Becoming a Graduate Data Analyst at Quantium

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:00:28

thanks for jumping on, Jason.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:00:29

One of our team came across you LinkedIn.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:00:32

You've obviously been doing an amazing job building your personal

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:00:34

brand on LinkedIn and I just thought,

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:00:36

' This guy is obviously thinking deeply about careers and let's get him on'

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:00:41

and, talk through, ' Hey, thinking about your career, your background story'.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:00:44

Maybe we can start there?

Jason Khu: 00:00:45

So I studied at UNSW, started during 2019.

Jason Khu: 00:00:50

I studied a bachelor of Arts Studies and Commerce, so majored in Quantitative

Jason Khu: 00:00:55

Data Science and Iinformation systems.

Jason Khu: 00:00:57

I guess starting from like my second year onwards, I thought building

Jason Khu: 00:01:00

a career in data analytics was something that I was interested in.

Jason Khu: 00:01:03

And yeah, one thing led to another and ended up getting my role at Quantium

Jason Khu: 00:01:06

and that's where I'm working at now.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:01:08

Good stuff, and I take at what you learned in your studies

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:01:10

has been useful in your your career?

Jason Khu: 00:01:12

Yeah, somewhat to some extent.

Jason Khu: 00:01:14

For the commerce side of my I studied information systems as my major, and

Jason Khu: 00:01:18

some of the stuff I've learned in major systems, the courses like, like business

Jason Khu: 00:01:23

analytics and social media analytics and also enterprise systems, it's being shown

Jason Khu: 00:01:27

in the work that I'm doing at the moment.

Jason Khu: 00:01:29

So yeah, some of the work that I'm doing at Quantium it's about helping the

Jason Khu: 00:01:32

finance team, build up the analytical capabilities and that's sort of stuff

Jason Khu: 00:01:36

that I'm seeing again back in my work.

Jason Khu: 00:01:38

I majored in quantity of data science, and that's more kind of like

Jason Khu: 00:01:41

statistics related sort of content.

Jason Khu: 00:01:43

At the moment it's not really relevant to the work I'm doing, but if I wanna move on

Jason Khu: 00:01:47

to another rotation then definitely that might something that I would be using.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:01:51

And for context, so you're currently at Quantium?

Jason Khu: 00:01:54

Yep, that's right.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:01:55

Is your degree background a prerequisite or

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:01:58

do they hire more broadly from people from different degrees?

Jason Khu: 00:02:01

Yeah.

Jason Khu: 00:02:01

Quantium, it's quite broad.

Jason Khu: 00:02:03

So in my grad cohort, they are people from like different backgrounds.

Jason Khu: 00:02:06

Some they, study physics, bioinformatics, what are some

Jason Khu: 00:02:10

other ones they do economics.

Jason Khu: 00:02:12

Some of them are from the same background as me, so acturial studies

Jason Khu: 00:02:15

commerce, some do computer science.

Jason Khu: 00:02:17

So yeah, it's quite broad.

Jason Khu: 00:02:18

I think the main thing with Quantium it's essentially there's

Jason Khu: 00:02:22

no prerequisite for what degree you study, but I guess, like most of

Jason Khu: 00:02:24

the people they do have a background with where there's some analytics

Jason Khu: 00:02:28

involved, embedded in their studies.

Jason Khu: 00:02:30

And that's pretty interesting, kind of seeing like the breadth there.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:02:32

We'll come back to your current role, but I'm curious..

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:02:34

At what point during your studies did you think about careers?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:02:38

And what were you looking for and how did you ultimately come

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:02:41

across the Quantium opportunity?

Jason Khu: 00:02:43

Oh, that's a good question.

Jason Khu: 00:02:45

So with careers, I think thought about careers just as I started

Jason Khu: 00:02:51

at university, to be honest,

Jason Khu: 00:02:52

because when I started at university, I thought I'm gonna pick a degree that's

Jason Khu: 00:02:56

gonna give me like a good range of opportunities that I could potentially

Jason Khu: 00:02:59

go into after I finished university.

Jason Khu: 00:03:01

And another thing during my first year university is that I actually

Jason Khu: 00:03:05

got access to a guide that was shared online by a graduate from Unindo.

Jason Khu: 00:03:09

And it was about how land a grad job.

Jason Khu: 00:03:11

And so I read through that.

Jason Khu: 00:03:11

I applied some of the stuff that he wrote about and what his experience was and

Jason Khu: 00:03:16

his recommendations for like students.

Jason Khu: 00:03:18

So he talked about getting involved in societies, doing

Jason Khu: 00:03:21

internships and stuff like that.

Jason Khu: 00:03:22

And I just followed that throughout the rest of my degree pretty much.

Jason Khu: 00:03:25

And in terms of knowing about Quantium, I actually knew about

Jason Khu: 00:03:29

Quantium since my first year.

Jason Khu: 00:03:30

Since my first year I was like pretty active online on Facebook

Jason Khu: 00:03:34

and saw opportunities around from like student societies.

Jason Khu: 00:03:36

One of the industry sponsors, I think for the Actuarial society was Quantium.

Jason Khu: 00:03:41

And so I saw their name floating around.

Jason Khu: 00:03:43

So that's how I got to know a bit about them.

Jason Khu: 00:03:46

But I didn't really know much about their work and some of the

Jason Khu: 00:03:49

people there until my second year.

Jason Khu: 00:03:51

So during my second year, I thought, why not just reach out to some

Jason Khu: 00:03:55

people and learn about their roles and the kind of work that they do.

Jason Khu: 00:03:58

So I reached out to someone at Quantium and the person was really

Jason Khu: 00:04:01

nice to offer me like a chance to chat with them over a phone call.

Jason Khu: 00:04:05

And then he told me about the work that he does , and I think at the time he was

Jason Khu: 00:04:08

like a consultant or graduate analyst.

Jason Khu: 00:04:10

And yeah, at that time it was pretty interesting seeing or hearing

Jason Khu: 00:04:13

about the work that they did.

Jason Khu: 00:04:15

During my second year, I thought it'd be pretty interesting to get involved

Jason Khu: 00:04:18

during as part of the internship program.

Jason Khu: 00:04:21

But during Covid, I didn't happen.

