Sunday, March 23, 2008 x 12:29 AM

Musical Chair

Recently been applying quite a number of jobs. Some in foreign banks, others in brokerage firms.
Met a few people from the recruitment companies such as robert walters to establish my portfolio as well as get to understand my expectations.

Got my increment last week which is not that impressive but also not too bad. I would say it's kinda average in the banking industry. However consider the sub-prime turmoil going on now, satisfactory is the word to be used here.

Went for a number of interviews and got 2 offers from brokerage firms as an equity dealer. Jobscope will be deals execution from inhouse clients as well as advisory for external clients. FYI it's not a sales job, no commission and just a normal mthly paid worker.
( that's for the 1st offer )

2nd offer is also the same, equity dealer but however the jobscope requires me to do sales such as selling structured products to customers. However what i don't understand is that this is also a mthly paid job. Weird if u ask me, for why do i need to do sales when i'm not being paid commission. I have no idea and the interviewer also could not give me a satisfactory answer.

Needless to say i declined both offers. Honestly i don't really feel the push factor to move to a new job. Currently i have a bunch of very nice colleagues, great boss and i'm able to go home quite early everyday. This means i have much more free time on my own as compared to those who need to work OT daily. So considering all these, i can't really find any realistic push factor.
( money is very subjective as what is more to you may be less to another )

However if the pull factor is very strong from the other side, such as a very very high increment, then it's a different story. Or the job is from a very reputable foreign bank, then i might consider jumping even though the increment isn't that high.

I just went for an interview at Deutsche Bank on a role in fixed income ( settlements ) on last thursday. Interviewed by 3 person ( been a long time since i'm interviewed by a panel of people ) Nowadays interview for me is much different as compared to just graduated from NTU.
As a fresh graduate, you are trying very hard to sell yourself to the employer, trying to impress them with your best attributes and skills & finally trying hard to get the job.

However at this stage, interviews for me can be describe as finding out what's my expectations as well as wat's their expectations. I can say it's more like a discussion rather than an interview.

Stressful at interview? No at all, as it's a situation where the employers are finding people to fit in and i'm trying to find out what can they provide me with and what advancement are there for me. So it will be the best with a win-win situation when all can fit perfectly. If this situation is not possible, so be it. There will always be chances. As i said, there is no strong push factor for me, only waiting for the strong pull factor from the other side.

Let's see whether i will hear from them the coming week. Even if there's no news, i'll still be happily working together with my colleagues as it's the best part of my working life right now!