It is heartening that 44% of the 6,500 newly created jobs are open to mid careerists with adjacent or no-experience. Financial institutions are willing to train mid-careerists for these new jobs Mid-career jobseekers should avail themselves of the opportunity to be trained into these new roles. There is strong demand for non-tech roles, with close to 4,800 hiring opportunities. These include roles in relationship management, product sales, compliance and risk management. Relationship managers alone account for 1,300 or 28% of the hiring opportunities in non-tech roles. This is underpinned by the strong growth in wealth management activities in Singapore. Citibank recently opened its world’s largest wealth advisory hub at Orchard Road. Clients will be able to have in-depth conversations with relationship managers and product specialists at a single location. Citi plans to hire 1,500 more employees by 2025, including 300 relationship managers. DBS Bank is ramping up its capabilities and solutions to help all its customers improve their financial well-being, regardless of their income level or life stage. DBS aims to double the recruitment of financial planning advisers by hiring more than 650 wealth planning managers and insurance consultants this year. The demand for financial planners and relationship managers is likely to be sustained. Singaporeans are becoming increasingly conscious of the need for proper financial planning, such as insuring against health risks and saving and investing for retirement. Financial planning and relationship management is not an easy job, but it is meaningful. Relationship managers need to be knowledgeable about a range of financial products and solutions.

First, a degree or diploma in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) provides a good head start. One does not need to have a tech qualification to take on a tech job. Financial institutions have been hiring engineering and science graduates as well. Financial institutions are also open to training mid-career Singaporeans with STEM backgrounds from other sectors too. Second, fundamental programming skills are essential. Demand is shi ing away from traditional roles like IT project manager and IT support, to product owners and so ware engineers. There are two kinds of so ware engineers: General app developers who focus on front-end and mobile app development; and Enterprise so ware developers who need deep technical skills that come from years of programming experience and knowledge of core banking so ware. Demand for enterprise so ware developers is much higher. Third, business domain knowledge is important. Gone are the days when technology professionals were at the back-end, building systems for business functions they had little interaction with. The demand today is for biz-tech or ops-tech integration. In financial services, tech professionals are expected to have business domain knowledge, to better support business needs. Fourth, overseas exposure is valued. As Singapore houses many global and regional tech hubs, tech professionals need to understand overseas markets to build better quality products and solutions. This means taking up overseas postings in countries like India and China, where there are large pools of tech talents to work with and learn from.