We have come a long way from there…from the “work for Yoman for free in return for a learning opportunity” to today’s structured curriculum in equity research and strong suite of mentors along various tracks. Over these years, we have consistently nurtured success stories and it is indeed these Success Story that speak for ourselves.
KM – Private Equity Analyst
Getting into a front office finance role is never an easy task, but the good news is that we have some people around who can help guide you in your journey. According to me, one such person is Yoman who not only has a vast industry knowledge to share but is also willing to share his experiences and help mentor fresh blood. I have personally gained a lot through my association with Yoman and was one of his early interns.
I initially started with doing assignments for Yoman that required company fundamental analysis, followed by summarizing articles related to economics and asset management industry. After graduating from this, I was tasked with attending IPO roadshows that gave me an overall understanding of the equity capital raising exercise. These were all very valuable experiences, something that cannot be taught in any classroom setting. All this helped me in my journey towards a successful break into Asset Management Industry. While some people find Yoman as a tough (and sometimes eccentric) in his mentoring approach, I believe that you need this kind of attitude to succeed in this tough industry. At the end, the technical finance knowledge is not enough to get you the dream job in this industry, it’s the perseverance to survive tough/stressful interviews that eventually gets you through. These are some the skills that one can expect to pick up interning under Yoman.
While I was not associated with Springboard during my journey, Yoman along with others at Springboard are taking this unique experiential training to a wider audience group and I am hopeful that there will be many more success stories, similar to mine, coming out of Springboard umbrella in 2014!
IZ – Private Investor
I started off with taking CFA to increase my knowledge about the financial industry back in 2009H2. From there I get to know Yoman, who was then the mentor of my CFA class. During our classes, Yoman will share with us his experience as a fund manager.
Sensing my strong passion and curiosity, Yoman was keen to share even more with me. He mentioned that he would coach some of his students with coming up with a simple summarized comparable analyst, valuation from various research analyst and attending IPO lunches (Fund managers would come together for those lunches and throw questions at the IPO listing companies). I was told back then that coaching is given to selected few and datelines are imposed to make the assignment as realistic as possible. After submission Yoman would spend time going through their assignments and point-out their weak points. Being someone who loves such challenges, request a spot in his program, and he was kind enough to let me in.
I was under his kind guidance for 3-4 months indeed was an eye-opener for me. I went on to take a break for my CFA exam, after which I reapplied for the program again in 2010H2. Shortly after, I switch role from a retail sales dealer to take on a more analytical role as an investment officer in a local investment holding company one which requires more of my time at work and no longer able to assist Yoman. Till this day, I truly felt I learnt a lot from Yoman, and I still feel that there are plenty that I can still learn from him. I’m proud to be a pioneer in his program and hopefully, I can continue to learn from him if such opportunity arises.
