore Expats

Hi all,

I graduated 2years ago with a IT bachelors degree. I would like a change of environment and am looking to pursue a Masters in Finance. I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts about this and if the financial sector does take in people without finance experience.

I would also like to hear if anyone has anything to say about jobs in the financial industry for IT personnel.

regards

You could do a Masters in Applied Finance - i think at SMU. It follows the CFA curriculum closely so you could do the CFA at the same time. Once you pass the CFA Level 1 exam, you can use that as a basis of applying to a finance job despite your lack of background in finance.

thanks savage.

btw, has anyone done the Masters in Financial Engineering at NTU? I'm assuming its a much more mathematically rigourous course compared to Applied Finance.

Anonymous wrote:thanks savage.

btw, has anyone done the Masters in Financial Engineering at NTU? I'm assuming its a much more mathematically rigourous course compared to Applied Finance.

I don't know about the one at NTU, but I started the same course at NUS for kicks (I'm probably the only person in the course who's not interested in a finance career) more than 3 years ago when I was still in Singapore...I ended up doing the last 2 years of it overseas - didn't attend classes, submitted assignments via email/fax and flew back to take some exams. I've finished all the coursework, but haven't started the thesis yet.

It is definitely more computational finance - stuff you would use if you wanted to go into technical analysis, credit risk management, financial software, derivatives trading, forex trading etc (all on the grunt side of things, no glamour in most of the jobs available after this degree).... while the Applied Finance is more fundamental and gives you a wider range of job options in the finance industry. The lecturers are typically Singaporean, except for the odd visiting lecturers like one or two from Cornell U. The SMU lecturers are probably much more interesting in their teaching methods from what I hear.

Hey, thanks for clearing that up. I'm actually looking for a full time course to pursue, but it sounds like the SMU one might work for me as well.

Btw, would you happen to know how life is like for an IT staff in a financial institution?

i see most of the time people suggested a Master in Finance from NTU/NUS/SMU.

1) is there any comment on the Master of Finance from offered by RMIT at SIM?
http://www.sim.edu.sg/sge/pub/pgm/sge_p ... =29&ID=100

2) and i notice there is no MSc in this course. it is just a Master of Finance. my concern is there any difference?

my former classmate in grad school has IT background too. After getting the MSc (finance related ... risk management to be exact) he was straightaway offered credit analyst full-time position in dresdner-kleinwort, frankfurt.

another classmate who also has IT background got a business analyst internship with a financial software firm after the MSc, but later on Moody's bought the firm and my classmate had to go. now she's still looking for a new job.

conclusion is, it all varies depending on the individual. i do notice that my first classmate is a very smart guy and he also works well with others. that's probably why he was snapped up very fast by a bank in a foreign country that's undergoing recession.

HELLO PEOPLE

It is now more than 6 years since the OP graduated with an IT degree.

Who in the world is dredging up 4 year old posts? And why?

Twas the character above your post SE, I have seen that post he made more than once (usually in the middle of the night). Not entirely sure what he's up to but thought it best to erase it and move the thread here to let it rot considering its' age. The OP has probably retired by now.

wow obviously the moderators have no sense of good threads management. they are not encouraging people to use the search functions. they prefer people to come out with multiple threads with the same topic

obviously im not asking the TS anything or expecting the TS to follow up on his thread

im merely asking in the same thread because it is based on similar topic

wake up guys!