I'll do with a little update (boss is not around)

Met a new intern from Equity Investment & Trading during lunch time. Pretty happy to chat with ppl in a similar position as myself. She looked quite raw, well, just like myself in my first and second week. Funny thing is, she saw me talking to Sze Huey on facebook and asked me if I know her lol.


I realise how much I've settled in this new environment of working with people who are constantly rushing to finish their job. Investment banking ppl are all like that, so said my mentor. They work like dogs (not in a negative way, just means they work like crazy).


Assistant director in my department asked me during lunch what specialisation I'm looking at for my actuarial degree, and I couldn't give a specific answer. To be honest I don't have a clear idea yet. What I know is I'm liking my course much, though occasionally I still grumble about how much work, tests and exams we face each and every semester.

Never really believe that student life is way more stress-free as compared to working routine in a big city, until recently I am starting to re-consider the truthfullness of the statement.

Yesterday Tho Kin (my buddy aka mentor) asked me to help with a spreadsheet, which proves to be the most annoying spreadsheet I had seen so far in my life! Guess it's coz I'm not the person who developed it and thus unclear with how all the links work in the spreadsheet,.a simple task of aggregating the monthly totals make me feel like ripping off the computer screen. I duno why every time I tried to insert a column in seemingly unrelated parts some numbers in other places change. Very pek-cek I tell you. And yet this is probably miniscule as compared to the stress level they are facing everyday.

Being intern is fun in that you're shielded from the 'harsh reality' of the level of stress and workload you will be exposed to in real enployment. What I do are just bits and pieces of a much larger project, while my poor colleagues have to put up with never-ending pressure from their superiors.

They told me their work are never finished, they stayed back in the office to as late as 5am (note, it's am), they sleep every working night without having dinner, they rarely have enough sleep ("sleeping is a luxury", so said), they have to face mountains and mountains of work each day, and never know when their superiors will pop up and ask: "Have you finished xxx that I gave you that day?".

I asked them don't they want a life. They told me to work in investment banking is to marry to your work, and you should only enter a job if you feel you could stand it without going crazy. So true.

Been busy with work

Some quick updates:

1. CIMB landslide happened on just my forth day at work. We are forced to move into a new location in PJ state, which is not too bad a location as an LRT station is just nearby :) However, we will be packing and moving back n christmas eve. (darn, why not we just stay on?)

2. Internship is really.....a great way to pass my holiday (Seriously?) .Yes, it's far better than fooling around and do nuts.

3. I really need to go back to work. My philosophy is : TO FINISH EVERYTHING AS FAST AS I COULD, AND SAU DONG AT 530pm SHARP. LOL

Special Situation Investment?? How special

Day 1 at CIMB Internship:

Uncle suggested that we leave early to avoid the congestion around Damansara, so I agreed to it.

We reached CIMB at 7.15am when Angeline actually asked me to report only at 8.30am. But good thing is we managed to find our way to the library of the CIMB knowledge and training centre. At least a place to sit down and read while waiting for the minutes to pass.

Skipping through the details of filling in forms, listenin to the welcome notes etc...

Apparently I am in for a special internship programme called "structural internship" where I am paired with a mentor for this two month programme. He's a nice person.

So I followed him to the department I am posted: SPECIAL SITUATIONS INVESTMENT at CIMB Investment Bank. What a name!

A natural question is : What on earth are SPECIAL SITUATIONS?

Apparently it works just like a unit-trust but at a much larger scale. Each investor contributes millions of money and the bank will do the investment part of it. Investments are usually on equities, where the largest returns usually come from. 20% p.a is the bare minumum that would attract the bank's interest. He said it is common in the industry to see returns on equity of at least (usually larger) 20% and I went like "WOW!". That just proves how unrealistic the numbers used in ACCG253.

This department deals with the cases where companies can't obtain funds elsewhere (from bank loans), mainly due to high leverage, lack of bank confidence on new products/ideas or industry etc. Essentially they have no access to debt-financing which is a much cheaper option with returns approx 6-8% pa. When that is the case these desperate companies will turn to equity-financing, more precisely equity financing from big institutions like CIMB to help raise investor's confidence.

There are much research work to be done due to the risky nature of these ventures. I have a stack of research work on my hand now that i believe is not the thickest my mentor has ever done. Page after page are descriptions of immense details on how the palm oil industry is performing worldwide and in Malaysia. The information is overwelming and it shows how careful the bank is at selecting the investment it is going to invest big bucks. Knowingly, it is a matter of millionssssss.

I guess the whole idea is to invest when the company's share is undervalued and sell it, say, 5 years later when the share price adjusts to where it should be (the bank obviously believe that it would be much higher), and expect to get at least 20% return.

Basically, I think I will get a glimse on a highly competitive investment market along the way of this programme. So far I like it.