Edinburgh Napier University

Job Shadowing at Goldman Sachs

Graduates of the twenty-first century will need to be equipped with a range of skills and dispositions, which will enable them to meet the demands of a constantly changing environment. The only certainty in the next twenty years is that the pace of change will not slow down and it is the confident development of self-knowledge and interpersonal skills, coupled with academic learning and experience, that will position graduates as ‘first choice with employers’.  Edinburgh Napier University has a commitment to providing our students with the greatest opportunities for employability and building their confidence to take control of their own life and learning.

To address the need to support students to develop well-founded confidence, Edinburgh Napier University invited Goldman Sachs employees with an interest in mentoring to offer career and personal development advice to students studying full-time BA (Hons) Accounting at City University (SCOPE).

Edinburgh Napier University has been delivering courses in collaboration with City University and Hong Kong University for over 20 years.  We currently have over 1500 students studying a range of courses in Hong Kong and over 3,500 alumni engaged in our Hong Kong alumni association.  Our Hong Kong based students come from very diverse backgrounds - many are self-funded, receiving significant financial support from their families to help cover the costs of their educational programmes.  A small number of students are fortunate enough to receive scholarships or sponsorship.

We were delighted that on 9th July three lucky students spent the day at the Goldman Sachs office in Hong Kong. And, below, they share their experiences.

Pui Yee, Yuki MAK
BA (Hons) Accounting HK (Full Time)

"I was so glad to join this job shadowing programme at Goldman Sachs. This is a valuable chance for me to learn the operation of a big international company and understand more about my future career as an accountant.

During the visit, Puneet, my mentor, showed me the business Goldman Sachs is involved in, taught me about the importance of time management, team work, interaction and communication in the company, the skills and criteria of good and quick decision making, the programs used by their company and the importance of information security. He is in the technology area, but his knowledge in finance and business is also excellent. He told me that this is the result of self-learning and that I should keep studying other fields to enrich myself. He also taught me interview skills which will be useful after my graduation.

My mentor was a very nice, friendly guy, as were his colleagues. No matter what question I asked, he tried his best to answer and also encouraged me to ask more. He also asked his colleagues to describe their duties to me, in order to give me a clear picture of the responsibilities of their department. In addition, he wrote down the important points and explained them to me patiently so that I could easily keep up with what he was talking about. When he taught me about time management, he recommended a book to me so that I have more detail on this topic.

This was a valuable opportunity for me to visit Goldman Sachs and job shadow with my mentor. I understand the type of person such a big company looks for and how to prepare myself for the future. I treasure this visit and what my mentor taught me very much. If there is another chance to join this type of programme I would be enthusiastic to participate. Finally, I am so grateful that Edinburgh Napier University and Goldman Sachs gave me this opportunity to learn.

Thank you very much."

Chiu Chi Hung, Kenneth
BA (Hons) Accounting HK (Full Time)

"In July 2009 I got a chance to visit Goldman Sachs. I was assigned with a supervisor, Kah Wah Yoong. He works in the taxation department and is responsible for cross-country taxation issues. Firstly, he told about his educational background and past work experience. His daily duties are to arrange transactions in order to achieve the best tax benefit and he acts as a consultant for other departments. I now have a clear impression of the function of a taxation department within an international company. I also met the Company Secretary, Internal Auditor, Corporate Treasury and Financial Controller. They also told me about their educational background, past work experiences and daily duties.

I believe that this programme gave me a good overview of the duties of different departments. It will be useful for me when deciding which department I hope to work for in the future. The first important thing I learnt was the importance of interpersonal skill. Employees are not working alone and there are many daily interactions with other departments, especially in a large organisation, so interpersonal skills are very important. The second point is we should not restrict our mind to the things learnt in school because often real situations are very different and more complex. Different decisions have to be made based on different situations.

I believe this was a great experience for me. I have to thank Edinburgh Napier University, City University of Hong Kong and Goldman Sachs."

Wong Ka Po, Ruby
BA (Hons) Accounting HK (Full Time)

"This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a Job Shadowing Programme at Goldman Sachs. This programme was developed to give business students valuable experience with one of the leading global investment banking securities firms and to learn what their staff do on a day-to-day basis.

Goldman Sachs arranged for one of their top sales staff in Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities - Mr. Jaewon Yu - to act as my mentor.  He kindly shared his experience and his opinions about the future financial market. He also explained the working culture and business principles which create success at Goldman Sachs. Observing his methods of communication with clients and colleagues and his commitment to high standards of work was inspiring for me.  I now realise that my attitude to work and respect for my colleagues is just as important as my level of ability and my academic achievements."