Derivatives Consulting Group has given fresh graduate Melissa Goh plenty of learning opportunities in the fast-paced finance industry.

By Lim Yan Wen

Even before she graduated from NUS in May this year, Melissa Goh had already set her sights on a career in the Derivatives Consulting Group (DCG). Armed with an honours degree in Business Administration and a major in Finance, Melissa was informed about a job opening at DCG by the Career Office at NUS, and her understanding of DCG made it easy for her to choose from the four job offers she received...

“I like the idea of practising finance, so I looked at my options, and decided that DCG could give me the broadest opportunities,” Melissa said.

DCG is a global independent advisory firm for banks and financial institutions that use derivatives and cash products. The company was established in 2003 and has offices in London, New York and Hong Kong. DCG provides services to a large number of leading investment and commercial banks, hedge funds, asset managers and industry utilities.

The Singapore office was set up in February this year, with four senior managers brought over to oversee the operations here. Right now, the Singapore branch’s headcount stands at 22, and they are definitely looking to increase their strength as they aim to leave their footprint in Asia. Although it is a consultancy firm specialising in financial services, DCG welcomes graduates with non-business degrees because they value diversity and people with different ideas.

Job rotations

As a Junior Consultant, Melissa is working as a Rates Drafter at the moment, and her job scope includes producing documents on interest rates for derivatives products. Job rotation is one unique feature of working in DCG, so not all junior consultants handle similar job scopes at the same time.

The intention is for junior consultants to be familiar with different job functions within DCG. They get to take on different roles or be stationed with different clients, or a combination of both, depending on the business nature of the project they are working on.

One month into her job and Melissa is already relishing the challenges she gets to face on a daily basis. The rotation system is serving her well, because with each different project, the learning opportunities increase. “We learn new aspects of finance every two to three months because that’s the average duration of a project. We also encounter a new work environment and meet new colleagues,” she said.

A lot of people prize stability and some might not be comfortable with such frequent changes in their work environment, but Melissa remains unfazed. “There is still stability in the sense that we are within DCG and we continue to have connections with our clients, but we also see different aspects of the business, our networking circles are much bigger, and it’s the breadth of opportunities that makes it so exciting here,” Melissa said.

Indeed, with each job rotation, junior consultants can expect to pick up different skill sets from dealing with different clients and businesses, and such exposure makes them more valuable to the company and to clients. This could pave the way for future overseas opportunities, as depending on the needs of the projects, they might be stationed in overseas offices.

Training and development

To enable fresh graduates to adapt quickly to the new environments and expose them to as much information about derivatives as possible, the DCG Academy provides targeted education to new employees by giving them ample training in both technical aspects of derivatives training and in professional and soft skills. The course takes place over three years, and each employee takes four modules each year, with each one being a week long. They are examined at the end of that week to gauge their proficiency in a particular topic.

The Academy was established by DCG in order to reduce the shortage of people with derivatives expertise and knowledge, and is likely to be the only practical derivatives training course in the market now. With the help of the Academy, new employees like Melissa can get used to the DCG way of life with more ease. “It helped me get up to speed faster, so I won’t go in completely cold,” she said. It is also useful that the courses are practical, so they get an idea of what it is like to work in an investment bank, as well as learn about relevant issues in the industry.

“The Academy has given fresh graduates like me an idea of how the various departments work, what’s happening on the ground, how the departments are interrelated. The structured learning makes it a good transition from school to the work place,” she said. At the Academy, instructors are DCG employees who are subject matter experts well-equipped to educate students with their depth of knowledge

“I must admit that it’s been a steep learning curve. But I’ve received plenty of support from the clients and from the company. I was surprised at the level of support that the clients gave, they were very supportive and understanding and I learnt a lot in terms of their processes, how they want things done in a special way,” Melissa added.

The sky’s the limit

Given that there’s so much to learn, one’s work performance is of paramount importance to promotional opportunities. At DCG, the performance evaluation is structured and fairly frequent, with no ceiling in terms of how fast you get promoted. Seniority and experience are not criteria for promotion, as variation and type of experience is important.

While the global economy looks certain to be in for tough times ahead, Melissa is optimistic about the industry prospects for fresh graduates, because she believes that demand for talents will always be there, as long as you show promise. DCG, for one, will always be on the lookout for promising talents to join their ranks.

“You must relish the challenge of being held to a higher standard. It means you have to want to work harder and produce quality work. You should also be flexible, given the rate at which we change colleagues and work environments, and most important of all, have a sense of drive and initiative and look for new things to learn and to improve,” Melissa said.

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