Benjamin Lee Ming Yan

Discover SIM GE   INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT could be regarded as one of the toughest subjects in the SIM-University of London’s BSc in Banking & Finance programme, says recent graduate Benjamin Lee Ming Yan (picture above). Benjamin, 25, who obtained an ‘A’ for this paper, says the module introduces students to the investment environment in the role of a private or professional investor. Topics covered include analysis of risk of financial investment and addressing key issues in risk and portfolio management, which are skills that Benjamin now applies in his current job as Analyst in DBS Bank’s Financial Markets Credit Group. His interest in this highly complex area started when he took up finance modules in his polytechnic days. “It was during a period of financial turmoil and I was baffled by how a drastic change in financial markets could affect the economy as a whole,” he says. When he enrolled in the UOL programme, he found that the syllabus was comprehensive and what he learnt he could apply during his internship period with a financial institution. His exam success (he got mostly ‘A’ and ‘B’ or Second Upper in all his papers) he attributes to SIM GE’s holistic education approach. “We have the privilege of having experienced lecturers to bring us through some of the very complex modules which could be difficult to comprehend. In addition, the school continued to maintain and foster strong ties with the UOL International Programme and we received guidance and support in essay-writing workshops and revision classes from the faculty.” In his study days Benjamin was also involved in helping other students gain financial literacy. He was an Executive Committee Member in the SIM Investment and Networking Club and worked closely with fellow officials in the annual Youth Financial Symposium in January 2013 and January 2014 as well as overlooking the club’s membership and welfare as the Human Resource Director. “We organised plenty of workshop aimed at increasing financial literacy in different areas. Workshop themes included Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis. We also held networking sessions with industry players and alumni,” says Benjamin. The club was also the place to make lots of friends who shared with one another not only knowledge of the financial markets through workshops and talks, but also social events like night cycling trips across the island. Career-wise, Benjamin hopes to see himself in a managerial position in a bank over the next five to 10 years. “My area of interest would be risk management and this will certainly be an area where I will continue learning and staying relevant. Given a chance, I would like to do a Masters back at SIM or take up a post-grad course such as Risk Management in another university.” Outside of studies and work, Benjamin says he enjoys travelling as he likes to understand the culture and dynamics of different countries. He also has keen interest in urban farming and had constructed several mini-farms at an industrial area along Paya Lebar where he will distribute the harvest of leafy vegetables to family and friends. One day, he hopes to live his passion as a vegetable farmer in his retirement days with a hydroponics farm which sells directly to consumers, a proposal which he had submitted for his Final Year Project in his poly day which won him the “Pearson Education Top Student Award”. His recent favourite book is Falling Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success (2007) by John Maxwell. “The book shows us how to look at problems and failures in another perspective,” he says. - Interviewed in November 2014. Posted online on 7 January 2015 Difference Between Failures And Achievers The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of failure, and their response to it. Most people are not prepared to deal with failure. Author John Maxwell in his book, Falling Forward, says that if you are like him, coming out of school, you feared it, misunderstood it, and ran away from it. But Maxwell has learned to make failure his friend, and through the book he would teach you the same. The author says: “I want to help you learn how to confidently look the prospect of failure in the eye and move forward anyway. Because in life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with them. Stop failing backward and start failing forward!” The book abounds with examples of well-known and not-so-well-known examples.