Meet Katrina Wan, one of our exceptional Top Talent Group members who participated in our 2023 Investment Competition and was a standout in our recent Mentoring Circle with TCorp. Katrina shares her experiences of participating in various Future IM/Pact programs, her internship with QIC and her career aspirations.
I am 20, in my third year of a Commerce (Finance) / Laws degree at UNSW. In my spare time, I have been learning to play tennis and golf.
I first heard of Future IM/Pact through their Investment Competition in 2023. I become more involved with Future IM/Pact once I become a Competitions Director with UNIT in planning this year’s competition.
I participated in a number of Future IM/Pact’s initiatives, particularly the Mentoring Circle and the Investment Competition. The most useful aspect was learning more about the investment management industry and the internship opportunities available. In particular, I was lucky enough to land an internship with QIC after I saw a Future IM/Pact post on LinkedIN advertising the role. I applied and was offered the Sydney intern role which took place from April to July this year, and was an incredible experience.
Investment management combines a lot of the aspects which initially drew me to finance, particularly the complexity of transactions and the longer-term perspective employed. Before my involvement with Future IM/Pact, I had just been starting to understand the finance industry and the pathways that were available apart from investment banking.
I was in the Mentoring Circle with TCorp which I had chosen given its status as government-owned. It was really interesting to learn about the particular differences between investment management by a superannuation fund against something like TCorp which had more scope to explore new or emerging investment opportunities.
I found the fact that there were multiple sessions and an in-person coffee chat with the mentors very rewarding given networking sessions often tend to be a one-off chat. Having mentors from different teams across TCorp brought a unique set of perspectives around any particular question that may have been asked. Being held online, it was highly interesting to connect with the other mentees who were not all located in Sydney.
However, I did find the fact that it was primarily held online to be the most challenging aspect. Given the group setting, it was a lot more difficult to connect with the mentors and the other mentees online.
I gave a presentation on a current market trend within infrastructure. I chose infrastructure specifically given my experience previous internship within the infrastructure team. Since my internship had focused on a specific research topic, I was interested in understanding the asset class more broadly especially about sources of capital for such investments as well as trends influencing the choices. The research was particularly interesting to undertake especially since it was not research that would have been required for work or for university, and presenting my findings to industry professionals kickstarted a highly engaging discussion on the topic. Through the experience, I was able to understand the investment landscape a lot more and also the thought processes that were occurring in industry at the moment.
The Mentoring Circle with TCorp was great as there were multiple sessions and an in-person coffee chat with the mentors, which was very rewarding given networking sessions often tend to be a one-off chat.
I heard about the QIC internship through the Future IM/Pact LinkedIN posts. I was lucky enough to land the Sydney intern role which took place from April to July this year and ended up being an amazing experience.
During my internship, I was tasked with a research project on potential infrastructure investment opportunities within a particular trend. As the only intern in the office, it was an amazing learning experience as I got to connect with a significant number of the team even without working on specific tasks with them. Given the length and breadth of the research project, I learnt how to synthesise large amounts of research into a easily digestible report. I also had several mentors assigned to me who guided me throughout the internship, helping me to learn how to structure my research and thoughts more effectively.
I would like to pursue a career in finance, however, at the moment I am still unclear as to which area of finance I would like to end up in. I definitely see myself remaining in finance over the next 20 years but I hope I would be able to explore different areas of the industry throughout my career.
I am hoping to undertake more internships to learn more about the work that is done on a day-to-day basis as well as participate in more competitions to continue building my skills. Additionally, I hope to continue building my professional network to learn and understand the experiences of others.
Future IM/Pact has already helped me a lot on my journey to understanding finance and investment management more broadly. Potentially, events/initiatives similar to the Mentoring Circles and promoting more internship opportunities could provide further support.
When I first starting thinking about pursuing a career in finance and investment management, I felt very intimidated and uncertain whether I would be able to build a career in the industry. Since then, I have been able to hear about experiences of other women in the industry and understood the steps taken by firms to increase the support for women. Having also completed internships in the area, I am beginning to feel more confident about my skills and interest in the sector.
However, I can still see a strong barrier against women who might be curious about the sector but remain intimidated given the strong male dominance in the sector. While there is generally an equal gender split when hiring for juniors, it definitely seems to drop off as people become more senior.
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The most useful aspect about Future IM/Pact is learning more about the investment management industry and the internship opportunities available. I was lucky to land an internship with QIC which was an incredible experience.
Future IM/Pact is a collaborative initiative across the investment management industry aimed at increasing representation of female investors and creating workplace cultures where everyone can flourish.
Future IM/Pact is a collaborative initiative across the investment management industry aimed at increasing representation of female investors and creating workplace cultures where everyone can flourish.
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