Alumni Spotlight Stories: Chunchun Fang

Chunchun came to Singapore in 2008 under MOE’s scholarship program. She successfully secured the Khoo Teck Puat scholarship for undergraduate studies for her outstanding ‘A’ Levels performance and 4 dean’s list awards for being among the top 5% of the cohort in NUS Business School.

Upon graduation, she joined General Electric and its management trainee program, the Financial Management Program. She gained extensive operational finance, FP&A and commercial finance knowledge through the 2-years program across four rotations in Singapore, Tokyo (Japan) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) in Global Operations, Steam Power Systems, Power Services and Gas Power Systems businesses.

Q: Could you share an introduction about yourself?

My name is ChunChun and I am from a small city in the southern part of China. In 2008, upon graduating from secondary school in China, I was awarded the MOE scholarship programme to further my studies in Singapore. After completing secondary school and JC in Singapore, I secured an offer from NUS business school for Accountancy major, along with the Khoo Teck Puat Scholarship. In 2017, I graduated as a first class honours student majoring in Accountancy and specialise in Finance.

Q: Could you share with us about your experience at NUS Business School?

Firstly, I think the curriculum is well-structured to equip students with the most relevant and up-to-date knowledge. I have seen a lot of changes in the curriculum, which includes some modules becoming non-compulsory to give students more freedom in choosing their modules and the growing focus on data analytics related modules, which are very relevant in today’s world.

Secondly, the grading scheme has shifted to encourage more class participation, especially during Year 1 and 2. The school wants our students to be more outspoken, based on the feedback from employers that in general, NUS Business students were not as outspoken and confident as compared to SMU students. At the same time, we also put more emphasis on teamwork and collaboration. This also trains the students to collaborate and work with different people to deliver results, which shall prepare them well when they enter the workforce.

Lastly, NUS Business school has supported and organised many case competitions to expose students to different real-life cases. I think these are very precious opportunities for students to get hands-on experience in applying what they learnt in the classroom.

Q: How did you accumulate various work experience or internships prior to your first formal job? What skills do you think are the most valuable in the financial related industry?

For Accountancy students, there is a compulsory internship to ensure all students have accumulated some work experience before graduation. Apart from that, the school has provided students with timely information about internship opportunities, making it quite easy for them to apply. There are also various career talks organised by different companies to pitch about their internship and competitions. From there, you can get the most relevant information about internship opportunities.

For finance-related industries, the most important skill is to be sensitive to numbers. You need to know whether the numbers make sense – do they sound reasonable to you, is it in line with your expectation or should you further investigate it?

Q: Can you share more about your internship experiences in Audit at BDO LLP and Settlements at Bank of China? Did you enjoy the scope of work?

For the audit internship at BDO, it was a very structured winter audit internship. At that time, it was the peak period for auditors. But since we were not very experienced in performing analytical scope, most of my audit mates or myself mainly focused on vouching, doing samplings and calling clients for receivables and payables confirmation.

As for Bank of China, it was a self-sourced internship. There was no clear job description. I supported the business in their daily operation of international settlement and took the initiative to observe and learn. It was more about the settlement process and client relationship management. I had to liaise with customers directly and at the same time, deal with the internal audit department.

Q: Share with us your experience in GE’s 2-year financial management rotational programme. What were the key highlights and a short summary of a normal working day for you?

GE’s financial management programme has been a very long-established leadership programme with more than 120 years of experience. It is a 2-year programme with 4 rotations across business, region and function. There were 13 different businesses when I joined. We used to have a big financial branch — GE capital. However, nowadays, the main focus of the company is more towards the manufacturing industry.

Apart from rotation across business, we also have rotation across functions. In GE, the more common ones will be financial planning and analysis (FP&A), commercial finance, controllership and supply chain.

We also have rotation across regions. In each batch, there will be one or two lucky ones who will get the chance to work overseas in places such as the US, UK, Dubai, etc.. As for the rest, they usually get rotated within the ASEAN region such as Malaysia (KL) and Thailand (Bangkok).

Q: Can you share more about your rotational roles in different countries?

I was very lucky to be able to work in Tokyo for my third rotation. I think it is a very unique experience for me because we all have heard about how hard the Japanese people work and the strict hierarchy. I was always amazed to see their high levels of attention to detail – but that definitely comes with a price (the extremely long hours). I also took the initiative to learn simple Japanese before going there. However, as my work was more back end – I dealt with GE people more exclusively, I got little chance to practice it as my colleagues’ English were pretty good.

After 6 months, I moved to KL, where I am currently situated. It is totally different working experience. It is more relaxed here. The people are more open, friendly and willing to talk to you. As compared to Japan where people have super long working hours, it is more slow-paced in KL. People valued more interpersonal relationships compared to skills. In terms of the job scope, I am working more on the front-end, facing more customers. I get to understand more about the business and equipment that we are selling.

Q: What were your considerations in selecting your career path? And what was the biggest factor you took into consideration when selecting your first career?

To summarise in one word, exposure. What kind of career will give you the most exposure, especially during the early stages of your career? If you break it down, there are three factors:

The first one is industry. For many students, despite their time in Business school and extensive internship experiences, they may still be unsure of which industry they really are interested in. I think that if you can get a role that can expose you to various industries, that will be good.

The second factor will be job scope. For rotational programmes, they usually rotate you across different functions. Some are rotation within the finance function while others rotate among broader roles including marketing, finance and supply chain. So again, it allows you to find out your true interests which helps you make career decisions in the long run.

Lastly, it is about geography. As the world becomes more globalized, it is essential for us to be exposed to people from all over the world and learn to work with them. I think we need to appreciate the differences in the working styles and culture and try to integrate the best practices from various groups.

Q: What do you think are the key things students should look out for when selecting their first career and do you have any advice for fresh graduates?

You can do a lot of internships and it is good to try different ones instead of doing internships of similar scopes. At the end of the day, you want to figure out what you like and what you do not like. For me, when I did the audit internship, I figured out that I do not like auditing and when I graduated, I did not consider any auditing jobs.

Another thing is that you need to decide on what you value the most. Is it industry or roles or people? Do you want to get more exposure across regions or do you want to have a very structured learning programmes in the Big Four?

You can attend career talks to talk to more people and learn more about a typical day in their job. You also have to manage your expectations. Before we enter into a role, we usually have overly positive expectations about the job. Many people prefer to share positive sides of a job, but you must be aware that there are negative and boring parts as well.