PolyU AF Academy

Hope everyone has had a happy Chinese New Year!

In order to help students with preparation for postgraduate study, on Feb 9th, AF Academy held a fruitful Master’s Degree Sharing session. It was a great honour for us to have 4 outstanding guests, who are doing postgraduate study in top universities around the world, to share their experience and thoughts. They are Zhaoyu Xu from LSE, Shiyu Tao from LBS, Di Wu from Cornell University and Junrui Zhu from Columbia University.

The first part of the sharing was an individual sharing session, in which 4 guests talked about their personal experience individually based on 4 main topics — personal background, program information, preparation and application process. During the second session, Cheryl Xu, the brand management vice-president, raised several frequently-asked questions about master application, and the speakers discussed on these questions one-by-one together.

We appreciate every guest’s efforts a lot and hope all the participants could find this sharing helpful.

On November 8th, AF Academy has held an amazing Sales & Trading Alumni Sharing. We were glad and honoured to invite the 2016-2017 president of AFA, Juyi Zhao, who is currently working as a trader in one of the bulge bracket firms, as our guest.

During the first part of the event, Juyi presented a vivid and detailed introduction about S&T industry, including the market framework, job duties and career skill requirements. Besides, he also shared his own insight and personal experience as a trader. Then, Leo Dai, who is the current internal Vice President, raised several frequently asked questions collected from our members, and Juyi’s hearty answers truly helped our members understand S&T industry and better prepare for their career.

We would like to express our warm gratitude towards Juyi’s impressive and wonderful sharing, and also appreciate everyone’s participation. Hope every participant could find this sharing useful!

AF Academy has successfully held an Investment Bank Division Alumni Sharing on October 22th, 2020, to equip our members with essential understanding about IBD and how to prepare for career in this industry. It was our great honor to invite Jessica Gan, an outstanding PolyU alumni working in IBD industry now as our speaker, to share her stories and insights about IBD.

During the first part of the event, Cheryl Xu, the Brand Management Vice President, made a brief presentation to introduce the basic information about IBD industry, including functions, typical companies, internal structure, and personal career development. This part presented AFA members an overview about IBD and potential job opportunities. In the second part of the workshop, Jessica first shared her background and experience of daily work, presenting her feelings about working in IBD. Then, based on how to prepare for IBD, she raised several suggestions on how to prepare CV and get ready to interview questions. Also, Jessica answered several most frequent asked questions collected from the participants. In the final Q & A session, Jessica also share her insights on the industry and give us more professional advice.

We appreciate Jessica’s efforts and every participant’s engagement!

‪On October 8th, 2020, AF Academy successfully held its CV workshop for this year. We were very honoured to invite Cyrus Woo, one of the outstanding PolyU AF Academy Alumni, who is currently a digital analyst at Accenture, as our guest.‬

‪During the event, we firstly had AF Academy sub-committee members to present a review of CV statistics and basic knowledge for CV writing, such as appropriate CV structure and several tips of writing a competitive CV. In addition, Leo, the vice president of AFA, raised several typical mistakes in CV writing by showcasing real-life and specific examples. For the second part of this workshop, Cyrus gave us more practical and advanced insights into CV writing. At the end of the workshop, he also shared his own interview experience and gave advice on AFA members’ questions regarding job hunting and career planning.‬

‪Thanks Cyrus Woo for this wonderful sharing and we sincerely appreciate everyone’s active participation! Hope our members could regard this workshop truly fruitful and it could help us outperform in future job hunting procedures! ‬

Marked by the commencement of a brand new academic year 20/21, AFA held the first virtual welcome ceremony for its new members. Sincere congratulation and warm welcome to all new members! Wish everyone great progress in the coming year.
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Under the unprecedented special circumstance, even being apart, we successfully had all of the new members gathered together through MST on 30th September. Also, it was an honour to have Anges Cheng, Albert Tsang, Bruce Li and Sunny Sun to deliver inspiring speeches and express their wish to all new members. During the ceremony, virtually all new members were actively introducing themselves to each other. As the president of AFA and the main host of this ceremony, CK not only introduced AFA to all new members, but also delivered a well-structured presentation regarding the accounting and finance industry. Rachel, the vice president of AFA, presented the function of different teams in AFA and gave a brief introduction about the upcoming activities. Appreciate all of yours efforts and cannot wait to start a new journey together!
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Hope all of you enjoy the AFA life and get closer to your dream together with AFA!

