eFinancialCareers

I recently undertook a full-time internship in Hong Kong during my first winter break from university. The company is a Chinese state-owned commercial bank that established a branch here not long ago.

To say that this four-week internship was a one-of-a-kind learning experience is to put it rather mildly. It was more like playing a chess game.

The first move required no pieces. It only meant looking into the eyes of the opponent.

By merely sitting in my cubicle and observing, I had an entire living encyclopedia to study: the encyclopedia of rules (be they hidden or written); rhetoric from the boardroom and the pressroom; office politics; and of course, the financial professionalism at the cornerstone of the whole business.

As a newly established offshore bank, the firm had first to meet the dual regulatory requirements of both the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and its own head office. This demanding undertaking had to be done by a newly assigned team with as many personal backgrounds and professional styles as there are statutes in the Hong Kong Banking Ordinance.

Almost all the staff were as foreign to Hong Kong as I am. And almost daily, inside our skyscraper, I looked into the eye of the banking storm. I learned how it is created, and how to calm it down.

I saw how everyone skillfully maneuvered their way through the bureaucratic hierarchy of a Chinese bank operating in Hong Kong’s Western business environment.

I saw how the best bankers combined hard academic knowledge with soft human wisdom. I learnt that one must be flexible in dealing with unexpected events, while maintaining a strong grasp on the bottom line. The same secrets make a chess champion.

Given my limited financial knowledge and hands-on experience, I was assigned to a general affairs department, which is in the start-up stage, and combines everything from HR, PR and IT to legal and logistics. It is in essence the whole back office that orchestrates and supports all daily operations, which made my internship a mini-rotation programme.

From this vantage point, I saw how different departments are profoundly interrelated with each other. It is no exaggeration to say that a single tiny mistake or delay by one department can easily drag the whole operation into confusing stagnation.

Just like a chess game, no single pieces can win a match. We have to combine several pieces, move together under a grand vision, and orchestrate them in a symphony of power.

During my stay, a top-tier consulting company was hired to streamline the entire operational mechanism and ensure a smooth transition into a full-functioned offshore financial institution.

By working with the consultants on a regular basis, I formed a high-level understanding of the key elements that constitute the core of the business.

For the first time, the banking industry seems more than just fancy office buildings, walls of monitors and suited guys with poker faces. Beneath its mystical facade, it is a business no less built upon the analysis of numbers than people. What we are consciously learning in our lectures (theoretical and useless as they may seem) will actually prove to be indispensably valuable when we graduate.

What we are subconsciously learning in off-class group projects, case competitions, student organisations and various internships, will assist us in navigating through the corporate ladder and winning this Game of Kings.