Ever since Hong Kong became more difficult for foreigners, many students and career changers have set their sights on Singapore.

It's another financial center, you don't need to know Chinese, and you get to cover fast-growing markets in Southeast Asia.

If you want to work in Asia, what could be better?

Singapore is the most "foreigner-friendly" place for finance in Asia, but that doesn't necessarily mean much.

It's much smaller than HK (and London and NY) and is very much geared toward people from the region.

So, before you start leaning too hard into the "Gateway to Asia" narrative, you may want to do a quick reality check first:

This article may seem a bit negative, but I don't think it's "impossible" to get into SG as a foreigner.

I just think that most people would be better off starting in a larger financial center and transferring in the future, if it makes sense.

-Brian