I joined the workforce after graduating with a degree in Banking & Finance in end 1999.

My first employment was a six-month contract assignment in the Finance department of an MNC. After the assignment expired, I continued to send out countless CVs to Banks and Financial Institutions. However, after more than 10 interviews for various positions in different Banks and Financial Institutions, I was still unemployed.

During that time, I took on various temporary/hourly pay assignments doing general admin for a couple of months before I finally struck a deal with a recruitment specialist from one of the employment agencies, which eventually resulted in me being with my current employer for almost 8.5 years.

The recruitment specialist needed a temporary staff to assist in a three-day assignment with a company that was in the process of relocating its office. As she explained to me, it was going to be hard work - moving big cardboard boxes of stuff from the office to the storeroom on my own the entire day for the next three days - for $5/hr. No one else before me was willing to take on this job. So I took the opportunity to strike a deal with the recruitment specialist. My condition was that I was willing to help her with this assignment if she could help assign me to the next available job in a bank - any job in any bank (I was that desperate to get into the industry).

Indeed, a week after my back-breaking assignment, the recruitment specialist finally called and told me about the availability of a $6/hr admin job with a foreign bank.

So, off I went and as soon as I stepped into the posh lobby, I told myself - I had to get myself employed full-time at this place!

Initially, I was assigned to assist in archiving documents electronically in a tiny windowless room (within this posh office) with no contact with anyone or anything other than a PC hooked up to a digital document scanner. But as luck would have it, on the third day, I was assigned to assist in a project involving changes made to the US Withholding Tax laws as the Project manager then was faced with a tight deadline and insufficient staff. My task was to prepare mailers to be sent to the banks' clients.

So, I decided to take the opportunity to find out more about the US Withholding Tax laws through my own research. That enthusiasm and initiative paid off as my manager noticed and was impressed with my attitude towards work. I was offered a full-year contract within the same month. And after a year or two as an assistant in the Bank's Back Office Operations department, I was invited to join (as one of three members within the team) a newly formed department focused in managing the bank's operational risk.

I stayed in that team for the next three years before my next big break (about three years ago) when I had the opportunity to join the Foreign Exchange Advisory team as a trainee. I have since progressed (under the guidance of my mentor and helpful colleagues) to become a senior member of the department, leading a team of five.

It has been almost 8.5 years since the day I joined the bank as a temp staff scanning documents in a windowless 5x3 room.

I hope my story of persistent hard work, initiative and a bit of luck, will inspire fresh graduates who will be looking to join the workforce during one of the most difficult periods in recent times.