Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

10 Weeks of Clarity

Around this time two months ago, I had already been 3 weeks into my internship. When I look back at my mental state (in terms of career development) then and now, everything has changed. I started the internship without fully knowing what it would entail. The interview process helped in highlighting some major projects I would be working on but did not reveal too much. But as I reflect on my experience, it is clear that my goals have become more structured and the path to my aspirations more defined.

I have always been someone who had interests in multiple different fields. I have never liked the idea of choosing one profession over the other.  Because of that, I usually like to pick opportunities that focused on the interconnectedness between various sectors of the global economy. That was one of the main reasons why I chose Babson. While at Babson, I had the chance to explore different sectors of business through classes such as Marketing & IT, Foundations of Management & Entrepreneurship (FME), Business Law, Managerial Economics etc.  In an attempt to extend the same to my professional work experiences, I decided to explore 3 different internship in the 3 summers before graduation.

In my time at UBS, I’ve been exposed to so many new organisational functions and amazing people. I’ve learnt the importance of maintaining a great company culture while producing high quality outputs. But more importantly, I’ve learnt a lot about what I want and what I don’t. Through the course of these 10 weeks, I involved myself in various projects that exposed me to different departments within the organisation. Whether it was creating marketing content for financial advisors, account restructuring for operations or statistical analysis of portfolios, I obtained a sense of what I’m most passionate about. I realised that financial analysis that guides day to day investments excites me the most. The idea of considering past performance as a base for future investment suggestions is something I can see myself doing. Hence, for my next summer, although I’m open to varied opportunities, I would like to explore  the banking sector and/or consulting industry in specific. Even if I don’t end up doing wealth management in particular, I believe that the basics I have learnt this summer will be crucial to my performance in my future internships/jobs.

With my next internship being the final one before graduation, I’m grateful for these 10 weeks of clarity.