INSIGHTS AND INSPIRATIONS
With a combined experience of more than two decades, our mentors share our thoughts on how you can land an investment job and excel.
Is the ESG Investing Certification Worth Taking?
ESG investing has been around for some time and juniors were asking if it is worth taking the certification. My answer is simple: Do you just want another cert to try to land a role, or do you sincerely [...]
How Meeting My Mentor Upped My Game
For those who don't already know me, I'm Valerie, one of the senior mentors at Springboard. One of the defining moments of my life came when I met my mentor (Ms F) some years ago. Someone who had successfully managed multi-million dollar businesses [...]
Interview Tips: Wow The Interviewer With Self-Introduction (Junior Investment Analyst Roles)
Interview Tips: Wow The Interviewer With Self-Introduction (Junior Investment Analyst Roles) How do you introduce yourself during interviews? Have you ever wondered about the traps during your introduction? In our recent meet the mentor session, I shared with our students [...]
Fund Managers Say Technology Adds Jobs, Here’s How
Job seekers need not fear robo advisors, number crunching softwares, and artificial intelligence killing jobs in asset management, experts say. Here are some experts' views from a recent conference in Singapore. Job Creation "The theory that technology in the asset [...]
Is Technology Eating Our Lunch?
Is Technology Eating Our Lunch? Take-away from Kuala Lumpur CFA Career Day This was the topic presented by Th’ng Beng Hooi, who is the Managing Director at AB Maximus. He presented in the CFA Career day on August 4th, 2018, about [...]
Investigative skills for investment analysts
Investigative skills for investment analysts Takeaways from our expert seminar held on August 16th, 2018 As an intelligent investment analyst, we must be able to verify facts and understand the management of those companies we are researching on. Our guest [...]
How to build credibility before a junior investment job? (Part 2)
How to build credibility before a junior investment job? (Part 2) Make it happen, don't be oblivious to opportunities Young people looking to join the investment industry often encounter this challenging question: what relevant experience do you have? In our [...]
How to build credibility before a junior investment job? (Part 1)
How to build credibility before a junior investment job? (Part 1) Young people looking to join the investment industry often encounter this challenging question: what relevant experience do you have? This is a chicken and egg question. How would one [...]
5 Tips to pass all CFA exams on the first try! Resits incur huge opportunity costs
This article is a continuation of an earlier article: Wish to pass all CFA exams on the first try? which talks about the importance of passing all three levels of CFA exam on your first try. There are certainly huge opportunity [...]
Wish to pass all CFA exams on your first try? Note these 3 pitfalls!
What's the big deal about passing all CFA exams on the first try? Being able to pass all CFA exams on your first attempt will make you stand out from other candidates statistically. Only 10% of total candidates can pass [...]
Trash Back Office Mindset for an Investment Job
Dreaming of an investment job? We see many candidates from back office looking to switch into front office investment jobs. Many of you must be thinking: easier said than done when you read the title. That’s understandable, considering that you’ve [...]
Which has better payoff – CFA or FRM? Here is my experience
The Question - CFA and/or FRM? Many people ask me this question when they see both CFA charter and FRM certificate after my name. The questions typically revolve around whether they should take CFA exams or FRM exams. The whole [...]
From CFA exams to investment jobs – How?
How to find an investment job after your CFA exam? Are you one of the many students who take the CFA exams every year? Are you thinking about the career options or looking out for jobs after the CFA exams? Thanks [...]
Career Success in the New Work Environment for Investment Professionals
I had an interesting read about Career Success in the New Work Environment , available at the CFA Institute website, which focuses a lot on self awareness, awareness of the environment and career planning and navigation. The e-book also offers interviews [...]
How to profile yourself on LinkedIn and get hired
"Resume: a Written Exaggeration of only the good things a person has done in the past; as well as a wish list of the qualities a person would like to have." - Bo Bennett And what about your CV that [...]
Career Management Tip: So much more than job searching
"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." Art Linkletter Recently, I came across this short article, which advises that career management is not just about the job search that you [...]
Handy tools: Unofficial guide to banking
Saw these two free books online, which are useful for our students (url attached): Unoffical Guide To Banking: introduce various functions in the banking industry Jargon Buster: I would expect you to know at least 80-90% of all these terms if you already [...]
Manage Your Career: tips for career switchers
I attended a CFA seminar about Manage Your Career featuring Mr. Andrew Jones on 25h Feb. He talks about 10 most important aspects of your career, namely: […]
Banking and Finance Hiring Trend in Singapore
Our friend Loretta Chan has posted an interesting article in linkedin. Review and Forecast: The Corporate and Institutional Banking hiring trend in Singapore Increasingly, the spotlight is moving towards the so-called emerging second-tier banks, where, as compared with the bulge [...]
TED: Silverspoon or Scrapper?
Here's an motivating sharing from Regina Hartley, HR director at UPS on whether the company should hire Silverspoon or Scrapper? https://www.ted.com/talks/regina_hartley_why_the_best_hire_might_not_have_the_perfect_resume/transcript?language=en#t-330426 Best quote: Take this resume. This guy's parents give him up for adoption. He never finishes college. He job-hops [...]