Never thought of how fast 10 weeks could just pass like this. This is sorta like a relativity concept in between the actual time that has passed and the amount of time you thought it would take.
Yea, so the end. The end of the summer internship. On an eventful day back in Malaysia, a historical milestone for the country and for my own life journey.
Looking back, in hindsight, the journey has been a bitter-sweet and meaningful one. It was pretty tough at first. The environment was pretty uptight. Still vividly remember on the very first day of the orientation, I got told off because I went to the toilet and was 'late' to come in. (because the EMEA Chairman has got into the boardroom before me)
Plus, with all the business and programming training and developments during the first week, I was thinking that how am I going to get through these 10 weeks, given the limited knowledge and experience I had on the asset management industry and programming.
Besides, as interns, we were given a task to form a group of 7/8 people to participate in the Portfolio Management Challenge. Given a virtual fund size of GBP 1mil, we had to come up with an investment strategy to outperform an actual benchmark within this 10 weeks.
Back then, I wasn't even sure that equities = shares, and what index weightings and P/E ratio are.
Well, the rest is history, they said.
The sweetest victory is to turn a doubtful and scary beginning, to a high-octane climax, and to a thumbs-up ending. When you managed to present the fund in front of so many MDs, you know that the late night studies on equities research are definitely worthwhile.
The 10-week would have been more challenging and tougher if there weren't these bunch of interns who continuously cheering you up, and the guidance provided by my line manage, mentor and buddy.
Not to forget my buddy's colleagues. I still remembered that night, on the 3rd of July, when one of them left his work on the desk and taught me about alpha, beta and the concept of outperformance, while he was actually rushing his task to send over to the US people. This was because the 4th of July is the Independence Day in US. (Oh and the CFA notes as well!)
My buddy has been a great teacher. He taught me how we should really focus on the important things in life, to make career decisions. He didn't take up a very lucrative job in an investment bank in the States, but would rather come over to Europe to have a family with his current wife. He recalled his experience back in 2007/8, when Lehman Brothers collapsed, he was overlooking the building from the other side of the street. He saw the throngs of people rushing over to the bank to get their savings. At that moment, he knew that money is not everything. It can come and go anytime, and it's not really within your control.
"Money can only give you that much, what is more important is what can you do with the money?".
And to my line manager, if possible I would really like to give him a toast, over a pint of Becks, or maybe two. The cool lad who does kite-surfing and chess. Without his patience and trust, I wouldn't be able to study so many software development concepts in the team project, and completed a graphical user interface. He admired the efforts I put in and allowed me to put my own signature on that small chunks of codes. It'll be launched globally in San Francisco, London and Tokyo in weeks to come, when everything is ready to get into production.
There are two things that move me to tears. Firstly, when your team member actually sends you a private message to send his gratitude, an acknowledgement of the efforts that you have put in for the portfolio challenge, while what you have done is nothing greater than just 'keep trying and keep going'; and the second one is the review by your line manager.
"It's great to have you here, Peter".
It has been a great 10-week. It really is. I couldn't ask for more.