Jason Khu: 00:04:22

So fast forward two years from now, to two years from then I actually applied

Jason Khu: 00:04:27

for the Grad Connection Top 100 Future Leaders Awards and actually applied

Jason Khu: 00:04:33

for the Quantium Data Science Stream.

Jason Khu: 00:04:35

So I applied for that, did like the application process, and ended up

Jason Khu: 00:04:39

actually becoming a finalist for it.

Jason Khu: 00:04:40

And I guess at that point I was thinking the grad program

Jason Khu: 00:04:44

applications, they just opened after I was announced as a finalist, so

Jason Khu: 00:04:48

I was like, why not give it a go?

Jason Khu: 00:04:49

I already know one of the recruiters, why not just give

Jason Khu: 00:04:51

it a go and see where that goes?

Jason Khu: 00:04:53

And ended up applying and ended up securing the role.

Jason Khu: 00:04:55

So that was the whole journey.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:04:57

Good on you.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:04:58

Very proactive.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:04:59

I must say in start contrast to me as student, I didn't even think

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:02

about careers until final year.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:03

So well done!

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:04

Getting on the front foot.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:05

You mentioned you first used an online guide.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:07

Do you remember

Jason Khu: 00:05:08

what that was?

Jason Khu: 00:05:08

Yes.

Jason Khu: 00:05:09

It was called "How to Get a Grad Job by Charlie Shore.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:12

I'll have to look that up.

Jason Khu: 00:05:13

It was a short read.

Jason Khu: 00:05:14

It's about an hour- two hour read, but it was a good intro to I guess like bit

Jason Khu: 00:05:19

of networking, bit of call, reaching out.

Jason Khu: 00:05:21

I feel if I didn't read that book, I probably wouldn't have had the

Jason Khu: 00:05:24

confidence to like, reach out to people online asking about what they did and

Jason Khu: 00:05:28

what kind of work and what kind of industry they're in and stuff like that.

Jason Khu: 00:05:31

And yeah most of the advice that I took from that was extremely helpful

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:36

And you mentioned, so you ultimately did reach

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:38

out to someone at Quantium.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:39

How did you go about that?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:05:40

Did you learn that from the

Jason Khu: 00:05:41

book you just mentioned?

Jason Khu: 00:05:42

Yeah, the book I mentioned did cover that.

Jason Khu: 00:05:45

So one of the things that the book recommended was essentially if you

Jason Khu: 00:05:48

want to get more insight into a role or the type of work that people did,

Jason Khu: 00:05:51

then you can go on a platform like LinkedIn when there's a lot of people and

Jason Khu: 00:05:55

building their professional experience and whatnot and showing it publicly.

Jason Khu: 00:05:59

Just going there and just asking someone on that platform,'

Jason Khu: 00:06:03

Hey I'm interested in X, Y, Z.

Jason Khu: 00:06:06

. I see you're working at this company, working in this role.

Jason Khu: 00:06:08

You want to have a chat so I can learn more about your experience?'.

Jason Khu: 00:06:11

I reach out and, obviously sometimes like people won't see it or people

Jason Khu: 00:06:15

won't accept it, but there will be times where they will accept it and be happy

Jason Khu: 00:06:19

to help out and put in a time with you.

Jason Khu: 00:06:21

Yeah, from my experience I wished out to quite a bit of people and a lot

Jason Khu: 00:06:25

of them have said yes to your chat and that's how I've been able to like,

Jason Khu: 00:06:28

learn more about the companies and the roles that people were working in

Jason Khu: 00:06:32

and make a better decision about what where I'd like to end up in the future.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:06:36

Super impressive, very proactive again.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:06:38

I guess before we move on to talking about the application process . Any

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:06:42

advice for students studying right now, who are a bit worried about careers,

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:06:47

but follow a similar path to you career-wise?

Jason Khu: 00:06:49

Bit of a broad question, but I'll try to answer it.

Jason Khu: 00:06:52

I'd say for the initial search, one of of the first things that I

Jason Khu: 00:06:55

like to do is probably get a better understanding what's out there.

Jason Khu: 00:06:59

So as I mentioned before, one of the things that I found helpful was reaching

Jason Khu: 00:07:03

out to people, asking about what they did and the kind of work that they did.

Jason Khu: 00:07:07

So when I was in my first slash second year, I was really reaching

Jason Khu: 00:07:10

out to people, seeing the kind of work that would be available for someone

Jason Khu: 00:07:14

like me who did actuarial studies.

Jason Khu: 00:07:15

And I took their advice, heard from their experiences and I was thinking to myself,

Jason Khu: 00:07:19

maybe this might not be the path for me.

Jason Khu: 00:07:21

And yeah, just reaching out to people is a really good first step to understanding

Jason Khu: 00:07:26

like what's out there and what might be interesting to you and what might

Jason Khu: 00:07:31

be something that you wanna pursue.

Jason Khu: 00:07:32

Obviously not everyone's experience is representative of everyone in who's

Jason Khu: 00:07:36

working in that role, but I think it's good, first idea just so you can figure

Jason Khu: 00:07:41

out where you wanna end up and think about the next steps to get there.

Jason Khu: 00:07:45

And that's what I did now.

Jason Khu: 00:07:46

I found that pretty useful.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:07:47

Yeah, totally.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:07:48

So primarily relying on LinkedIn to find

Jason Khu: 00:07:50

those people?

Jason Khu: 00:07:50

Yes, that's probably the easiest way to reach out to people anyways as well.

Jason Khu: 00:07:54

Cuz everyone's pretty transparent with their work and well with their

Jason Khu: 00:07:58

work experience and most people on LinkedIn are very supportive

Jason Khu: 00:08:02

and would be willing to help out.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:04

And in terms of choosing which people to try and reach out to,

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:07

were you focusing on a particular subset?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:09

example, alumni from UNSW or did you have connections that you could draw

Jason Khu: 00:08:14

on?

Jason Khu: 00:08:14

I think, yeah all the people I'd reach out to, I focus more on UNSW

Jason Khu: 00:08:20

alumni cuz I thought they were more approachable and it's easier for

Jason Khu: 00:08:23

me to relate to their experience or like their study experience at least.

Jason Khu: 00:08:27

A lot of the people I've reached out to have actually started at UNSW

Jason Khu: 00:08:30

actually studied actuarial at UNSW.

