Qi Rui switched her career focus three times after university. We spoke to her about the training at the Wiley Edge Academy, her advice for other grads and why she enjoys working at an investment bank.
After initially studying a Diploma in Nutrition, Health and Wellness at Singapore Polytechnic, Qi Rui switched to studying fashion and graduated with a BA in Fashion Apparel & Design from Norwich University of the Arts in 2019. When she returned to Singapore from the UK, she decided to pursue a career in tech and studied Data Science and AI with the Institute of Data.
While job hunting, she came across Wiley Edge and joined the Alumni Graduate Program as Product Management Analyst with a global investment bank.
It's been exciting because I've been learning loads, asking lots of questions and just getting to experience what it’s like working for an investment bank!
As it’s my first few weeks I’ve mainly been listening in on calls, shadowing people and doing training. I’ve also been testing systems and writing documentation on how to tackle certain issues and soon I’ll be helping with setting up a chatbot.
It’s been great to be friends with the other Wiley Edge grads in my cohorts so I don't feel like a new person starting alone. Everyone’s been really supportive and we each have our own senior colleagues to train us and answer our questions.
In Singapore, we're flip-flopping between working from home full time and going back to the office. It's been nice to go into the office, I enjoy meeting everyone in person and being able to do things like having lunch together.
All my previous experience has been working in retail so going into the corporate sector was different for me - especially a large multinational business like an investment bank. Working at a bank was something that I wanted to experience, so when I was offered the job, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I had to take.
On my job hunting journey, people were judging me on my previous background in fashion even though I've studied data science and AI. But when I went into the interview with the investment banks through Wiley Edge I was comfortable and they were open with my background. They considered everything else that I did outside of fashion and said they wanted people from a variety of backgrounds to give a different perspective on the issues the teams are working on.