Studying at Singapore Management University thanks to the dual-degree Global Master of Finance program offered me the great opportunity to gain exposure to the Asian lifestyle and education system. Not only is this program fostering my business acumen but it’s helping me build a stronger understanding of business trends within this part of the world; hence I decided to engage myself beyond the classroom and pursue a part-time internship.

Guest Blogger: Marco Iachini, Global Master of Finance, Class of 2015

After a few weeks of networking, online research, and emails, I was able to secure a position with a local start-up at the end of the fall semester. The Singaporean government strongly supports entrepreneurship—thus it’s very common to find local start-ups, especially in the financial technology sector.

The company I interned for created a finance-related phone app which was still in the pre-revenue phase, so I found myself wearing different hats on a daily basis. I wrote daily and weekly market summaries, helped with the marketing and social media strategy, and lastly, I learned how to use Cran-R to gather and analyze data in order to formulate new trading strategies.

Despite my availability being fairly limited, this opportunity gave me a chance to understand how to build a company from the ground up, and gave me insight into the startup world. Moreover, I had the chance of working alongside local successful finance professionals from which I learned many valuable lessons.

As my time in Singapore is coming to an end and I find myself preparing for my return to Olin, I think of how much I’ve learned from this internship and how useful it was for me inside the classroom and during job interviews. It gave me a chance to learn new skills, improve my business acumen, and most importantly, made me a more valuable professional. For these reasons, I strongly recommend to future GMF candidates: try finding an internship, as it will likely be an enriching experience especially here in Singapore!