if i want to jump to strat consulting, corp strat, or top mba from tech consulting, does a strategy rotation program sound like a good idea or is it a step backward? currently senior analyst (cont)
which company?
straight through processing (stp) is the end-to-end automation of the trading processes both within and between buy and sell side institutions. in short, it is a vehicle to real-time stock/ trade processing in financial service industry, with a seamless integration of components and processes involved in the trading cycle starting from first request to buy/sell interest ending up to trading settlement and reporting. stp starts from the first capture of an order through to final settlement. it involves the seamless, electronic transfer of information to all parties involved in the trading cycle utilizing standardized information flows, technologies, and infrastructures. stp provides wired links for investment managers and ability to process trade without manual intervention and exception, thereby eliminating chances for human errors. in short, t+1 is the simple term for the process of clearing and settling a trade one day after the trade date. 

key elements in an stp strategy:

1. stp is about t+1

a typical securities firm's back office is characterized by multiple applications at various stages of their useful lives and not necessarily 'talking' with each other. therefore stp would come to mean:

• streamlining operational infrastructure (internal stp) 
• readying for connectivity with trade participants and matching utilities (external stp). 

2. stp is more than process automation

by definition stp envisages a seamless, automated and integrated transaction-processing environment. this cannot be achieved by just automating existing business processes. as is seen even in highly automated back offices, not all processes are at their most efficient due to duplication. also existing automation, in most cases, will not maximize overall business process efficiency. so it is not possible to crash processing time further by increasing automation.

3. stp should go beyond information technology solutions

an obvious corollary to the proposition that stp goes beyond mere process automation is that stp is not just an it issue. implementation of stp is driven by business considerations such as reduction in processing costs, improvement in data integrity and usage for decision-making.

4. stp has many applications in addition to cost saving

the benefits of stp are generally considered to be:

• reduction in costs, due to a reduction in process inefficiencies and release of manpower

• reduction of risk, due to more efficient settlement and reconciliation as well as reduced exposure period when the settlement cycle is compressed 

both of these contribute to the bottom line of the company, and the general tendency is to measure the success of stp initiatives based on this. however the real measure of success is its impact on the competitive position of the industry participant. cost is only one dimension of competitiveness. a well thought out stp strategy can aim to improve top line and margins. this could be in terms of: 

• improving service levels to customers 
• improving data or information usage efficiency 
• release of resources to more core functions 
• enhancing processing throughput.

the benefits of stp go beyond cost savings. it is a strategic imperative that enhances a firm's corporate performance and its competitiveness.

5. stp is useful for both trade and non-trade issues

stp is usually associated with the securities market trading cycle and this causes stp to be viewed only in the context of the trading process 'silo.'

however the concerns that stp seeks to address, such as inefficient processes and manual interventions, are equally prevalent in non-trade processes. for example, if an asset management firm improves its client record keeping process using stp, there are tangible business benefits both in terms of cost savings and improving service delivery.

6. stp should be constantly, continuously utilized

an stp initiative is not just a one time operational initiative. instead, it has to constantly align with strategic and tactical needs of business. central to the stp theme is the premise that stp objectives flow top down from business needs and eventually get translated to it spending.

7. the current environment is never adverse to stp strategies

the advantage of embarking on an elaborate stp exercise is in having control and direction over the whole implementation and thus efficiently planning and deploying resources. the flip side is the large budget commitments to be made and difficulty in measuring roi, given the scope, scale, interdependencies and long implementation period. in the current environment, it may be better to take an incremental approach by:

• conducting firm-wide analysis for all core processes 
• phasing out affected processes in two or three buckets 
• selecting critical processes that will provide maximum business impact in phase one. 

however, much hinges on careful and intelligent choice of target processes. again it is necessary to have a pan-organizational view to take care of consistency and related dependencies. 

a significant risk is that the sum of the individual (silo) savings or benefits will not equal the overall benefit, as there would still be bottlenecks in interfacing processes that have been excluded from scope. some of the advantages of an incremental approach are: 

• it can provide early and quick wins.
• with smaller outlays expected, it is easier to 'sell' internally to stakeholders while seeking funding 

