Introduction
Hi there, I am Nicole, and I am from Taiwan. I grew up here and studied in Taiwan, at National Cheng Kung University MBA. After many turns in my career path, I am now working as an equity analyst in a long/short hedge fund, and I cannot wait to share my experience with you. Even though this work consumes a lot of time, I will always squeeze some time for myself to enjoy couch potato time, travel around the world, and taste fine food.
I never imagined that I would end up working in the finance industry, as none of my close relatives, seniors, or mentors are working in this industry. However, after I worked as an industry analyst for a few years in the tech industry and the boutique research house, I felt that industry analysis and finance together tell a story. Thus, I started to learn how to use financial models to find the best way for investment.
Unlike those who worked in the finance industry from the beginning, my experience working in the technology industry and in a research house became valuable to find different perspectives to analyze industry trends. Thanks to my knowledge and connections in the non-finance industry, I can come up with many ideas and avoid blind spots in investment theories.
Being an analyst in long/short hedge funds is fun, especially in the hardware technology space. I always need to learn many new things and innovations around the world every day as things change every day. It is quite challenging, but I know I grow every day. I am not only helping our clients to make investments; I am also investing in my own life. Other than fundamental research by studying tons of reports, I also need to visit companies and talk to other investors. With all this groundwork, I then analyze by models and come up with my pitch on investment. This work is fast paced but also exciting. I am grateful to work as an equity analyst and expect to explore more.
Finance Fellow
career options
Finance Fellow
skills
What are the main hard skills you use on a daily basis in your current job?
Financial analysis is what we call modeling. This tool is mainly for you to project the company’s future financial status in the income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet. Studying the basic rules of these financial statements, also requires in-depth knowledge of the targeted company on future growth and investment trends. I’ve learned this skill through hands-on experience.
Bloomberg and Visible Alpha are important tools that can let you access market consensus and real-time news. The key to making the buy or sell investment decision in the public stock market is to get a different view of the current market value. To know how different we are, these tools are critical to rely on.
Basic Microsoft tools are essential to the equity analyst. All the financial models are conducted in Excel format with many sheets. As we need to handle tons of numbers for the forecasts and all finance metrics are related and need to be linked to each other, this really needs to be practiced and learned by the seniors.
What are the main soft skills you use on a daily basis in your current job?
As tech analysts need to follow all the important innovations in the tech space, there is no day and night for work as things happen every second in the world. Other than new things, every company you follow may have many events worth attending. Prioritizing things and doing things most efficiently is critical to your work and health.
One of the most important things as an equity analyst is to convey your ideas to your customers or your portfolio manager. No matter how great your research is, the important thing is to make sure your audience understands all your thoughts. The better way to convince your audience is to build a logical structure for the investment thesis.
As equity analysts need to deal with many people such as customers, portfolio managers, sales, and industry companies, it is critical to know how to maintain relationships with people. Knowing how to connect with people can help you do work more efficiently, as you can have more insights or feedback to help you learn faster and better.
Nicole
’s personal path
Tell us about your personal journey in
Finance Fellow
:
I was searching hard for a job after my master's degree. After 2.5 years of experience in the tech industry, I even went to Canada for a working holiday, as I always dreamed of living in another country to experience a different lifestyle. This gap year was not a waste, I could say. I got to know myself better!
Before finally entering the finance industry, I started as an analyst first in a boutique research house. With a few years’ training in industry analysis, I had an opportunity to get into the finance industry as I worked hard to build as many connections as possible to help me expand my career path.
Most of my peers in equity research know they want to do equity research from the beginning and already have clear thoughts on the career path, unlike me. Thus, I am grateful that I am here now after so many turns in the career path.
What would you tell your younger you regarding building your current career?
Be confident in your choice but be responsible for those choices. Every experience in life has a reason and what you should be thinking of is to make sure you are growing in every stage, and you are ready for the next.
I was lost after a working holiday, and I did not get a decent job after I finished the trip. However, I knew I needed to take whatever I could do at that time because I did not have enough bargaining power back then. I was still thankful for my work experience even though it was a short journey. If I did not feel so desperate, I would not try as hard as I could to jump higher afterward.
If you were not satisfied with where you were, you should turn your complaint into energy to climb up.
Final thoughts & tips
Love the life you choose and be ready at any time. No matter where you are now, if you ever have a clear idea whether to be an equity analyst or to be in the finance industry, it is never too late for this decision.
Being in the equity market is challenging and life here is fast-paced every day. Always have a fresh eye and keep your mind open to learning. There are many ups and downs in the market and life. This is not the end while at the downs. Seeing the downturns as the start of another journey will shape you into a better you. Every failure in a career or a job is not awful; learning from the lows will help you.
Resources to dig in more
BG2 podcast
This is a great podcast that can help you understand overall semi industry movements recently. They always discuss the important things clear and understandably. They usually invite someone who is relevant and also plays a crucial role to their podcast to share insights with the audience.
Semianalysis
This research house always has in-depth report on semi industry.
Coursera
This is the website which offers you a bunch of free online class for different skills.
