Top job, big money GIC scholar Tan Wei Jie banks on business studies and biotechnology to benefit from both By Geraldine Tan MANY students enter university armed with advice to live life to the fullest. In 2003, Mr Tan Wei Jie left Singapore to spend four years at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, and clearly, he took these words very seriously. “I wanted to study finance at the Wharton School of Business,” he says. “I also wanted to study engineering, and the university’s Jerome Fisher Program, which awards dual undergraduate degrees from both Wharton and the engineering school, allowed me to do that.” Mr Tan repeated the feat at postgraduate level, and ultimately left the university with four degrees in four years. “At the undergrad level, I did a statistics degree at Wharton, and a biomedical science degree with a minor in mathematics,” he says. “At the graduate level, I did a masters in business administration with a concentration in finance, as well as a masters in biotechnology.” On his subject choices, he says: “Starting from my freshman summer, I got very interested in trading, and came to the conclusion that, going forward, the best traders were those who were able to dovetail financial knowledge and experience with quantitative skills. Hence finance, statistics and mathematics. “Studying biotechnology and bioengineering was always very interesting for the application of engineering concepts to the human body.” He did all this with the help of a scholarship from the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC). “I remember submitting scholarship applications for six major organisations,” the 25-year-old says. “GIC was always my top choice, and receiving notice of the scholarship award via e-mail, the day before I enlisted in the military in 2001, is something I will always remember.” Mr Tan says the prospects at the dynamic organisation appealed to him. “The fund management industry appealed to me tremendously, and the promise of fund management responsibility even as a young professional was certainly very exciting. “In my opinion, you are hardly given so much responsibility, and placed on as steep an intellectual curve as you are on the sell-side, as in other organisations that award scholarships.” Currently in his first year as an investment officer with GIC, Mr Tan has the opportunity to apply what he learnt. “I am rotating through different asset departments in GIC, currently the fixed income department,” he says. “Broadly, I am required to always have a view on the market, which is more difficult than it sounds, and work on trade ideas and projects that senior portfolio managers have in mind.” He says the field continues to excite and drive him every day. “To me, there is nothing more exciting than the finance industry and nothing more emotionally thrilling than trading,” he enthuses. “I find asset management extremely challenging. Nothing beats waking up and thinking about the best way to trade the markets for the day, analysing the implicit risks in your positions, and considering how to achieve the targeted reward profit and loss. “I see it as competing against the collective intellect of the market.” Clearly, the scholarship and the accompanying education have stood him in good stead. Mr Tan observes: “The knowledge I gained in class and the exposure to the finance industry I got from being in business school with like-minded peers have helped. “At Wharton, there were trading competitions, fund management simulations and business case competitions, all extremely useful and practical. “I also spent time doing internships trading on the sell-side which, when coupled with the professional interaction you gain from speaking to other professionals, becomes tremendously enriching,” he adds. International exposure, rigorous academic programmes and varied work experiences have given Mr Tan a clearer picture of what he wants to accomplish in the future. “I am hoping to be able to trade either rates, currencies or commodities for GIC, and eventually my long-term goal is to set up my own global macro alpha hedge fund.”