Jason Khu: 00:08:32

So it's a bit easier to relate to the experience and kind of see where, how

Jason Khu: 00:08:38

my experience might fit in and how that might apply to my experience.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:41

Yeah, there's that connection there isn't there,

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:42

and so sense of giving back.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:45

So I guess before we dive any deeper, we should let everyone know what

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:49

it is that Quantium actually does.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:51

Maybe you can just explain it to me.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:52

In really simple terms.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:53

It's obviously in the data realm, but for a lot of people like

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:56

me that's a bit over my pay grade

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:08:58

? Jason Khu: Essentially what Quantium

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:03

data science firm, as you mentioned.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:05

And help operate is essentially on offers a range of data analytics,

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:09

data science, products and consulting services in order to help their

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:13

clients get value out of their data, to improve their operations basically.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:18

So some of the companies that we work with include Woolworths, the Australian

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:24

government, Unilever, Coca-Cola, et cetera .Across like whole range

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:28

of industries like retail ,banking and financial services and whatnot.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:32

So essentially all these companies, they have data, they want to value out of it.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:37

They want to improve, be more marketable in industry, deliver more

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:40

value to their customers, for example.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:42

And that's where Quantium kind of fits into the picture.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:45

They would get Quantium involved , build something or something to

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:48

these clients to get the value outlay data so they can basically improve.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:52

Talk about getting value out of the data, just to help

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:09:55

me put that into context, is it an example that comes to to mind?

Jason Khu: 00:09:58

Yes.

Jason Khu: 00:09:59

So for example, some of the products that we offer to our retail clients

Jason Khu: 00:10:03

involve for example, what promotions are performing well, what discounts

Jason Khu: 00:10:07

should we offer based on our data, based on our purchasing data and whatnot,

Jason Khu: 00:10:11

and who our high value customers.

Jason Khu: 00:10:14

And the insights from that data would help the company make more strategic decisions

Jason Khu: 00:10:18

about how they should price, what promotion should they use, and whatnot.

Jason Khu: 00:10:22

How they would target people and stuff like that.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:10:24

When you say purchasing data, you have a database of credit

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:10:26

card transactions that you are tapping into, obviously, or anonymized?

Jason Khu: 00:10:31

Yeah.

Jason Khu: 00:10:31

I'm not too across it cuz I'm not working with a client or anything.

Jason Khu: 00:10:35

I'm working internally at the moment.

Jason Khu: 00:10:36

But I imagine if you're working with retail that in the retail sector, that

Jason Khu: 00:10:40

that might be a data set that might be provided by the company , for you that

Jason Khu: 00:10:45

might be a a data set that the company might feed an into product that Quantium

Jason Khu: 00:10:49

offers and that might help give them insights, what extractions to implement

Jason Khu: 00:10:53

to improve their performance and whatnot and add more value to the customers.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:10:57

And why would, let's run with the Woolworths example.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:00

Why would a client like Woolworths choose to have Quantium do this

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:03

rather than do it themselves in house?

Jason Khu: 00:11:05

This is a bit going a bit deeper, but rewards owns like 80% of

Jason Khu: 00:11:09

Quantium just for context ... I think this is going a bit deeper than what I

Jason Khu: 00:11:14

wouldn't know, but essentially one of the main reasons why a company would

Jason Khu: 00:11:19

go for Quantium is that they have good analytics and engineering expertise.

Jason Khu: 00:11:23

And that's how we stand up in the market.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:26

Yeah.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:26

I imagine a data set of tens or hundreds of millions of

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:29

transactions a month would be totally overwhelming to try and process.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:33

So you'll take all that data set, look at consumer behavior and

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:37

draw some insights out of it.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:38

And what would otherwise just be a totally overwhelming, messy data set?

Jason Khu: 00:11:42

Yeah, for sure.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:42

Brilliant.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:43

Okay.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:43

I think that'll make sense.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:11:44

And again, just to bring us up to speed, what's your current

Jason Khu: 00:11:47

position there at Quantium?

Jason Khu: 00:11:48

So my current position is Actuarial Analyst, but all the

Jason Khu: 00:11:51

analysts, they kind of work in different teams slash verticals.

Jason Khu: 00:11:55

So verticals essentially a subset of industries that the teams kind of work in.

Jason Khu: 00:11:59

So we have verticals like health and government.

Jason Khu: 00:12:02

We also have Woolworths IQ, which is essentially the

Jason Khu: 00:12:05

Woolworths side of the business.

Jason Khu: 00:12:07

There's also Common bank IQ, which is the joint venture between Commonwealth

Jason Khu: 00:12:11

Bank, where we basically use Commonwealth Bank data to help clients.

Jason Khu: 00:12:17

And for me and most of the work at Quantium, most of the work that

Jason Khu: 00:12:21

the gradual analyst do would be in those verticals working with

Jason Khu: 00:12:24

like external clients and whatnot.

Jason Khu: 00:12:26

For me, I'm actually a special case cuz I don't work on external facing projects.

Jason Khu: 00:12:31

I work internally.

Jason Khu: 00:12:32

What I do is I help, instead of the client being like, someone

Jason Khu: 00:12:35

external, I'm essentially working with Quantium as my client.

Jason Khu: 00:12:39

That's kinda the gist of it.

Jason Khu: 00:12:41

And so what I'm doing is I'm helping the finance team build

Jason Khu: 00:12:44

their analytical capabilities.

Jason Khu: 00:12:46

Just doing a bit of data engineering, done analytics work.

Jason Khu: 00:12:49

Just to help the finance team get more accessible insights into their data

Jason Khu: 00:12:53

so they can have better information to inform their forecasting, their

Jason Khu: 00:12:59

budgeting, and also any like strategic operational decisions as well.

Jason Khu: 00:13:03

So some of the stuff that I'll be doing would be cleaning data, building some

Jason Khu: 00:13:07

tools that will help the team, get more insights into their financial data.

Jason Khu: 00:13:11

And yeah, that's what I'm doing at the the moment.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:13:14

So let's come back to that in a second because I'm sure students

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:13:17

are interested in this career path.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:13:18

They wanna know more about the kind of day-to-day hands-on stuff.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:13:22

But let's spend a few minutes on the application process, cuz

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:13:25

that's from a student perspective, at least the next step here.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:13:28

So can do you wanna talk me through the application process you went through

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:13:34

to get the role you're in today?