• it de-risks the implementation by phasing out changes 
• it serves the interest of change management by gradually building organizational acceptance. ic data scientists get compensated very well at the top tech companies. probably more than directors at your company. there's no guarantee that any amount of internal advancement will get you into those companies from cpg. best bet is to get good at data science and apply as an ic at tech firms to break into the industry. columbia and yale are really hard to get into. nyu is difficult too, but not quite as expensive and more realistic (not saying you cant get into the others, you definitely could, but nyu is just as good in my opinion). and your gpa is great, mine was only an 86 and i got into the university of rochester (didn't go due to costs), so a 90 could definitely get you into even better schools. i also didn't have a job, didn't do any sports, nor did i participate in any clubs or orgainizations (funny thing is, i'm doing all of that now that i'm in college). you'll do fine, just as long as you make the most out of the rest of this year and especially next year. take a lot of ap's, seriously, they're probably the reason why i'm not going to a community college. get a summer job. you're already in a sport, so you're good for extracurriculars. also, take the act. it's more practical and, in my opinion, easier. i got a 1370 on the sat but a 32 on the act, which is the equivalent of a 1440. colleges don't even care which one you take now anyway, and you could always take it again (i did for the sat, raised my score 150 points the 2nd time). gpa isn't as important as everyone makes it out to be, but you should still keep it as high as you can. i worked for walmart ecommerce (and jet.com) in hoboken for a few years, and i'm currently at bloomberg. let's me start out by saying that both offers are surprisingly low.with 6 yoe, you should be at least a senior engineer at walmart and definitely a senior engineer at bloomberg.aim for 155k to 160k base with 40k signon (and 40k rsu) at walmart. and 200k base with 30k signon (and 40k+ bonus) at bloomberg.in terms of culture, walmart is pretty inefficient and slow and could be purposeless. but it's relaxed and expectations aren't too crazy.bloomberg is fast paced, transparent, very very efficient and could be stressful at the beginning. also, it's very purposeful (many big firms and companies depend on the code "you" write), but... the codebases and code quality may not always be good because of the speed at which code is written and commited.good luck. it is a good option see above - exit opps are there, but i'd be lying if it's easy to get into a hf/pe job from a fof.

so, there are a lot of transferable skills you can develop if you want - for example, if your firm does co-investments, you're still going to have to work closely with the fund on the underwriting, and so you'll get a lot of exposure that way. are you going to re-post all the time?
why are managers and senior officers reporting to another manager? One difficulty is that it's far from clear what the ideal dropout rate should be. Probably not zero, for two reasons:

 1. Even the best students sometimes find that their interests change over time, in ways nobody could have predicted. Dropping out may become a quite sensible choice, in which case it's harmful for the university to discourage it.
2. It's reasonable for a university to give someone a chance even if it's not certain that they will succeed. The only way to get a really low drop-out rate is to admit just the applicants that are obviously destined for success. The top few schools can get away with this, but if everyone tried it, then many talented candidates would be shut out from graduate school.

 So some attrition is OK, and some is bad but may be a necessary consequence of policies that are on the whole good. The question then becomes how you distinguish these kinds from needless and damaging attrition, and then how you minimize that kind.

 Advisors play a key role here, because some are much better than others at being supportive or motivational. However, at least in mathematics, most advisors don't supervise very many students, so the numbers often aren't large enough to see patterns clearly.

 I'm sure people have studied this problem, and perhaps identified best practices for addressing it. However, in my experience any studies or solutions are not especially influential (at least in the few math departments I've been in). Most discussions are at the stage of trying to figure out whether there is a real problem and if so why, rather than what to do about it. a good analyst should look and feel like a good associate - most partners would tell you they would prefer to staff a high performing analyst over an associate most times.

in general associates are tasked with less "raw" analysis [e.g., data cleaning, model creation] and are tasked with the "softer" roles [e.g., interviews, market research, leading client teams]. the best place to be in my opinion is a high performing analyst that can act in a standalone role which bridges the two types of skill sets. first, thank you for serving our nation.


second, it will be important to understand your stage in life. presumably, you may be turning 19 after your a-levels or 20 after your poly studies. either way, you are young and have a long investment runway ahead of you.


third, where can you place your money while you serve the nation for the next two years?


www.squirrelsave.com.sg


assuming you can get emergency funding if needed from your parents, then you must decide the risk you want to take in placing the money.


the safest (lowest risk) with no return is to literally keep your money in the safe. that’s not the best way frankly when there are slightly riskier ways to grow your money with decent returns.


one possibility is to place into a bank savings account in singapore, preferably in a fixed deposit which offers a higher return than the basic savings account.


however, i would recommend investing in a well-diversified global portfolio, especially when you have two years of runway to grow your money. after all, it will be good to have good returns after you complete your national service to help you meet expected expenses when you further your studies or take a well-deserved holiday.


investing globally is easy with robo-advisers. pick one which is fully automated where you don’t have to make decisions except how much to invest. in selecting the robo, check if the risk management is done by machine learning ai or if it is managed ultimately by a human manager. diversification requires massive data analytics, which is not humanly possible. yet it is easily done with the computing power available today.


before you start, you need to know or select your own risk profile. it is not easy as most people do not do what they say. further, conventional risk profiling poses technical questions which some people may not fully understand. instead, look for risk profiling tools which reflect your personality and risk-reward behaviour. using such a tool that can analyse your risk-reward attitude is a critical step to start your investing journey.


www.squirrelsave.com.sg