cstassen:
This is slightly tangential, but are you dead set on becoming an MD at a large investment bank? Bright talents from investment banks get poached all the time into buyside firms, preferably with a better compensation structure. I feel that you should be taking that possibility into consideration when planning your career.
One thing about working in an investment bank is that it tends to be quite political and hierarchical on the upper level of managements. I'm guessing that more often than not, MDs are more focused in managing people and selling their businesses -- two things that I don't necessarily dislike, but I'm more interested in running money. The reason I'm saying this is because I've seen my friends go into investment banks, aspiring to make it as soon as possible to MD status, only to reverse their course when they figured out what the job really entails. Of course, if that is what you like, then more power to you.
Specifically regarding Asia, I'm hearing that financial engineering is still mostly nascent there. You can probably see green shoots of securitization in Singapore or Hong Kong, but it will not be as sophisticated as it is in NY/London (I'm leaving Tokyo out, since it's a different beast altogether). I'd guess that more traditional finance such as private equity and M&A will gain traction first before financial engineering does. My experience talking to people on the ground indicates that most business have not yet gained the financial sophistication to produce demand for exotic financial instruments.. yet.
