Author: a.chu4

For this week’s blog I interviewed  Yalan Wu who is a Senior Associate at KPMG which is one of the Big Four auditors. We weren’t able to meet in person but I was able to have a phone conversation with her. I also had questions prepared on a word document in which I recorded down her answers. I still do not know exactly what career I want to be in so I decided to interview someone who is currently in the financial services industry. I personally wanted some insight into what I should do to prepare myself to getting a job while in college. The following are the questions I asked and her answers. While I couldn’t get her signature, I took a screenshot of our phone call.

What school did you go to and what was your major?

Barnard College and double majored in Political Science and East Asian Studies.

What activities did you do during your freshman year?

Was part of a student group called the Asian American Alliance. It is a student group welcomes undergraduate students from other schools.

Did you have any internships before or during college?

During freshman year I interned with the NY State Division of Human Rights

What did you do there?

I worked with attorneys who worked discrimination cases which includes discrimination regarding gender, age, and disabilities. We would help bring up and investigate these cases. I personally would help these attorneys document claims.

What did you do to get that internship?

I used my school’s career center to see if there were any internships available for students.

What is something you wish you did during college?

Some advice I have is to explore different things even if you don’t excel in them. Try to take a balance of courses that you need to take and those that just interest you.

How do you prepare yourself to get a job after college?

There is no one way to prepare yourself. A lot of jobs require critical thinkers and those who are responsible.

What is your current job?

I’m currently a consultant in the financial services industry.

What skills do you need?

A lot of Excel skills, data analysis, and problem solving.

What are the hours like?

It varies from project to project and client to client. Depending on what the client wants or demands, you may have to work longer hours to complete a project.

Difficulties of the job?

Difficulties involve having to find ways to solve problems efficiently. Another is getting along with other people. When working on a project, you don’t always work with the same people so you have to find ways to get along and find out how others work.

Any advice for someone who is currently pursuing a finance degree in school now?

Equip yourself by taking all the necessary courses in school. Make sure to do well in your statistics class. Also familiarize yourself with data skills and problem solving. Also develop good skills in tools like Excel. Again, take classes that you like.

This past Thursday, I went the Museum at FIT. I did not have any interest in going to a museum that Thursday. However, it was then brought to my attention that I had to fulfill a different category of activities to be done for this blog post. So, I decided to join everyone else and walk to the museum. The best part of this walk was having to haul my heavy bag of clothes and laptop for a mile. My favorite part of the museum were the benches I could sit on after carrying my bag for twenty minutes. Other than sitting, I did get a chance to glance around at the different clothing exhibits they had. The gallery we decided to look around in was the Fashion and Textile History Gallery. Here, they had clothing from all different time periods. One of the exhibits they had on display was the Force of Nature exhibition. For this exhibit, all the clothes were related to nature in some way. For example, one dress had feather patterns that were inspired by birds and another had very intricate floral patterns inspired by a specific type of flower. I personally do not have any interest in fashion but it was interesting to see how different designers all incorporated nature into their clothing designs. If it was not for class, this museum would not have been a place that I would have gone on my own. However, I did find a greater appreciation for these fashion designers when looking at all the dresses.

Last Thursday I went to the first general interest meeting of the Finance and Economics Society. I first heard of FES during convocation day. I did not really get to learn much more about it because there were just so many people during the first day where all the clubs were gathered. I went in hoping to learn more about this group other than what I saw from convocation day. I’m planning to major in finance so I was thinking that this organization would help me learn the skills needed for a career in this major. The general interest meeting was very informative and gave me much more insight into what the group was about. It was cool to learn more about the people in FES and what kind of opportunities they offer. The meeting opened up with members giving a PowerPoint presentation that summarized what people in this organization did and the different programs they had for students. They offered programs that included a mentorship and analyst program. I am currently interested in the mentorship program as it could help me look into more specific career paths. FES also had other interesting events that were mentioned. One of them was a resume building workshop which is something that I would definitely want to check out. At the end of the presentation there was a team building exercise that involved making spaghetti towers using spaghetti, tape, and a marshmallow. Before we left the meeting, there was a group photo of all the freshmen who showed up. I hope to attend more of the FES events and meetings as the school year advances. So, to sign off on this blog post, I have included an image of me included in the group photo at the general interest meeting and a picture of me holding the spaghetti tower.