Soyoung Nam, who I met through my alumni, is a shining example of someone who overcame the odds to follow her dream. She currently works in Japan in finance.
1) Where did you get started in your business?
--It was a bit of a random episode. I majored in Economics and Math, and to tell the truth I wasn't quite interested in economics... I just went to classes, memorized information and took tests until one day, in my senior year, a professor gave a very interesting lecture that really made me curious about finance. He talked about IMF (the Asian currency and economy crisis back in the 90's) and how he used to be a trader in a financial institution at the time. He mentioned how during this terrible time (what most people here will describe to be one of the worst times in history), some became billionaires while many others lost everything they had. I was living in Korea during the IMF period and saw too many people collapse around me, including my family, so this was quite shocking. I started thinking about finance in a different way from then on and after some research and studying, I decided that finance was my #1 choice for my career.
2) What values do you try to live by?
--Work hard, keep trying to get to where you want to be... I had a very tough time finding a job after graduation and I did have many people telling me that I should settle for something less. It really broke my heart (and my parents') but I really kept trying hard while doing my homework (studying and doing research). Also, I was in operations before and wanted to become a trader, which was even harder than finding a job after graduation. Basically every single person told me that it wasn't possible (since I'm a non-Japanese speaker with no experience, plus it's very very rare for middle office employee ( i.e., operations) to move to the front office (sales and trading). It did take me months and about 3000 interviews, but it did get me here, I am a trader now. People were shocked when I finally made it, and now a few of them are trying to move themselves.
3) Who do you consider to be a role model?
--Very cliche answer, but my parents. My mom and dad are actually the opposite of each other: my dad is a quiet, persistent, hard worker (to this day in his 60's, he still builds computers on his own, won't sleep for days until he's figured it out). My mom is very social, charismatic and clever: she uses her intelligence and language skills to communicate with people so well. I try to push myself to be persistant and diligent while working on building great relationships with people around me, just like my parents. Also they've been telling me all my life that I can be anything I want, and they've always been there for me at some toughest times of my life, so I really trust them and learn from them.
4) Name one of your biggest challenges and how you learned from that situation.
--Jobs!! Pretty much everything was "given" to me all my life -- loving parents, great friends, good education etc. until I had to be on my own and become independent. Up to college, I always just thought that things would "happen" and fall into places. That's why I never really bothered to do internships, or take extra classes or really try to make the most of the great opportunities at Cornell. I just thought that like everything else, I'd find a great job that I'd be good at...but I couldn't have been more wrong.
When I failed about a billion interviews, I started doubting everything about myself. Some people may say that I am being overdramatic, but for someone like myself, this can be a life-turning point. I felt like I failed myself and my parents. But the great thing is, I didn't give up (neither did my parents) and just kept trying. I learned so much from that job-searching period. Humbling and rewarding -- I think now I don't have such fantasy that everything will turn out perfectly in my life, but I feel more secure knowing that I can achieve anything if I put in the effort.
5) When was your most successful moment to date?
--This may sound so silly, but I remember taking my first impossibly difficult math course at Cornell. I always got great grades in math in high school, but majoring in math was a whole different story. There were things that I just couldn't even start to understand. It was even harder for me to understand how some other kids knew what it was all about. After panicking and stressing out about a prelim, I sat down for hours and hours trying to understand this one theorem....and suddenly I understood it (and that made me understand the whole material)...literally it was like coming out of the dark into the daylight....that was memorable...and when I bought a trip to Europe for my parents with my first bonus, that was pretty memorable too.
Comment Preview