Putting theories into practice

Loh Yu Jin
Loh Yu Jin is a Business Analytics and Fintech undergraduate in the School of Information Systems at the Singapore Management University. He has also been a Quantedge Foundation Scholar since 2017.
​Yu Jin was a member of the winning team in the UBS Group Chief Operation Office Case Challenge 2019. He hopes to embark on a career in the financial services or the consulting industry when he graduates.​

What are your career goals and how do you plan to achieve them? 

With my domain knowledge in finance as well as information technology, I hope to develop solutions that reduce inefficiency in business models.

Understanding the industry is very important. As such, I took part in various case competitions, hackathons and coding challenges, as well as networking sessions, to get to know the requirements for future job opportunities. I believe that these experiences are crucial in discovering what I want and opening up a path to work towards my dreams. 
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While having good results is vital, this alone is not everything. In today’s globalised world, fostering good relationships and being able to deliver and understand messages well are equally important. Focusing solely on hard skills is a thing of the past and this is an area I should work on.
"Understanding the industry is very important. As such, I took part in various case competitions, hackathons and coding challenges, as well as networking sessions, to get to know the requirements for future job opportunities. I believe that these experiences are crucial in discovering what I want and opening up a path to work towards my dreams. "

You beat 50 teams to clinch the first prize in the UBS Group Chief Operation Officer Case Challenge 2019. What was your role in the team and why did you think your team won? ​​

Compared to the school project, the case challenge demanded much more in a shorter time but also assured us that whatever was taught in class was relevant in the outside world. We are thankful to be able to apply what we have learnt to solve UBS’ business problem.
We did not join the challenge to win, but to learn from the process. We were thus pleasantly surprised when we were shortlisted as one of the Top 5 finalists. From then on, we took the challenge even more seriously and gave it our all. Our assigned mentor, who had a wealth of industry expertise and experience, also gave us good advice on how to sharpen the presentation of our solution.

My main takeaway from this challenge is to tailor our pitches to different stakeholders. The management team would be interested to know more about the efficiency of the proposed solution as well as the KPIs, whereas an employee would be more concerned about the impact of the solution on his job.
"Compared to the school project, the case challenge demanded much more in a shorter time, but also assured us that whatever was taught in class is actually relevant in the outside world."
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My case challenge team receiving the top prize, at the UBS GCOO 2019.

You seem to spend a fair amount of time in out-of-class activities. Besides the UBS Case Challenge, you have completed coding courses and participated in the Bosch Ville 2018 Hackathon. Tell us more about these activities and what motivates you to participate in them.

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My group at the Bosch Ville 2018 Hackathon.
I feel that there is a huge gap between real-world problems and school-taught problems. Besides the UBS Case Challenge, I participated in the Bosch Ville Hackathon, Punggol Digital District Hackathon and CodeIT Suisse. Through these case competitions and hackathons, I gained exposure to different real-world problems and had the opportunity to meet different people. Learning hard skills in school is one thing, but industry insights can only be acquired when you take a chance, go out and meet people.

​​What advice and tips do you have for a new QF scholar on how to navigate the first semester in SMU?

I recall how I initially struggled when transiting from National Service to student life at university. Adapting to the fast-paced learning environment in SMU was not easy. For new QF scholars, here are some tips:
  1. Look for a source of motivation that can keep you going for the next 4 years. That will keep you from burning out.
  2. Ask. Seniors are all willing to help (or at the very least, listen) as long as you ask.
  3. Results are important but they don’t shape who you are. Taking time to understand what the industry wants is equally important.
  4. When there are opportunities for overseas exposure, go for it!
  5. Make the most of your experience in university. You will not have the same chance again.
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*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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