Q&A

Student spotlight: Jeremy Huang

Meet Jeremy Huang, one of the impressive winning team members from our 2024 Investment Competition. As his prize, Jeremy chose an internship with Schroders, and he shares his experience and highlights from the competition and internship.

Tell us a little about yourself

My name is Jeremy, I’m 21 and from Sydney, and I am currently in my fourth year of studying a Bachelor of Commerce and Laws majoring in Finance, at the University of Sydney. I love to stay active in my spare time, and play volleyball in a rec league with friends on the weekend. I also follow the NBA, NFL and F1 quite religiously.

How did you hear about Future IM/Pact and what do find most valuable?

I heard about Future IM/Pact through my involvement with a student finance society called UNIT, the University Network for Investing and Trading, who helps to run their Investment Competition each year.

The opportunity to win a paid internship at a leading investment management firm was definitely an enticing pull to compete in the competition, and I have been extremely fortunate to learn from a group of highly experienced and intelligent investment professionals during my internship at Schroders, and improve my own skills on how to be a better investor.

What interests you about a career in investments?

The dynamic nature of working in investment management, and the fact that no two days are the same, has always interested me, as well as the fast-paced and intellectually rigorous aspect of understanding how markets operate. The job is not only challenging and rewarding at a micro-level, in seeing the realised impacts of your decision-making and investment theses in portfolio performance (hopefully positive), but also as the stewards of large pools of capital, at a macro-level, you play an active role in shaping the economy through the allocation of funds towards certain businesses or industries.

Tell us about participating in the Investment Competition

The most valuable and rewarding aspect of the competition was undoubtedly the opportunity to engage with experienced industry professionals, and the opportunity to receive feedback and stress-test the investment theses your team has come up with, against the thinking of some of the largest investment funds in Australia in the Q&A component of the presentation.

The most challenging aspect was preparing the investment pitch itself, and forming opinions on where the share price was likely to go, after extensive research into the company’s operations, the industry, and reconciling it with whether or not at the company’s present valuation, it presented an attractive investment opportunity at its current share price. How this presented itself in our investment case around GYG, was that although we had high conviction in the quality of the business itself and leadership team, it was difficult to justify that the current valuation presented an attractive entry point.

Is there anything you’d do differently or advice for this year’s participants? 

I think I would probably try and manage time a little better, given it was a bit of a frantic rush to the finish line before submission. Time management is very key in an investment case with a relatively short turn-around, and it’s fairly difficult to cram given the amount of research you need to do, so it is important that teams are conscious of this when progressing through the brief.

So far the internship with Schroders has been nothing short of spectacular. My biggest learning was on developing my own understanding of how to think like an investor, and how people think in the investment management industry.

Tell us about your internship with Schroders – why did you chose this prize?

The internship I selected was with Schroders, I started in last December and am still presently working there, likely to finish up at the end of April. I chose Schroders due to it having a global platform, but also having a very strong domestic presence in Australia, across a variety of asset classes. The structure of the internship also allowed me to rotate between three different teams, being the Product, Equities and Multi-Asset/Fixed Income desks, which I thought provided the most varied and holistic exposure on how an investment management business operates.

What did you enjoy most about your internship?

So far the internship has been nothing short of spectacular, and to kick off on my first day I got to attend the launch of two ETFs and even got a photo with the famous ASX bell. Throughout my Equities rotation, it fortunately aligned with reporting season, and I got the opportunity to participate in meetings, sitting across the table from some of the most senior executives at some of the largest companies in Australia including CBA, CSL and Rio Tinto to name a few. The culture has been very welcoming and everyone is very happy to share their knowledge with me, so it has been very easy for me to ask questions and learn new things. My biggest learning was just on developing my own understanding of how to think like an investor, and how people think in the investment management industry. I would say that my experience far exceeded expectations going in, which mind you was already pretty high!

Did you meet any mentors/role models?

My managers for both my rotations thus far, Pierre and Justin, were both definitely very helpful mentors as well, answering all my questions and encouraging me to ask more each time. Both have investing experience in different asset classes, being Multi-Asset and Equities, so it was interesting to compare and contrast the work that they do, and it was definitely pretty inspiring to see. I am going into my Multi-Asset/Fixed Income rotation now, and have no doubt that there will be mentors throughout that rotation also. The network I have built amongst the Schroders team is no doubt something I think will be valuable in the years to come.

What’s next for you and your career?

Definitely plan to stay in touch with the team at Schroders to try and maintain what is a very valuable network, especially in the world of investment management. I definitely see myself working in some role in finance in the medium-to-long term, and will continue to be on the look-out for great opportunities like this one to further my professional development.

What topics are you most curious or inspired by at the moment?

I have been reading a book called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho recently, and its message about self-discovery and following your dreams has been particularly inspiring for me at the moment, as I’m getting to the end of my university degree and starting to think about the road ahead. Per the book, the road to finding your ‘worldly treasure’ isn’t always straightforward and will no doubt be subject to setbacks and detours, but listening to your heart and trusting in the journey is important to getting you where you want to go!

The most valuable and rewarding aspect of the Investment Competition was undoubtedly the opportunity to engage with experienced industry professionals from some of the largest investment funds in Australia.

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