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2 job offers: Big 4 Consulting vs Data Science in Banking in HK

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  1. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by aw451:
    Is the bank job a direct hire or through an umbrella agency? The umbrella agencies always promise a "chance of a permanent role" but rarely deliver as they are incentivised to keep you as a residual income.
    it's through an agency, yea definitely aware of the risks involved.

  2. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by illini_expat:
    You need to be more specific on what kind/tier of bank. #2 seems like a bad idea.
    It's with a Singaporean bank. The hiring manager came from an investment banking background according to his Linkedin.
    AliT likes this.

  3. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Yami Trader:
    It's with a Singaporean bank. The hiring manager came from an investment banking background according to his Linkedin.
    A lot of people put investment banking on their linkedin but has never been an investment banker.

    #2 doesn't sound too good because:

    1) 6 month will get you to just before year end. Unless it is an automatic conversion, they will likely need to create a new requisition to convert and many banks lock their hires Q4.
    2) You are pretty much guaranteed to be doing grunt work. No one will bother training you up. Big 4 at least you have internal support and assignments can often be longer term.
    3) Having to work knowing you have a 6 month window can be very stressful.

    I suggest you find out more about what kind of consulting you will be doing in Big4.

  4. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by gibsonvegas:
    I work at a Big 4 in HK. Feel free to message me with a bit more details about your offer (e.g., what group will you be joining, your background, etc.) and I can offer some perspectives.
    just pinged you, thanks!

  5. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by SonicYouth1:
    The perm role may be lower salary but don't forget the medical which definitely makes a difference in HK. Not to mention the annual leave, for our company Perm staff get 18-22 days, for contract staff at any level only 7 days pro rata. I'd ask HR about flexible working as well, particularly Wfh, this is quite an attractive benefit a lot of companies are offering 40% Wfh, ie. 2 days a week
    Yup, you are spot on.

  6. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by illini_expat:
    A lot of people put investment banking on their linkedin but has never been an investment banker.

    #2 doesn't sound too good because:

    1) 6 month will get you to just before year end. Unless it is an automatic conversion, they will likely need to create a new requisition to convert and many banks lock their hires Q4.
    2) You are pretty much guaranteed to be doing grunt work. No one will bother training you up. Big 4 at least you have internal support and assignments can often be longer term.
    3) Having to work knowing you have a 6 month window can be very stressful.

    I suggest you find out more about what kind of consulting you will be doing in Big4.
    The guy used to work at US and Euro investment banks and lasted as Executive Director. The pattern of his profile is as such: US > Euro > now Singaporean bank (mix of consumer banking and i-banking). Agreed that there's a clear deteriorating pattern with the banks he was with.

    To your last point, I work on finance and system transformations in Big 4 consulting.

  7. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by Yami Trader:
    The guy used to work at US and Euro investment banks and lasted as Executive Director. The pattern of his profile is as such: US > Euro > now Singaporean bank (mix of consumer banking and i-banking). Agreed that there's a clear deteriorating pattern with the banks he was with.

    To your last point, I work on finance and system transformations in Big 4 consulting.
    How are your programming skills?
    blandy62 likes this.

  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by illini_expat:
    How are your programming skills?
    I'm not a programmer by trade, know the basics of SQL and VB, some HTML

    Any specific programming language you were seeking after? Python? Java? C?

    Normally at work I focus on the usage of enterprise applications, such as Oracle, Tableau, Power BI, etc.

  9. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by Yami Trader:
    I'm not a programmer by trade, know the basics of SQL and VB, some HTML

    Any specific programming language you were seeking after? Python? Java? C?
    I think your choices are pretty clear then. I suggest you go with 1). The high paying data scientist jobs you saw on glassdoor are really software engineering specializations. The work that you will be doing for the Singaporean bank will not help you become a data scientist.

  10. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by LifeInHK:
    Both are tough, with long working hours. I would suggest the Big 4 consulting simply for the exposure. Hopefully you get assigned to many different clients and you can get to wider skill set.

    Err... agency that says "potentially convert to perm..." are bull-shiting you. It is a matter of "Internal Control" for banks to control budgets , and they do so by offering contracts under umbrella agency. After 6-months, you would be very lucky if you get renewal at exactly the SAME salary.

    I also worked in consultancy, myself and many of my friends / ex-colleagues are getting calls from agency recruiters who are pitching Data Analyst work at 48~58k x 6 months. For 68k, that sounds like a team-leader or subject specialist, so you would expect 12hours working days with plenty of conference call at odd-hours.
    Are you an expat yourself? And I assume your friends/ex-colleagues are too?
    Guess they all felt turned off by those 48-58k jobs then?

    What expat-specific platforms or agencies do they use in order to avoid those local job calls?

    I would imagine it's difficult if you were not working in investment banking which is supposedly filled with most expats by observations.