Jason Khu: 00:13:35

Yep, sure.

Jason Khu: 00:13:36

I'm not too sure if I can go into too much just because I'm working at Quantium.

Jason Khu: 00:13:40

But essentially for the application process, there's four stages.

Jason Khu: 00:13:44

So there's a written an application, there's the online test, there's the

Jason Khu: 00:13:47

behavioral interview, and there's the technical test and interview.

Jason Khu: 00:13:51

So for the the first stage, it's my memory, it's just submitting a resume

Jason Khu: 00:13:55

and just filling in some fields on an online form, sending that through.

Jason Khu: 00:13:59

Then I think shortly after you'll be given a link to do an online test.

Jason Khu: 00:14:03

And what does online test is essentially testing, is essentially is your

Jason Khu: 00:14:08

ability to interpret data and do some calculations to gather some insights.

Jason Khu: 00:14:13

That's like the main thing that they test.

Jason Khu: 00:14:14

The third thing in the third stage is essentially behavior interview.

Jason Khu: 00:14:19

So the interview, what it's meant to to do is just to

Jason Khu: 00:14:22

assess, do you know the company?

Jason Khu: 00:14:24

Do you know what they do?

Jason Khu: 00:14:26

Some of the products they offer, what are the verticals they operate in?

Jason Khu: 00:14:28

And also some behavioral questions, situational questions

Jason Khu: 00:14:32

around ... about you basically.

Jason Khu: 00:14:34

So any typical interview questions you might find online, they will

Jason Khu: 00:14:37

be helpful in preparing for that.

Jason Khu: 00:14:38

And lastly is the technical test and the technical interview.

Jason Khu: 00:14:43

So for the technical test it'll be assessing different things.

Jason Khu: 00:14:47

Some, I think if I were to like just summarize it, it will be being able to

Jason Khu: 00:14:51

interpret data, but also thinking about that in the context of a case study.

Jason Khu: 00:14:55

So all the technical tests, you'll be given a case study, and then

Jason Khu: 00:14:59

some data and then you'll be given some questions about it.

Jason Khu: 00:15:02

And after you work through that answer the questions you'll be given

Jason Khu: 00:15:06

30 minutes to sit with an analyst or be in a call with an analyst and

Jason Khu: 00:15:09

explain your answers and I guess your logical approach to answering

Jason Khu: 00:15:13

the questions and how you got there.

Jason Khu: 00:15:15

And yeah, that's pretty much the application process.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:15:18

Thanks a lot.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:15:18

That's super interesting.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:15:19

So maybe we can go through each them.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:15:21

So the written online part, I that sounds pretty straightforward.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:15:24

The online test was that you said that was interpreting data

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:15:28

so specific to the kind of data analyst skillset as opposed to being

Jason Khu: 00:15:33

So yeah, there's two streams for the grad program.

Jason Khu: 00:15:36

There's analyst and engineer, what I've mentioned.

Jason Khu: 00:15:39

There was for the analysts.

Jason Khu: 00:15:40

So for the online tests, main thing they're really testing

Jason Khu: 00:15:43

is can you interpret data?

Jason Khu: 00:15:45

Can you infer insights from the data?

Jason Khu: 00:15:48

And yeah, what that's assessing without, going into too much detail.

Jason Khu: 00:15:51

Yeah.

Jason Khu: 00:15:52

Got it.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:15:52

Do you have to have a technical data background or

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:15:55

could you work your way through it?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:15:57

Common sense and problem

Jason Khu: 00:15:59

solving?

Jason Khu: 00:15:59

I think it's more so sense and problem solving.

Jason Khu: 00:16:02

As I mentioned before, you don't need to have a technical background to actually

Jason Khu: 00:16:06

apply for the program, and you don't really need a technical background

Jason Khu: 00:16:08

to do the application process either.

Jason Khu: 00:16:10

Yeah, I think it's more so common sense and problem solving as opposed

Jason Khu: 00:16:14

to just having that you already know.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:16:16

So you're not working in like Python or something?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:16:19

Do you get the data in Excel format or something a little bit

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:16:21

more accessible to the layman?

Jason Khu: 00:16:23

All the tests were done on a browser.

Jason Khu: 00:16:26

So another thing with the grad program is that they don't expect

Jason Khu: 00:16:29

you to know any tools either.

Jason Khu: 00:16:32

I guess with the grad program, it's I guess the whole point of it is that you

Jason Khu: 00:16:35

learn those scores while you're on the job, which that kind of makes sense.

Jason Khu: 00:16:37

Like when you're a student, when you learn those skills, you don't really

Jason Khu: 00:16:40

apply it that much except for like, when you on assignments or whatnot.

Jason Khu: 00:16:43

But yeah, with the grad program application, there's no expectation that

Jason Khu: 00:16:47

you need to know anything in particular.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:16:49

Awesome.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:16:49

And the third stage was a behavioral interview, it sounds like a face-to-face

Jason Khu: 00:16:54

interview.

Jason Khu: 00:16:55

When I did it, it was virtual.

Jason Khu: 00:16:57

I think it might have been virtual this year as well.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:16:59

And you mentioned, prepare for all the typical

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:17:01

questions you might find online.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:17:02

Do you remember the hardest question that you recall or that jumps to mind?

Jason Khu: 00:17:06

Nothing really jumps to mind, but I I think the biggest thing,

Jason Khu: 00:17:11

that I'd recommend for this kind of behavior interview is I think when I

Jason Khu: 00:17:15

did it, they tried not to use typical questions that you'd find on the internet.

Jason Khu: 00:17:20

They aren't like, significantly like different or anything, but it's

Jason Khu: 00:17:23

reworded in a very unfamiliar way.

Jason Khu: 00:17:25

Or that might throw people off.

Jason Khu: 00:17:26

I think for the behavior interview, I think just best to just practice

Jason Khu: 00:17:31

all the typical questions.

Jason Khu: 00:17:32

And if you can't really pull anything, like at the instant that like you

Jason Khu: 00:17:35

were given the question, then just take time to just think about it

Jason Khu: 00:17:38

and yeah, that's completely fine.

Jason Khu: 00:17:39

I think for my interview I had to think or a couple seconds before I

Jason Khu: 00:17:44

actually responded to the questions.

