Mon, Jul 06, 2009 The Business Times Fresh grads rush in for jobs, banks may oblige
By SIOW LI SEN
Thousands of fresh graduates continue to make a beeline for jobs in the financial industry, unfazed it seems by its less than sterling reputation and reports of retrenchment.
Some banks have been overwhelmed by the thousands of job applications from hopeful graduates - although they have openings only for less than 10 per cent.
Citibank said that to date it has received 50 per cent more job applications or as many as 4,500 from fresh graduates. In previous years, it received 2,500 to 3,000 applications from fresh graduates hoping to land a job under its management associate (MA) programme which takes in 20-30 people.
In May, Citibank said that it will be hiring 200 fresh graduates under its own MA programme as well as under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) scheme.
The MAS scheme subsidises graduates' allowances over the next one to two years to encourage financial institutions to take them in.
MAS said in March that it will set aside $15 million for the initiative.
Lee Yan Hong, Citi Singapore human resource director, said that the recruitment process is still ongoing and progressing well.
The new hires will fill positions under three talent recruitment initiatives, namely the management associate, banking associate and banking trainee programmes, she said.
The latter two were new programmes specially created to be aligned with the MAS scheme.
Standard Chartered Bank said that the number of applications from fresh graduates this year has doubled.
It typically receives several thousands of applications a year for its prestigious banking associate programme.
D M Arulraj, regional head of human resources (SEA), Standard Chartered Bank said that the banks has hired about 180 graduates so far this year.
For its one-year banking associate programme tailored for high potential fresh graduates who are placed into job specific roles, the bank has taken in 38 graduates.
'This programme offers a structured career path for the graduates and they go through skills and product training necessary for their role to help them develop their careers,' said Mr Arulraj.
In addition, about 70 fresh graduates will be joining the bank next Monday under the MAS scheme. This batch will go through a one-month structured training with the focus on providing them with a fundamental knowledge of the bank's products and the financial industry, he said.
Stanchart also hired an additional 50 graduates in the first half of 2009, most of whom are in sales, he said.
DBS Bank to date has got about 1,200 applications from fresh graduates for jobs under the MAS scheme, for which it has 80 positions, said Edna Koh, a bank spokeswoman.
'DBS supports what MAS wants to achieve through this initiative,' said Ms Koh.
Positions are offered across the departments, including consumer banking, technology & operations, investment banking and wealth management.
'We are offering around 80 positions and we have hired approximately half the number already,' she said.
'In addition, we will continue to hire fresh graduates for our management associate programme this year. The size of the intake has not been finalised, but in the past, DBS typically recruits about 50 graduates for this programme each year.'
OCBC Bank said that it is taking in fresh graduates under the MAS scheme.
Please do the math...only about 10 percent of us are getting a job in the bank. i get discouraged even before i apply for a job from them. and needless to say us SIM grads do not exactly have an advantage over others..
feeling abit confused right now. i know i shldnt be pondering over whatever that has passed. when Albert Einstein said everything is relative, it is so true. here's what confusing me:
1) my first job offer was from RBS at 1.8k doing a job i don't mind and might actually like. it may not be a glamourous position, not a middle management job 'suited for degree holders', and so i rejected it and also because of the low pay. 2) my second job offer (well i did not go for my 3rd round of interview) was 2.3k from OCBC, considered quite good given the market, but i rejected it cause i didnt want to do the job cause i deemed it to have no prospect.
i've been hearing many people telling many things like, "the pay is too low for a degree holder" and "your first job would be important to your future career path if not the time and experience gain would go to waste."
and so i need to find a job that would add value to my dream career path and at the same time has a pay at the market rate for degree holders. some people says 2.2k is the average starting pay, but then again i read from forums that fresh grads are everywhere now and can't find a job at all. and even worse i saw a statistic from jobstreet that the average starting pay of fresh grads in finance sector is 1.8k?? i don't know if they're deflating the figure so we can fill in more vacancies, i suppose i am a living example of someone who was offered a 1.8k job 'due to inexperience'. relatively speaking, if the market situation is really so now, then accepting the 1.8k job wouldn't be that bad. afterall i could always jump ship after a while, and having already a headstart rather than being those 'picky fresh grads who deem pay to be too low and rather rot at home.' my kiasu mentality prevents me from accepting a job that would pay much lower than my peers, as i don't want to feel sad for myself. lol.
i have an urgent need to find out more about the ICSA programme and the career path that entails. looking at the figures under 'years of experience', i suddenly realise that with each passing month, i am wasting would-be valuable working experience. exactly what job would be valuable for my future career? do i even know what i want as a goal?
