Cash News
SINGAPORE – Mr Chen Shao Chun, 38, once held jobs that many of Singapore’s ambitious professionals would envy – stints at financial giants Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan, as well as seven years at tech company Google.
It was the wake-up call when his mother died in 2014 that prompted him to resign from the former, and a round of layoffs in 2024 that pushed him out of the latter.
Far from harbouring regrets, he views these departures as harsh but necessary nudges towards living a more fulfilling life.
Joining the world of finance was a no-brainer for him because of his tumultuous childhood.
“I grew up in a household with an unstable financial situation,” recalls the second child of a secretary mother and a father who ran a small magazine distribution business.
“When I was seven, I came home to my mum crying because creditors had put stickers on our belongings due to our debts. Seeing my mum cry and the collections company appraise everything in our home left a big mark on me.”
Determined not to experience such insecurity again, he majored in finance at Nanyang Technological University. Upon graduation, he secured his first job at Merrill Lynch (later acquired by Bank of America) before moving on to JP Morgan.
The gruelling hours and pressure-cooker environment were offset by outsized pay cheques. By the time he was 27, his annual salary as an investment analyst had hit $150,000.
In the competitive world of finance, Mr Chen says he and his fresh graduate peers measured their success by comparing their starting salaries – numbers which indicated their place in the finance bro pecking order.
Despite a growing realisation that the job was not aligned with his true interests – he was more interested in storytelling than analytics – he endured the “100-hour” work weeks and cold sandwich desk lunches to climb the corporate ladder.
One such opportunity came when he was asked to move to Hong Kong with Merrill Lynch. However, the realities of expatriate life were far from glamorous.
“In Hong Kong, I mostly just saw my serviced apartment, the office and the airport,” recalls the then-bachelor. Increasingly feeling burnt out, he returned to Singapore after six months in search of a more sustainable lifestyle closer to home.
His turning point came with an unexpected personal tragedy four years into his life in finance.
“As a graduate making six figures, it was a pretty big deal. I didn’t have time to take vacations, but I was able to send my mum on vacation anywhere she wanted,” he says.
“One day, I got a phone call from my dad that my mum had a heart attack while on holiday in China. I had only three days with her before she passed away. It was a pivotal moment that made me realise I paid for this holiday, but didn’t have the chance to really be there. The day after the funeral, I resigned.”