Channon Loh, 22, is in the middle of fighting for an internship and he believes he is winning. Channon Loh; Ramin Talaie/Corbis via Getty Images
Students in Singapore are pulling out all the stops to pursue a career in investment banking.
Some say they pad their resumes with multiple internships to get the job.
A former banker told Business Insider that landing a job in investment banking has become “super, super intense.”
Channon Loh, 22, is a man on a mission. The National University of Singapore (NUS) freshman is on his third finance internship, but he says he is just getting started.
Loh told Business Insider that he plans to complete nine to ten internships before he graduates. All of this, according to the business administration student, is part of his ambition to get a job at a big bank like Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan to get.
In addition to the numerous internships, Loh says she strives for a perfect grade point average every semester. “I have to put in a lot of effort for academics and then do internships,” Loh said, “but I think that’s the compromise most high-finance people would make.”
Indulge in the hard work
Loh told BI that he wanted to work at banks like JPMorgan because of the strong corporate culture and the opportunity to interact with senior management. Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images
Working at a top bank like Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan has long been the ultimate goal for those looking to make a name for themselves in finance. In addition to six-figure starting salaries, employees get the opportunity to work on mega-deals and interact with C-suite clients.
But getting your foot in the door is a big undertaking.
Landing a summer internship at Goldman Sachs is even harder than studying at Harvard. Goldman’s internship acceptance rate was approximately 1.5 percent worldwide in 2022, well below Harvard’s acceptance rate 3,19 percent in the same year.
And while it’s hard to get a job at Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan everywhere, in Singapore there’s still the social pressure of “kiasu ” – a colloquial term that roughly translates to “fear of losing” and is often used to describe the country’s cultural ethos.
Although efforts have been made to the conditions of competition To equalize, getting into an elite school and a well-paying job is still a sign of success. Many students in Singapore have adopted a pattern similar to Loh’s: filling their resumes with dozens of internships in the hope of landing a spot at a top bank.
Eric Sim, a former managing director at UBS Investment Bank and author of the career book “Small Actions“, explained to BI that landing a job at an investment bank has become “super, super intense.” “It used to be that you could get an offer with just one good internship. Now you have to do several internships,” says Sim. It’s also about networking: “Now it’s no longer just about applying and getting a job, but you have to get to know the professionals out there so that they have a good word for “put one in and point out vacancies.”
Peer pressure is an important factor
Adnan Hussain (left), 25, is a student at the National University of Singapore. Hussain told BI that he received an offer for a full-time position in sales and trading at a large bank. Adnan Hussain
Adnan Hussain, 25, is currently a student at the National University of Singapore. He says he and his friends had a hard time getting their first internships as freshmen.
“We applied for many positions and emailed over 100 companies,” said Hussain in an interview with BI. Hussain completed five internships throughout his college career, including at a hedge fund and a private bank. According to his own information, he has accepted an offer for a full-time position in sales and trading at a top European bank.
Hussain said his internships ranged from summer programs lasting 10 weeks to off-cycle positions lasting five to six months. Hussain added that peer pressure fuels competition for many of his fellow students. “There is so much stress when you see friends taking a whole semester off to do an internship. If you don’t take a semester off, you think, ‘Oh, am I doing something wrong?'” says Hussain.
Applicants complete up to seven internships at investment banks
Take Nicholas Tan, 24, a final-year student at Singapore Management University (SMU). Tan is scheduled to work as an investment banking analyst at a top European bank this summer. Tan said he took a semester’s leave of absence during his second year of college to complete an internship at an investment firm.
“I did one internship semester, but I know of students who did two or three internship semesters just to polish their resume and make sure they have a better chance of getting their dream job. This is becoming more and more common,” Tan said.
Duo Geng Goh, co-founder of CareerSocius, a social enterprise that provides career counseling services to local universities in Singapore, said it has become “increasingly common for students to undertake more internships”. While most students would have completed around two internships five to ten years ago, today it is not unusual for investment banking candidates to complete up to seven internships – it’s just a matter of finding enough time for it.
In addition to the summer and winter holidays, students can also take one or two practical semesters to complete internships – which would add up to seven or eight internships during their studies. But the race for multiple internships, says Goh, doesn’t apply to banking in general.
“The students who want to go into commercial banking or corporate banking don’t have to do as many internships as those who want to go into investment banking,” says Goh, who is also head of strategy and human resources at Glintsan online job portal.
Hard work isn’t for everyone
Nicholas Tan, 24, student at Singapore Management University. Nicholas Tan
Of course, not everyone is ready to torture themselves. Yen Chi Ang, 21, a second-semester student at NUS, says that although she wants to pursue a career in sales and trading, competition is not everything.
“I think it’s important to hedge your risks. If you do six or seven internships during your studies and get a great job, that’s wonderful,” says Ang. “But what if you don’t? Then you spend the best years of your youth trying to achieve something, only to end up with nothing,” she added.
Students like Ang have a point, says Adrian Choo, CEO and co-founder of the Singapore-based consultancy Career Agility International for career strategies. Students should think carefully about what they want to achieve with an internship, says Choo.
“If you’re just doing it to beat the guy next to you, I don’t think hiring managers want that. It’s not a numbers game,” he added. And students can likely gain technical skills and key soft skills in just one internship, said Sim, the former banker. Sim said hiring managers also look at applicants’ soft skills.
“I look for whether you have the social skills to speak to customers. Banking is a real sales job. You have to win the mandate of the customers,” says Sim. But for some students like Loh from NUS, the goal remains to move forward, no matter the cost.
“I think there really are no limits for me in terms of effort. Would I rather enjoy now but be mediocre in life or, worse, suffer later? Or would I rather struggle now but have the potential to succeed in the future? The latter appeals to me infinitely more,” says Loh.
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