Jason Khu: 00:17:46

So yeah, I think just for that stage, just prepare for it

Jason Khu: 00:17:50

like it's an omni interview.

Jason Khu: 00:17:51

Do your research and do some practice and just be relaxed

Jason Khu: 00:17:55

and be open to any familiar questions that might come your way.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:17:58

Do you remember any examples of an unfamiliar question

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:18:01

that kind of caught you off guard or was a bit of a different take on a

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:18:04

more traditional interview question?

Jason Khu: 00:18:06

I think it was a mix of both, but I don't remember

Jason Khu: 00:18:09

the questions in particular.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:18:11

No worries.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:18:11

So about the final step, and this sounds like the most daunting

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:18:14

one is the technical interview.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:18:15

I imagine having a short amount of time to interpret a bunch of data

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:18:18

and then presenting it on the fly basically immediately afterwards.

Jason Khu: 00:18:22

Yeah, it's someone like that.

Jason Khu: 00:18:23

For the test it's an hour long, and then the interview's 30 minutes.

Jason Khu: 00:18:27

Should it take longer.

Jason Khu: 00:18:29

Or most of the time it should take less.

Jason Khu: 00:18:31

But for the test you are given the case study.

Jason Khu: 00:18:34

You have to read through it, and then you'll be given some questions

Jason Khu: 00:18:37

about it, interpreting the data, getting from the same thing.

Jason Khu: 00:18:41

But more focus on how does it apply to the case study.

Jason Khu: 00:18:44

And yes.

Jason Khu: 00:18:46

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Jason Khu: 00:18:47

So how on earth do you

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:18:48

prepare for something like that?

Jason Khu: 00:18:49

I think before this stage, like it's similar to the online test

Jason Khu: 00:18:53

in that there's no expectation that you need to know anything or you need

Jason Khu: 00:18:57

to know a particular kind of concept that you learn from uni or whatnot.

Jason Khu: 00:19:01

It's more so consulting as well.

Jason Khu: 00:19:03

But when I did this particular stage, one of the things that

Jason Khu: 00:19:07

they offered prior to doing the kind of assessment was they said.

Jason Khu: 00:19:12

They sent over a document that's these concepts might be

Jason Khu: 00:19:15

assessed in this particular test.

Jason Khu: 00:19:17

Make sure you read up on it and stuff.

Jason Khu: 00:19:19

And so yeah, you just follow that and you just follow that, do your research

Jason Khu: 00:19:24

and just apply it to the case study.

Jason Khu: 00:19:26

I think my big recommendation here is not only just have an elementary grasp

Jason Khu: 00:19:31

of the concepts that they might assess.

Jason Khu: 00:19:34

Because when you do the interview, you're going to explain it.

Jason Khu: 00:19:36

They might ask some follow up questions to like, further test

Jason Khu: 00:19:40

your understanding and whatnot.

Jason Khu: 00:19:41

Even so I'd say when you're doing your research, make sure you

Jason Khu: 00:19:44

get like a somewhat of a deep understanding and be able to apply

Jason Khu: 00:19:48

the stuff that you learn logically.

Jason Khu: 00:19:50

Obviously, when you do this kind of test the analysts don't

Jason Khu: 00:19:53

expect you to know everything.

Jason Khu: 00:19:55

This is stuff that you learn from your research won't be to

Jason Khu: 00:19:58

the depth that they know it or perhaps they don't know it at all.

Jason Khu: 00:20:01

But essentially when you do your research and learn it and learn

Jason Khu: 00:20:04

enough so you can it in a very simple way and and use it logically.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:09

And is it the sort of thing that, let's say a business student

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:11

with no technical data background would be able to do online research

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:16

and get themselves up to speed?

Jason Khu: 00:20:17

I guess it's more so...

Jason Khu: 00:20:18

you have a concept and then the test is about can you that concept quickly

Jason Khu: 00:20:25

and be able to explain it, and be able to use it in like case and be

Jason Khu: 00:20:28

able to explain like how it's related and use a theory to justify your

Jason Khu: 00:20:34

reasoning and explain someone might I have a follow up question basically.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:38

Maybe just as an example, something like you might

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:41

asked to learn about a statistical method and then apply that.

Jason Khu: 00:20:45

That might be in particular

Jason Khu: 00:20:46

And so that's

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:47

obviously gonna help out a lot.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:49

But in terms of the just kind of common sense and problem solving.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:52

In your view, is there anything you can do to prepare for that or is it more

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:55

just you've either got it or you haven't and just get a good night's sleep and

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:20:59

have a strong cup of coffee beforehand?

Jason Khu: 00:21:01

I think what helped me is definitely doing a bit

Jason Khu: 00:21:06

of numerical psychometric tests.

Jason Khu: 00:21:08

That might be helpful to get just the practice in, do some calculations and

Jason Khu: 00:21:13

whatnot , which might pop up in the online test and the technical test as well.

Jason Khu: 00:21:17

And yeah, that's the main tip that I would suggest.

Jason Khu: 00:21:20

I think with the university students, they should have access to a few mock

Jason Khu: 00:21:24

exams through the university and I used that to prepare for this And, are you

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:21:29

allowed to take a calculator or do you have to

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:21:32

do it everything in your head?

Jason Khu: 00:21:33

I think a calculator was allowed

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:21:35

Well done getting through that.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:21:36

And thanks for the tips.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:21:37

So now we've arrived on the job.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:21:39

You've gone through those four steps, you've got the offer.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:21:42

We've got a reasonable idea now of what Quantium actually does.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:21:44

What did the early days look like in terms of the initial few days

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:21:49

and weeks the onboarding process?

Jason Khu: 00:21:50

Yep.

Jason Khu: 00:21:51

So at Quantium we had an induction that span costs three days.

Jason Khu: 00:21:56

Some of the stuff that we did during induction was doing some team building

Jason Khu: 00:22:00

activities, doing a scavenger hunt around like the elderly area.

Jason Khu: 00:22:04

Just to get familiar with the office and what's around it.

Jason Khu: 00:22:07

And also getting set up with like our laptops as well, and also doing some

Jason Khu: 00:22:12

other activities about like personality types and stuff like that, which is

Jason Khu: 00:22:16

pretty interesting and pretty fun.

