My first blog post will be focusing on my experiences in SMU and how if you are a current or prospective student, you can "do well" in SMU (or any other university).
TLDR:
University will be the most defining moment of your pre-adult life. Every step you take here can and will affect your future. Truthfully, there are no bibles to help you do well in uni but I will attempt to lay out some hard truths and guidance that have worked for me, and hopefully for you too. It can be summarised into 5 main parts:
1. Define to yourself what doing well is.
2. Choose the courses / modules you take wisely.
3. Don't reinvent the wheel, there are seniors here to help you.
4. Use the resources available to you, especially the mentoring groups.
5. (SMU specific) Explore the resources available, these may be invaluable!
Quick Introduction about myself, my name is Samuel Chiang and I just graduated from SMU School of Economics as part of the batch of 2020. My University Resume (LinkedIn)-
Went for out of SMU stuff:
- Overseas Community Service Project ("OCSP") to Guangdong, China
- International Student Exchange Programme ("ISEP") to Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, USA
- Real Estate Study Trip to Shanghai, China.
- Local exchange programme ("SUSEP" - Singapore University Student Exchange Programme) to NUS School of Arts (Economics)
Academics related:
- Graduated Summa Cum Laude
- Barely participated in Case Competitions (can check out my LinkedIn)
- TA-ed for a few professors
Work related:
- Interned for Keppel Capital, UOB, Delta Partners (Management Consulting)
- Starting work for Delta Partners (recently acquired by FTI Consulting)
Also just for the record, all these information I am about to provide, are my opinions and mine alone. They may not necessarily be the bible for you or the universal truth, but I am just sharing it as conventional wisdom, and hopefully help you as a student in SMU / any university.
With that out of the way, let's get to the meat of the essay - how to do well in SMU?
The standard answers from Blog SMU (link) will be make friends, learn from profs, etc. I am not saying they are wrong, but they are so general and almost any person in the world could tell you that. The question I had in my mind when I read it was "So how do I exactly ... expose myself, or learn from professors?" or "How do I know what I don't know?" Well, here's the hard truth, no one knows - you have to do it and experience it for yourself. However, here are some steps I can lay out for you to aid in your journey.
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Advice 1: Ask yourself - what do you want to achieve?
You can be a slacker / free rider, a chill guy/girl, a party guy/girl or a nerd who mugs in the library 24/7 ... you could be anything.
Why is this important?
- You need to define to yourself what doing well in SMU really means. If your definition of doing well is to get a job, then work towards getting a job; or if it was to graduate at the top of your cohort, then you know where to work towards - the library!
My personal experience:
- I started off university with a goal: to get a scholarship. I come from a slightly above average single-parent family, and I didn't want to overburden my mom with my tuition fees (WHICH ARE EXPENSIVE & THEY INCREASE YEARLY). Hence I spent a lot of my first year in the library mugging really hard so I could get a scholarship. After destroying a relationship and doing well in year 1, I got that scholarship. Clearly there are costs and benefits to my decision, but I look at it back and its a bitter sweet feeling. Following that, I moved my focus to getting a job (and hopefully liking it).
- At first I was really interested in just making lots of money (who isn't right?) - hence the Banking dream, which I managed to get my first foot in, but I realised quickly that it is not as glamorous as it seems and sometimes the work you do isn't as "world changing" as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong - the seniors, the work I did was fast paced, demanding but rewarding when you see the final product, I just felt that I needed to try something else. I landed a position as a business analyst at Delta Partners, a boutique management consulting shop and I was really fortunate to have been staffed on an exciting but challenging project. It showed me how I was a much better fit for consulting work and I loved my experience from start to finish. Was offered a full-time position upon completion of my internship which I happily signed. Also on the school front, since the start of year 1, I studied really hard and hence I told myself that since I lost 1 girlfriend to studying already, I better maintain my grades... Yeah, so the moral of the story here is this: You need to know what you want to achieve out of university before you even start to think what doing well is!
Some conventional wisdom / tips:
- There are truck loads of goal making principles - SMART/O, etc but the thing that worked the most for me was sitting down for 30 mins, taking out a piece of paper and asking myself these questions:
1. What do I want to be able to do after graduating from university?
2. Do I have the necessary skills / knowledge to do that?
3. If I don't, what can I do to equip myself with said skills / knowledge?
- This is all about you, so take your time and there's no need to be shy. And if you don't even know what jobs are and what people do in their jobs, here are some resources I can provide (I will build this up, so do come back and check it out in time):
1. Vault - A research company focused on researching about jobs, and what those jobs do from a day to day basis. SMU students also get a free subscription!!!
2. Efinancial Careers - A one-stop page for all things financial
3. Glassdoor - A review-type page where ex or current employees post about their salary, satisfaction, day-to-day life, what they do, etc. The larger the company, the higher the chance of accurate reviews. Do take this with a pinch of salt.
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Advice 2: Choose the modules you take wisely.
Why is this important?
- To me, I think this step is important, regardless of whether you want to get straight As or you want to just pass. Going to university shouldn't be to just get a university degree unless you are born rich, such that you never need to lift a finger, then skip.