On May 3rd, 2020, AF Academy has successfully held an Online Master’s Degree Sharing Event through Zoom. We were very honored to have three outstanding alumni from world-leading business schools to share their application process and master life experiences. They are Xuanbei Liu (MSc in International Finance at HEC Paris), Doria (Duorui) Niu (MSc in Financial Economics at Oxford), and Alston (Qinan) Zhuang (Masters in Analytics and Management at London Business School).

The online sharing event was divided into four parts, master application tips, master experience sharing, career development suggestions, followed by a Q&A session. Doria and Alston started by sharing their motivations for pursuing a higher level of education and the reasons for choosing their schools and programs. Following a detailed introduction to the materials to be prepared before the application season, they also shared lessons we could learn application processes and emphasized the importance of having an organized timeline. In the Q&A session, Xuanbei shared some tips on time management and task prioritization in the Master's program.

Thank Xuanbei, Doria, and Alston again for their time and insightful sharing! We hope our members enjoy this new activity form. Cheers!

Having advanced knowledge of Investment bank is helpful to the career of business students. On November 7th, AF Academy held “Banking Alumni Sharing” event. We were honoured to invite Juyi ZHAO, our outstanding alumni who is working in Credit Suisse.

This event aims to help AFA members to accumulate industry knowledge and find career interest and goal. Juyi described the big picture of the industry and helped members to build up a knowledge base. At the end of the sharing, Juyi patiently answered our members' questions and provided insightful suggestions.

It is a valuable opportunity to gain insights into the banking industry and get a more comprehensive understanding of Equity trading. We appreciate Juyi’s sharing to the members!

On October 25th, 2019, AF Academy has successfully held a CV workshop. We were very honored to invite Lawrence Wong, the manager of PolyU office of careers and placement services, as our speaker.

During the event, the professional trainer introduced the important qualities and skills employers are looking for, common CV mistakes and the methods to avoid them, and how to use a proper CV format to showcase the strengths is included in the sharing. In addition, the workshop also covered some tips about job hunting. At the end of the workshop, there was a rewriting exercise, where we had a chance to receive personal advice from the professional speaker.

Thanks Lawrence Wong for this wonderful sharing and thanks everyone’s participation!

Having advanced knowledge of Big Four is helpful to the career of business students. On October 18th, AF Academy held “Big Four Sharing” event. We were honored to invite 4 of our outstanding alumni who are working in Deloitte and KPMG respectively.

Frank Fan is an alumnus who currently works as a M&A Advisory Senior Associate at Deloitte. Within three years after graduation in PolyU, Frank also has two years working experience in EY. Aza Jiang is currently working with Deloitte in Strategy & Operations consulting. During the four years in PolyU, Aza has rich internship experience in banking industry which include Bank of China and Hang Seng Bank.

We also have Allen Yang, a fresh graduate this year, who works with KPMG in IT advisory department. Apart from that, he has rich intern experience in various firms. Allen’s job is highly related to computing science such as writing Python code. The last person is Celine Zhang who graduated from PolyU last year. Currently, she is working in manufacturing and energy sector in KPMG China. She was also a member of AF Academy and has exchange experience in Copenhagen Business School.

They shared the full picture of Big Four and the differences among them, as well as the interview skills. We really appreciate their sharing and the meaningful knowledge to the members!

AFA held its first event in the new semester, Welcome Ceremony for the new members. Congratulations to the new members for passing the highly selective interview! Hope everyone can seize the precious opportunities and make progress!

3 October night, we had all of the new members gathered together. We were honoured to invite the director of AF Academy, Sunny Sun to give a speech. New members delivered impressive self-introduction. Sara, the vice president of AFA, presented various opportunities and resources in this big family. Phoebe, the president of AFA, gave an inspiring speech to the newcomers. We had a fantastic night and new members are prepared for the coming challenges.

Hope all of you embrace challenges and enjoy the AFA life!

[Generation.Next: Global Leadership for the 21st Century]

Stage 1 Professional Development Training Workshop series will commence on today and all the six sessions are now open for registration at http://www.fb.polyu.edu.hk/wie/reg.

For more information, please refer to http://www.fb.polyu.edu.hk/generation_next.aspx.

We look forward to seeing you there!

EDGE Programme-PolyU Faculty of Business|BBA student internship, global leadership award

Welcome back to school!

We have prepared a series of trainings and sharings for you.
Stay tuned and wish you all a fruitful semester!