Jason Khu: 00:22:18

And yeah, with the onboarding we got set up with our laptops,

Jason Khu: 00:22:22

I think during induction.

Jason Khu: 00:22:24

So about the second or third day, and we get that running, do the authentication

Jason Khu: 00:22:28

stuff just for us to get set up for like the next week starting for the next

Jason Khu: 00:22:32

week and then basically a couple weeks after that and you'd get like the other

Jason Khu: 00:22:36

stuff that's part of the onboarding.

Jason Khu: 00:22:38

All the grads, they get free merch.

Jason Khu: 00:22:39

So before we joined company, I think a couple weeks prior, we were given

Jason Khu: 00:22:43

like a link just select like three items that were Quantium branded and

Jason Khu: 00:22:46

and then couple months later we'd pick it up . So I'm wearing one right

Jason Khu: 00:22:49

now, and yeah, and around that sign as well, we'd get like a monitor as well.

Jason Khu: 00:22:56

We get a monitor for work from home as well.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:22:58

How do you go about training, especially for

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:23:00

students who don't have the benefit of a data technical background?

Jason Khu: 00:23:05

So the thing with Quantium is they are like, as I mentioned before,

Jason Khu: 00:23:09

we don't expect you to know like the technical skills, like when you you

Jason Khu: 00:23:13

start the whole point of Quantium's grad program is that you learn as you go.

Jason Khu: 00:23:16

So at Quantium we do have this thing, or it's more like a document that is

Jason Khu: 00:23:21

the graduate proficiency checklist.

Jason Khu: 00:23:23

And what that essentially is provides a kind of checklist of all the skills

Jason Khu: 00:23:28

that the graduates should develop their kind of grad program over the two years.

Jason Khu: 00:23:33

And it covers things like, and how to hand like skills pertaining to

Jason Khu: 00:23:38

handling clients, skills pertaining to cleaning data, analyzing data,

Jason Khu: 00:23:42

visualizing data and stuff like that.

Jason Khu: 00:23:44

And yeah, during those two years, graduates all to complete

Jason Khu: 00:23:48

some sort of chunk of it.

Jason Khu: 00:23:49

Back to your question, obviously having the technical skills like

Jason Khu: 00:23:52

some programming or stuff like that will definitely be helpful.

Jason Khu: 00:23:55

But with Quantium there is no expectation that you know that when

Jason Khu: 00:23:58

you start, you build it as you go.

Jason Khu: 00:24:00

And another thing with another thing with Quantium is that it doesn't only teach

Jason Khu: 00:24:04

you just the skills, it also teaches you like the best practices, right?

Jason Khu: 00:24:07

With those skills.

Jason Khu: 00:24:08

Like you might use a tool particular way, but is it the best way of using it?

Jason Khu: 00:24:13

Maybe not.

Jason Khu: 00:24:14

That's what Quantium teaches you and that's how Quantium kind of builds those

Jason Khu: 00:24:18

capabilities within their graduates.

Jason Khu: 00:24:20

So even so when I started at I didn't know bit of Python, they're

Jason Khu: 00:24:24

not used in my role, but I did know a few tools beforehand.

Jason Khu: 00:24:28

Even though I did know those tools and built my own projects with it

Jason Khu: 00:24:31

.When you work at Quantium, you're always learning something new

Jason Khu: 00:24:34

about the tools that you work with.

Jason Khu: 00:24:36

And I think that's very interesting and as I mentioned before, like you

Jason Khu: 00:24:39

don't have to have any experience, any prior experience with skills to be,

Jason Khu: 00:24:43

had to have an advantage or anything.

Jason Khu: 00:24:44

So I think that's really really good.

Jason Khu: 00:24:45

And everyone's learning the best.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:24:47

So the grad program itself I is that two years.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:24:49

Did I understand that correctly?

Jason Khu: 00:24:51

To my knowledge so it works is all the full graduate analysts

Jason Khu: 00:24:56

and engineers, we have two rotation.

Jason Khu: 00:24:59

So in the first rotation, that's like a year and your second

Jason Khu: 00:25:03

rotation's a year as well.

Jason Khu: 00:25:04

And after your first rotation, there is an optional .You can

Jason Khu: 00:25:07

choose to stay within your team or you can move on to another one.

Jason Khu: 00:25:09

But I've been told by a couple people that the graduate program only one

Jason Khu: 00:25:14

year, but like in your second year you get promoted to an analyst level.

Jason Khu: 00:25:18

But I guess in my view, for simplicity's sake the graduate program is two years.

Jason Khu: 00:25:22

So two one year rotations, but when you move on to your second year.

Jason Khu: 00:25:27

You're not a grad anymore, you become an analyst.

Jason Khu: 00:25:28

That's essentially what the gist is.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:25:31

Yeah.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:25:31

And the distinction between a grad and analyst is that something

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:25:35

formal as an analyst, does more work with clients, for example?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:25:38

Or what does that look?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:25:39

And you mentioned what sounds like a fairly thorough training program.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:25:43

How soon do you start to get to work with clients versus primarily

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:25:47

training during the first?

Jason Khu: 00:25:49

I'm not entirely a process because I work internally,

Jason Khu: 00:25:51

but I have heard some analysts do maybe like a a few mock exercises or

Jason Khu: 00:25:58

mock presentations in first couple weeks slash months before they they

Jason Khu: 00:26:02

actually start handling a client.

Jason Khu: 00:26:03

I mean it might seem a bit slow for some of the analysts who want

Jason Khu: 00:26:06

to get involved in the work, but Quantium does prioritize a lot of

Jason Khu: 00:26:10

the training they do with their grad.

Jason Khu: 00:26:12

Fair enough.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:26:13

Especially if you're coming in from a different background.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:26:15

And how quickly were you as you're doing an internal project, but how

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:26:19

quickly were you moved onto that versus purely training and onboarding?

Jason Khu: 00:26:23

It really depends on the team that you're in, but for me,

Jason Khu: 00:26:27

when I did my training, that long before I started getting into work.

Jason Khu: 00:26:31

I know for some other different teams they would get training into

Jason Khu: 00:26:33

what do the different products do?

Jason Khu: 00:26:35

How do you handle a client?

Jason Khu: 00:26:37

They might get more training into who the competitors are.