- If not, I have many friends who are going to take over their family business yet still find this step extremely important (there's even a module in SMU called family business).
University should be about equipping yourself with the basic skills and knowledge and then for you to use them to grow and develop your own skill-sets & niche areas in the future.As cliche as it sounds, it is the truth.. you will never be able to run away from this.
My personal experience:
There is a lot to say about module selection, but if you intention is to get as many "A"s as possible, you need to know your own personal skill-sets - this means asking yourself what are you good at. The tuth is this: you typically do well in modules if you like what you am studying.
If I am taking a module which I absolutely hate, and I am doing it just because my friends are doing it (i.e. join the party), then the outcome is pretty much decided, I am going to do badly.
But if I am taking a module which I really like, especially because the professor is good, or if the content I am learning I am extremely interested in, then I will definitely do well. I can give you a few examples: I took Financial Accounting under Prof Liu Yanjiu, and I absolutely loved it. The content was great - it helped me to understand how companies do up their books (or in bad cases, how they cook their books) and the bonus was how Prof Liu was great at teaching concepts. There are many other awesome professors around, you just have to ask your seniors for advice or look up the databases. Moral of the story: PLAN & CHOOSE wisely. Don't be afraid to be different from your friends, or to drop a module you don't like. Remember that it's your degree not your friend's degree!!!
Some convention wisdom:
1) Map out your modules.
- From the start, or even if you are a year 2, 3, graduating student, you should map out all your modules from the start. How to map? No straight answer. But for me, I laid out all the compulsory modules I needed to take and spread them out. To be honest, at the start it will seem like A LOT.
- To make things confusing, some modules such as Corporate Strategy requires you to take some Marketing / Strategy first, then those modules have pre-requisites to take those such as Managing of People at Work... you get it, it is confusing. What will help is that if you lay out from the start, what modules you are interested in. You can start by going to boss>modules (I am assuming that you know how to at least access BOSS...). For NUS/ NTU readers, I am sure it's similar, but please ask your seniors for advice!!
2) Spread out your workload, or ask seniors about what the workload is.
- There are some notorious modules in SMU that are "GPA killers". I will not specify, but these are the kind of modules where when you ask your seniors, they give you the face of fear and "RUN". Some other classification of modules: project killers, "class part siao/crazy", chill mod, "easy A" (not validated but that's the lingo), tough to get A... there are so many more, its for you to slowly figure out along the way.
- Spread out heavy modules with chill modules. For example: Pair up modules with no finals with modules with heavy final workload. Or project heavy with no project mods.
3) Check out online reviews of modules. There are a few floating around, compiled tirelessly by some seniors, and may be a little dated - they review modules, professors, etc. I don't know if they are legal but it's been used by generations of students. These are gems, you can email me for more information.
Freshies: Modules are basically subjects you take every semester. In SMU, the typical workload is around 4-5 modules per semester. Some take more, some take less. It's entirely up to you. The only risk is that you end up rushing more modules (or be like me and take lesser in your final years) last minute or suffer tough semesters with heavy workload modules.
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Advice 3 - Don't reinvent the wheel, find seniors!
If you have read up to this point, I am assuming you are really serious about doing well in university. This step is extremely important for excelling not just in university but also in job, personal progression. There's a reason why SMU is by statistics, the top university when it comes to fresh graduate salary - our network.
Why is this important?
Seniors provide a wealth of knowledge - in terms of modules they have taken, past notes, exam papers, it's almost like a virtuous cycle. They have been helped by their seniors, and are hence providing the knowledge to you in hopes that you help the next batches. As mentioned in step 2, seniors are your first and most personal touching points when it comes to module selection. But also be warned, not all seniors may be willing to help and it will very much depend on your ability to make them like / want to help you. Some seniors may also be a bad example - its up to you to evaluate.
How to find seniors / my personal experiences?
A great starting point would be your faci's from your year 1 orientation camps/ programmes. Another way would be through clubs/ societies, friends of friends, or past random group mates. I have found the best seniors in random groupings, and I landed my job partly due to a senior who I happened to group with (S/O Si Min). I can't reiterate how important seniors are, they even have the power to help you get a job. Don't belittle the power of network!!
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Advice 4: Use the resources available to you, especially the mentoring groups.
This is going to be really long because I am combining 2 thoughts into 1. Stick with me. I will change the formatting up a little here:
My personal experience:
At the start of my SMU journey, I felt extremely lost in terms of direction and where I want to go. I took the option of studying first because it dawned on me that your GPA matters when it comes to application (at least for my time 2016-2019, it may change). Hence my first priority was to do well and get good grades and also a scholarship.
But on my career front, I felt completely lost.
What I did:
1) I reached out to my Career Advisor - Miss Wendy How, in my opinion the best thing I ever did because she woke me up. The fact that I didn't know what I wanted was the biggest problem with me. I had no resume because I didn't know what I was applying for. It screamed to me that I needed to buck up and I started to take proactive steps to fix the problem of I don't know what I don't know. (honestly sounds like bullshit right now, but at least I knew that there was a problem). Also in all honestly, the career centre is what differentiates SMU from NUS and NTU in Singapore. A dedicated team of career advisors literally dedicated to each and every student (every student is allocated a career counsellor in year 1 btw if you didn't know, just check your mailbox, your career coach emails you from time to time, or if you can't find it, go down to the career centre and ASK).
