Canuck,
The best way to get a Sales or Trading position in the Global Markets/Treasury area of an investment bank is through word of mouth. Most front office people network with other traders/sales people at the pub. In this business, it's really "who you know" that counts.
A lot of senior Treasury people prefer not to use headhunters because they don't want to pay any recruitment fees. Also, they usually feel that they have a better feel for the market than the headhunters. Most senior sales people/traders and heads of the desk usually know who the good people are at the other banks. Quite often, they just poach sales people/traders from their competitors themselves. A lot of Treasury people don't even want their HR Dep't to get involved in the recruitment process. The senior Traders usually do all of their own interviewing and then just ask HR to spit out the offer letter to the candidate. (Of course, there are some exceptions).
A good place for you to network with other sales people/traders in the banking industry is "Harry's Bar" down at Boat Quay. A lot of the guys hang out there on Thursday and Friday night.
Another option is to write down a list of banks which you would like to work for, then find out who the Head of Treasury/Global Markets is and send your resume directly to him/her. You may want to send your resume to the Head of the FX, Derivatives, Fixed Income etc. desk instead.
Another option is to contact a couple of headhunters who specialise in front office jobs. I have met with several of these headhunters in Singapore and have generally found them to be pretty useless. A lot of them don't even understand what we're looking for and are just interested in making commmission.
You could try Mervyn Koh at Morgan & Banks. Contact phone number is (65) 339 0355.
Another possibility is Gary Thompson at The Consulting Partnership. Phone: (65) 224 7600.
You could also try sending your CV to the HR Manager in each bank who looks after Treasury/Global Markets. He/she could then pass your details onto the relevant hiring manager.
With regards to expat packages - A lot of banks still offer expat or semi-expat packages to front office people in Treasury/Global Markets and the Investment Banking Division. You may not be offered a full expat package that includes a club membership, company car, home leave etc. but several banks are still offering good base salaries, local medical and hospital benefits and housing allowances to some candidates.