Jason Khu: 00:26:39

But for me and one other grad who sits in the same team, we didn't

Jason Khu: 00:26:43

do too much training before we actually actually got the thick of

Jason Khu: 00:26:46

it and actually start learning the tools that we needed for our role.

Jason Khu: 00:26:49

But yeah, four more client facing roles where you have to know a bit

Jason Khu: 00:26:53

more about the products and stuff like that and what Quantium offers and how

Jason Khu: 00:26:57

to handle a client that might be a bit longer when you're in external team.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:27:01

Maybe we can spend a little bit of time talking about the

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:27:04

kind of hands on day-to-day, cuz at this point, we've talked about how

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:27:07

you're doing internal project ,team building capabilities, cleaning

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:27:11

data, helping the team get insights, but from an outsider's perspective

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:27:15

like mine, what does that mean?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:27:16

Maybe you can talk me through a typical day to the extent there's such a thing?

Jason Khu: 00:27:20

So my day-to-day is varied.

Jason Khu: 00:27:23

My typical day-to-day starts off with a huddle with the rest of my team.

Jason Khu: 00:27:28

So talking through some of the pain points that we have, some of the

Jason Khu: 00:27:31

stuff that we're working on, some of the stuff that we've completed.

Jason Khu: 00:27:34

And the interesting thing about the work that my team does at the

Jason Khu: 00:27:38

moment it's a mix of primarily it's a lot of ad hoc related requests.

Jason Khu: 00:27:44

We work directly with the board of finance team and sometimes they might

Jason Khu: 00:27:47

ask us, 'We want to have this insight accessible, we want this feature

Jason Khu: 00:27:51

for this tool to be accessible for us to get this insight', example.

Jason Khu: 00:27:56

And what we do is we do the development work for that kind of work in like

Jason Khu: 00:27:59

create sub-project, sub-tasks out of that and delegate it between all

Jason Khu: 00:28:04

the members within our direct team and work on that during our work.

Jason Khu: 00:28:07

So some of the pieces that I've worked on have involved ,building dashboards or have

Jason Khu: 00:28:13

been involved like building dashboards for some of the leaders within each vertical.

Jason Khu: 00:28:18

And also automating some processes as well.

Jason Khu: 00:28:20

At Quantium we do have a few systems that we use to track things within

Jason Khu: 00:28:25

our company, and some of it's a bit manual, some of this stuff.

Jason Khu: 00:28:28

So that's, some of the stuff I've been working on has been all

Jason Khu: 00:28:31

automating that process, using data to make it a bit simpler.

Jason Khu: 00:28:34

And yeah, just all around just adding capabilities and features to the

Jason Khu: 00:28:39

financial dashboards that we have as well.

Jason Khu: 00:28:41

So that the team can get information that they need.

Jason Khu: 00:28:45

And yeah, so end to end getting, serving their request basically.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:28:49

So when you talk about creating dashboards and automating things,

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:28:52

are you developing ?Are you coding?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:28:55

Or what does that actually

Jason Khu: 00:28:56

mean?

Jason Khu: 00:28:57

It's a mix of coding and also building pipelines.

Jason Khu: 00:29:02

So with the data automation work and also cleaning the data, we build pipelines.

Jason Khu: 00:29:08

So we have messy data over here.

Jason Khu: 00:29:10

We want to build data that's clean and can be used to build tours.

Jason Khu: 00:29:14

We build, we the pipeline that the two points to get the data that

Jason Khu: 00:29:17

we need so that it can be used.

Jason Khu: 00:29:19

So from that perspective, there's a bit of data pipeline work, there's a mix

Jason Khu: 00:29:23

of coding as well, supporting data from databases as needed and stuff like that.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:29:28

Super interesting.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:29:28

And you mentioned you have your start with a team huddle.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:29:31

How big is a team typically, like the one

Jason Khu: 00:29:33

you're in now?

Jason Khu: 00:29:34

So the direct team I'm in is three people, so just me, my

Jason Khu: 00:29:38

manager, and another graduate.

Jason Khu: 00:29:40

And I guess it's only us three because I guess we're like financial data

Jason Khu: 00:29:43

specialists on the team, and the broader finance team is about 10 to 20 people.

Jason Khu: 00:29:49

As the part of the data what we do is we do, as I mentioned before, the data

Jason Khu: 00:29:54

cleaning, the analytics involved as well.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:29:57

So you are working from home at the moment?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:29:58

What's the work from home or remote work?

Jason Khu: 00:30:00

My team goes into the office two days a week.

Jason Khu: 00:30:02

Yeah, and obviously the VAs work from home.

Jason Khu: 00:30:04

For me personally, I go in two days a week and then another just meet the grad and

Jason Khu: 00:30:09

spend some time with the other analysts and engineers who play basketball.

Jason Khu: 00:30:12

So on Friday during lunchtime we play basketball.

Jason Khu: 00:30:15

And I play with some of the other analysts and engineers in

Jason Khu: 00:30:18

a comp, so that's pretty fun.

Jason Khu: 00:30:19

And I go, so that's why I go in every Friday.

Jason Khu: 00:30:22

Some teams they would come in maybe once a week, maybe less even.

Jason Khu: 00:30:27

And some teams might come in into the office like more often than that.

Jason Khu: 00:30:31

It really just, depends on the team.

Jason Khu: 00:30:32

But I'd say with Quantium generally it's quite flexible.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:30:36

Good stuff.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:30:36

Sounds like fun.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:30:37

Bit of basketball on Fridays.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:30:38

What's the outside of that, what's the kind of social

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:30:41

dynamic like amongst the grads?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:30:42

Is there any kind of formal social events that are done through work?

Jason Khu: 00:30:46

It's a mix of things that are organized by people and culture team and

Jason Khu: 00:30:51

also stuff that we organize ourselves.

Jason Khu: 00:30:53

So with the people and culture team, obviously we have the induction and

Jason Khu: 00:30:56

we also have each month having a knowledge share when, like one, where

Jason Khu: 00:31:00

one graduate like shares something that to teach to the other graduates.

Jason Khu: 00:31:04

And also with the people in culture team, they also organize bodies for us as well,.

Jason Khu: 00:31:09

For the new graduates, they connect with some of the graduates that

Jason Khu: 00:31:12

started earlier and in earlier cohort.

