How People Find Banking and Finance Jobs In Singapore/Asia

The recruitment firm Marks Sattin surveyed 1,500 people across Asia, on various issues surrounding banking and finance jobs. Majority of the respondents (86%) were from Singapore and Hong Kong.

There is some interesting information about how people find banking and finance jobs in Singapore/Asia, which is best illustrated by the following graphs.

Some thoughts and points to note:

1. Networking with friends/colleagues (21.6%) and directly with people in the target company (18.1%), is an important technique to find banking and finance jobs in Singapore/Asia. This has increased in importance over time, as people are taking more control over their job search and not relying solely on recruiters. Social/professional networking sites (like LinkedIn) make it really easy to find and connect with relevant people. However, I think they are underused in Singapore/Asia and I still meet many people who haven’t even heard of LinkedIn. It is a very powerful tool and you can access hundreds of people (and hiring managers) in your target companies, with the click of a button. So if you are looking for banking and finance jobs in Singapore and haven’t heard of LinkedIn, or are apprehensive about using it, trust me, give it a try and you won’t be disappointed. Have a look at this article for more information [The Most Practical Guide To Job Search Networking].
2. It’s no surprise that majority of the jobs posted on job boards, are advertised by recruiters (on behalf of the actual hiring companies). A few searches on most job boards (e.g. JobsDB, eFinancialCareers) in Singapore/Asia is all it takes to see this. From a job seekers point of view, what this means is that if you are using job boards, you are in effect using recruiters also. So don’t waste too much time trying to contact tons of recruiters. When you apply for a job which you really like, through a job board, contact the relevant recruiter and express your interest/suitability in that specific position. This will have better results than cold-calling recruiters asking for banking/finance jobs in general, which will result in the classic response “Send us your resume and we’ll get back to you.”
3. People seem to be using a handful of job boards (like Monster, JobsDB and eFinancialCareers) to look for banking and finance jobs in Singapore. While many of the positions advertised are duplicated across major job boards, there are many which aren’t. So it makes more sense to use a job aggregator (like Indeed) to ensure you cover more ground and save time as well.