Glassdoor? ❌ Overrated. Most other review platforms? Same story
If you really want to understand a local company — or a big firm with strong local presence — you need to dig into those old-school Web1.0 forums. Hidden in those threads are the real, unfiltered experiences that employees share.
Now, with AI, we can extract and summarize those voices. Even though forums feel like relics, the posts here are fresh — all from the last 2 years. And surprisingly, these communities are still active after all this time.
Credits: salary.sg/forum
Disclaimer: Opinions belong to the original posters. They are not necessarily true. While every effort was made to improve accuracy, AI can hallucinate occasionally.
Here comes the review 👇
Salary by Title and Function (Front/Middle/Back Office)
• Analyst Salary: "around 10-15k range" (source)• Graduate Program Salary: "pays you anywhere from 4k - 7k depending on local bank or foreign bank" (source)• DBS Graduate Ops: "earning 4.2k/month" (source)• AVP in OCBC: "11.2k (after $500 increment)" (source)• VP in UOB: "10-13k" (source)• UOB VP1 Compliance Bonus: "I got 66k bonus as VP1 in UOB as Compliance." (source)• OCBC ED Salary: "OCBC ED, 15k base and 125k bonus." (source)• DBS SVP Salary: "DBS bonus for SVP is insane... he's getting 23k a month, bonus is 140k in 2022, 150k in 2023 and 145k this year." (source)• Back Office Salary Structure: "Back office pay is like this: associate 6.5k, senior associate 7.5k, avp around 8.5k, vp around 10k." (source)Job Types and Functions
• Compliance Roles: "VP2 10-13k. FVP can range from 12-16k+" (source)• Risk, Audit, Compliance: "UOB is super generous with bonus" (source)• AVP in Tech: "AVP in DBS is around 9-11k last I checked" (source)• Relationship Officer Salary: "Roughly how much with a local uni deg?" (source)• DBS AVP Salary: "Around $8k after promoting to AVP in red bank, risk." (source)Career Progression
• Transition from Teaching to Banking: "Definitely yes. There will be a paycut at first, but the pay catches up very quickly" (source)• UOB VP1: "can reach up to 13k" (source)• Promotion Timeline: "A to SA is about 2-3 years, faster if you get AT rating or land in HIPO programs" (source)• UOB Title Inflation: "UOB is known to be inflated in their rank titles." (source)• Promotion Criteria: "2 years consecutive AT to be considered for promotion. BT disqualifies you from promotion for 2 years." (source)Culture & Work Environment
• UOB Culture: "very family oriented and the bank will treat you well in good times and bad times" (source)• Work Environment in DBS: "OT culture is real and stressful environment is given." (source)• Work Environment in UOB GTO: "Do you think it is a good sign or a bad one? Is it people are leaving UOB due to culture or heavy workload?" (source)• Work Environment in DBS: "I am 52 years old, working in OCBC for past 28 yrs. I am just a senior branch manager, earning 9.6K per month" (source)Work–Life Balance
• UOB Work Hours: "Typical 9-6:30 with some flexibility arrangement available. But do expect long OT" (source)• Work-Life Balance in Banking: "If observing working hours are important to you then you are better off not joining a bank" (source)• Work Hours in DBS: "I was burning close to 70 hours and we had this lay off 1 person every quarter thing." (source)• Work Hours in UOB: "Nope, pay progression is still the same, also 4 days WFH." (source)• Work Hours: "come to office at 10 AM, leave at 6 PM" (source)Meaningfulness of Work
• Transitioning to Banking: "I did at 33. It's possible" (source)• Job Satisfaction: "I am happy with my current position" (source)• Job Satisfaction: "I think sometimes is fate de. Maybe next year would be better." (source)Leadership
• UOB Leadership: "UOB will shock you. It's no longer a poor paymaster" (source)• Leadership in DBS: "I have AT1 rating, my bonus is 69 months, about 1 million" (source)• Leadership in UOB: "UOB has something called FVP or First Vice President which is equivalent to VP in other banks." (source)• Leadership Structure in OCBC: "OCBC ED = DBS SVP and OCBC MD & MD1 like DBS MD and senior MD." (source)