A love for numbers SPH scholar and financial journalist Conrad Tan coaxes stories out of Excel spreadsheets By Koh Joh Ting WITH his slight build, courteous demeanour and thick gold-rimmed glasses, Mr Conrad Tan looks like the proverbial pushover of the class. But appearances can be deceptive. Mr Tan is a financial journalist with The Business Times and his job involves studying the financial reports of listed companies, asking probing questions about what the numbers mean for the financial health of these companies, and writing stories that may or may not please the people who publish the numbers. And he insists on seeing the raw data, which he spends hours “staring at” — as he puts it — in thick Excel files before he writes his stories. Because he is “pedantic” with numbers, the companies he reports about treat him with kid-gloves. “I’m always conscious of the way the numbers are interpreted,” says the 27-year-old native of Kota Kinabalu, who speaks with a slight British accent. “Often the people who write the press releases about the numbers are different from those who did the survey. That’s why I always insist on seeing the raw data.” He has a strong sense of duty about reporting objectively. He says: “In an age where we are inundated with numbers, such as changes in interest rates and stock prices, I see my job as picking out the numbers and interpreting them in ways that are useful to my readers, who hold shares in many companies.” Mr Tan has always loved mathematics as a child. The elder of two sons, his father was a schoolmaster while his mother was an accountant. He first came to Singapore to study at Hwa Chong Junior College in 1999, later earning distinctions in Mathematics. He earned a first-class honours degree in acturial science at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the United Kingdom. He then did a Master of Science in Risk and Stochastics, also at the LSE. His master’s thesis was on what made the best design for an annuity pension — a big question for governments concerned about how to financially support their ageing populations. Mr Tan did not set out to be a journalist, as all he wanted was to study actuarial science. He decided to take up the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) scholarship as it was open to foreigners and flexible about the courses he could take. And he enjoyed his three internships at SPH. His first internship at The Straits Times Home Desk taught the science student much about the outside world, especially the importance of thinking on his feet. “I never thought of myself as a particularly quick thinker, but I found that being put on the spot each day in a completely unfamiliar situation — at a funeral with angry relatives, taking an irate phone call from a reader disgusted by something that had appeared in the paper the previous day and wanting to rant — did wonders in shortening my synapses.” Mr Tan, who started working at SPH full-time in late 2005, says he is beginning to settle in comfortably in his job. He says he enjoys the company of his supervisors, editors and journalists he works with because they “seem smart, funny, and —most importantly — easygoing.” He is also mindful of the kind of influence he wields in his job. He says: “I find that companies are very careful about expressing displeasure about an unfavourable article. “Though financial journalists tend to be sought after by banks for their public relations(PR) skills, I don’t think I make a good PR as I’ve been trained at university to be as pedantic as possible.” And he doesn’t believe in buying shares. Nor does he have a credit card. “I’m trying to build a career as a financial journalist so I would want to avoid any conflict of interest with the companies I report on.” On what he would advise students keen on the SPH scholarship, he stresses there is “no substitute” for newsroom experienceas an intern. “You should read as widely as possible, and be as personable as possible. It helps you to talk to people.” The next step is to “develop a thick skin, the thicker the better,”he says.