2) I signed up for every possible networking event - in SMU, if you check the DKHMCC page, there are always networking sessions at the start of every semester (please check for yourself, I could be wrong). On a normal term basis, without COVID-19, there are always a flurry of events, same for every university.
- These are golden opportunities for you to find out what you are interested in by listening to their company presentations, and by networking with their staff who come down. There are even perks, free books, pens, and what not.
- They sometimes even provide huge buffets which means saving money. **Also a word of advice, if you are shy and/or introverted, find a friend to go with you. Please don't find introverts or shy people to go with you - that's just not smart because you guys will end up not asking questions.
- Write down a list of questions you want to ask, things like: (e.g. How to Network 101)
A. What are some of their daily work flows?
B. What is their job scope?
C. What is most challenging about their work?
D. What do they find most fulfilling about their work?
-- Some tips on networking - tbh, there are huge resources on google, just hit up google. Better yet, ask your friends/ career coaches.
- Having a list of questions help to break the awkward silence at the start. Remember that you are there to be a sponge to take in all the information to help you decide if that company/career is something you are interested in.
- My personal experiences were that I first went to networking sessions with some seniors I saw, I just tagged along and listened to how they did it. The first question or the first "break-in" is always the most difficult, your heart almost races out of your chest.
3) I signed up for mentoring programmes - in SMU, the SMU Office of Alumni Relations has the SMU Alumni Mentoring Programme where you can use the school system to sign up for alumni mentoring. It's awesome because they literally pair you with someone in the industry you are interested in. I was paired with my mentor Nick from a bulge bracket (the top banks in the world) and he gave me great insights into the industry, tips and he even helped me to look through my resume which was a shock because he told me straight to my face that my resume sucked and pointed out all the problems. Painful but necessary. There are also other programmes such as SMU Mentoring Circle, which was founded by my mentor Benjamin, which you can sign up for.
This was a photo I took cheekily when Ben went down to Atlas Bar with me over lunch to run though a consulting case interview.
There are many resources available to you - just don't be afraid to reach out and use them to your advantage. Other stories here are that I happened to find a super good role model and my personal mentor - Kok Leong who I was connected with by the head of OSL when I went through the Strengths Finder course.
It took me one courageous email to the Head, Kenneth requesting to be connected and it ended up to be one of the best relationships I've had. I share my failures and downfalls with him, and he always provides the best advice there is. Moral of the story here is: Don't be afraid to reach out or use the resources at your disposal. What's the worse that can happen? They ignore you. So what? No losses! Also, seniors/experienced professionals are always very happy to help students because they were probably helped by someone too. It's a virtuous cycle.
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Advice 5. More on SMU resources.
Truthfully, I think this is where most students don't even know that they have those in their hands. If you didn't know already, being a student gives you the access to the best databases out there. Some alumni even pay to be on SMU's databases because it is that good. I can't possibly tell you all the databases, but here are some:
1) Finance wannabes - there is an investment studio on the 3rd floor of the library. Just in front of the lifts. If you want to be in finance, then this is a definite step. Also most business and accounting students have to take modules which require the use of these "machines" anyway. Bloomberg, Capital IQ, Eikon, Factset.. honestly the list goes on. **Some advice, if you are shy and you still want to learn, there are a few options.
- You can find seniors who are willing to teach you, or you can wait for a module which requires you to use those facilities or you can be thick skinned, email libary@smu.edu.sg and tell them you are interested and you want to learn. The librarians imo are a underutilised gem in SMU.
- They will probably ask you why and all, just tell them you are interested in learning and I am sure they will never turn away an interested student.
- Also, Bloomberg provides an awesome free workshop on markets and finance which can help you to understand what is going on in finance. It's free and you can do it at your own pace which is great for newcomers.
2) People interested in marketing, ops or the rest of the realm of careers - I can't tell you much here but I can tell you that there are databases on marketing data from SMU's database (eMarketer). There are also a wealth of clubs and societies out there literally focused on what you are curious / interested in. Just don't be afraid and email them or go for their information sessions or approach them during Vivace (CCA day for SMU).
3) Reach out to your professors. I think many of us forget that these professors have been around for a long time, some adjunct professors even run huge businesses in the industry they are teaching. I was thought by real estate practitioners, founders of large online businesses... Don't be afraid to ask them for advice. They are the biggest pool of knowledge available at your disposal.
Concluding Words:
As stated up front, there is no universal bible to ensure you "ace" university. I also want to caveat that I didn't get to talk about a lot of things such as networking, making friends, etc. Let me know if you are keen (I don't know if anyone will even read this LOL) to get more of that or if you want to clarify any of the points I have written. Lastly, be courageous and don't be afraid to explore and do things you want to do. As many have said before me:
No venture, no gain.
Fortune favours the brave!
Wishing you good health in these times.
Samuel
Questions? Mail me at: samueljcyx@gmail.com
