Q&A

Invested conversations: Kevin Wu

Student: Kevin Wu
Degree: B. Commerce and Law, UNSW
Mentors:
Raha Nasseri, Chief Operating Officer, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Daniel Randles, Associate Advisor, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Sargunn Sahota, Investment Banking Associate, Bank of America

What interests you in investment management or advice?

The autonomy you get in investment management, as well a business environment that never gets stale is very interesting to me.

What are you curious about in markets right now?

The widening French bond and German Bund gap, USA midterm election impacts on financial markets and increasing dealmaking volume in China + Hong Kong.

Which Career Connect mentors have you matched with?

Raha Nasseri, Chief Operating Officer, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Daniel Randles, Associate Advisor, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Sargunn Sahota, Investment Banking Associate, Bank of America

How did you prepare for your conversations?

1. Preliminary research into each firms specialty that makes them different to each financial investment company.

2. Market research which comes naturally from daily reading/podcasts

3. Prepare interesting questions that are not instantly searchable on google, like specific deal processes or firm specific recruiting goals

How did your conversations go? What were your biggest takeaways?

My conversations went very well, each time I felt each mentor was incredibly open to the conversations and had my youth in the back of their mind, so did not mind when I asked any questions which may have seemed simple. It was easy to connect to each mentor too, all of them being incredibly friendly and intently listening to my interests.

My biggest takeaways was that a career in investment advice is amazing if you are 100% sure that is the industry you want to go into, however investment management provides more pathways for future growth.

Another key takeaway was that its okay to not know what you want to do in the future, but if you are interested in something you should do whatever you can to learn about it and if you hate it afterwards, then that’s fine as well.

A key takeaway from my sessions was that its okay to not know what you want to do in the future, but if you are interested in something you should do whatever you can to learn about it.

Will you continue to use Career Connect to meet and learn from other mentors? Any specific areas you’re keen to explore?

I’ll definitely continue to use career connect and learn from other mentors. A specific area of the industry I’m keen to explore is definitely fixed incomes, recently I’ve been incredibly interested and have been following global bond market developments.

What’s your dream job?

My dream job is a fixed income analyst. I hope to make impacts through my career by valuing different fixed incomes in a corporate or government context and ensure that funding is efficiently provided to the most value creating opportunities. On a smaller level, I hope to ensure that the companies that financial markets invest into will benefit my children in the future.

Who inspires you (professionally and/or personally) and why?

UBS Chief Global Economist Paul Donovan is one of my professional inspirations. He was one of the first financial podcasts I had ever listened to, and his dry British humour instantly hooked me. I look up to him and strive to be someone who can explain complex financial terms and processes in a way that even someone with a high school education in commerce can understand and explain to others.

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Each mentor was incredibly open to the conversations and had my youth in the back of their mind, so did not mind when I asked any questions which may have seemed simple.

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