Jason Khu: 00:31:14

So that's a kind of social aspect that's organized by PNC.

Jason Khu: 00:31:17

But some of the social stuff that gets done or like the grads, some

Jason Khu: 00:31:21

of it gets initiated by some of the other graduates as as well.

Jason Khu: 00:31:24

So sometimes they'd go to drinks on a Friday, go to dinner and whatnot.

Jason Khu: 00:31:28

And there's also some of the initiatives that organized for

Jason Khu: 00:31:30

the greater company as well.

Jason Khu: 00:31:32

So I think a couple weeks ago we had a Harmony Day potluck,

Jason Khu: 00:31:35

so that was really fun.

Jason Khu: 00:31:37

And yeah, overall just cultures pretty good and people really nice.

Jason Khu: 00:31:40

I think within your direct team it's pretty easy to connect with

Jason Khu: 00:31:43

people and also just build those good relationships cuz everyone is

Jason Khu: 00:31:46

like very relaxed at the company.

Jason Khu: 00:31:48

But I guess with the graduate program is that once you start a bit of

Jason Khu: 00:31:51

an unfortunate thing is that when you start everyone's like working

Jason Khu: 00:31:54

within their direct team and the only opportunity they can connect with other

Jason Khu: 00:31:58

graduates is is probably like during lunch or like during after hours.

Jason Khu: 00:32:01

But yeah, I think when you in the context of the direct team, definitely everyone's

Jason Khu: 00:32:05

pretty relaxed or just very good.

Jason Khu: 00:32:08

But yeah, for meeting other grads, it's would be for like, designated

Jason Khu: 00:32:12

time slots where like every it will, like where all the grads come up,

Jason Khu: 00:32:14

and meet together or it would be during like lunch breaks and whatnot.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:32:17

Sounds like you've got a good mix of office,

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:32:19

social environment and the remote benefits of remote work from home.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:32:23

I guess stepping back, any reflections on both the best bits and worst bits of

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:32:29

your of the grad program at Quantium?

Jason Khu: 00:32:31

I think the best bit would probably be the people,

Jason Khu: 00:32:35

so the people and also like the learning opportunities as well.

Jason Khu: 00:32:39

I think the great thing about Quantium and one of the thing and what, one of the

Jason Khu: 00:32:43

things that I was interested in before applying to the company was definitely

Jason Khu: 00:32:47

people and culture, people very relaxed.

Jason Khu: 00:32:49

It's not like a typical consulting firm where it's like there's like formalities

Jason Khu: 00:32:53

and there's like an hierarchy at Quantium.

Jason Khu: 00:32:56

There's our building is legit, only two floors.

Jason Khu: 00:32:59

Everyone kind of sits next to each other.

Jason Khu: 00:33:01

There's no there's no particular hierarchy that is there, and

Jason Khu: 00:33:04

everyone's very friendly, very relaxed.

Jason Khu: 00:33:06

And it's reflect an old dress code as well.

Jason Khu: 00:33:08

Like we don't wear formal attire.

Jason Khu: 00:33:11

can walk up to the office in shorts.

Jason Khu: 00:33:13

It's very relaxed in that regard.

Jason Khu: 00:33:15

The other thing is definitely the learning opportunities.

Jason Khu: 00:33:18

At Quantium, during the company, I already had some idea what the

Jason Khu: 00:33:21

graduate proficiency checklist is.

Jason Khu: 00:33:23

And I thought that if I were to join this company, it'll be a good opportunity , not

Jason Khu: 00:33:27

to just learn the skills, but also learn the skills in a very best practice way.

Jason Khu: 00:33:31

So not learning just the skills and just doing it, but doing it in effective way.

Jason Khu: 00:33:35

And I think that's a really good opportunity for me to be more marketable

Jason Khu: 00:33:39

if I were to apply to role in the future.

Jason Khu: 00:33:41

And in terms of the worst thing...

Jason Khu: 00:33:44

nothing really comes to mind or nothing's bad enough for me to say

Jason Khu: 00:33:47

that it's, or it's the worst thing.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:33:49

And I guess next question, where to from here?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:33:51

You obviously got off to a flying start career-wise.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:33:54

If looking ahead, what does the career path look like from here?

Jason Khu: 00:33:57

It's hard to say, but in terms of my kind of high level goals are I think

Jason Khu: 00:34:02

for me, building a career in analytics for like next couple years perhaps stay

Jason Khu: 00:34:07

to Quantium, maybe move another company.

Jason Khu: 00:34:09

Who knows?

Jason Khu: 00:34:10

But yeah, just staying in the industry and building that experience.

Jason Khu: 00:34:13

And another thing that I want to do later in my career is start doing some sort

Jason Khu: 00:34:18

of coaching or some sort of instructing, because at the moment I've been a bit

Jason Khu: 00:34:22

more active on LinkedIn and writing and I've started writing for since like

Jason Khu: 00:34:27

third year moving like up till now, and just been practicing that.

Jason Khu: 00:34:31

My kind of intention is to build my brand and kind of hopefully move into

Jason Khu: 00:34:36

another career path where I have a bit more control over the hours I work

Jason Khu: 00:34:41

and still also work with something I'm interested in and interested in

Jason Khu: 00:34:44

particularly data analytics, science visualization and stuff like that.

Jason Khu: 00:34:48

And yeah, I think it'd be a good opportunity for me to still work

Jason Khu: 00:34:52

on something that I enjoy and I'm good at, but also have a bit more

Jason Khu: 00:34:55

control over my schedule and doing other things that I enjoy as well.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:34:59

You mentioned coaching and instructing is one of the options

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:35:03

getting into that within Quantium, more of a managerial type role.

Jason Khu: 00:35:06

I think for me in particular, I want to do something online.

Jason Khu: 00:35:09

So maybe have a YouTube channel , great videos on how

Jason Khu: 00:35:11

to do X, Y, Z using X,Y, Z tool.

Jason Khu: 00:35:14

That's where I want to get at.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:35:15

Okay.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:35:15

And again, for the benefit of students who are thinking about

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:35:19

following in your footsteps.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:35:20

Do you do you have a view on what type of people are a good fit for

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:35:23

this particular career and industry?

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:35:26

Or to put it another way, if it's more helpful, the type of people

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:35:30

who would not be a good fit and should consider avoiding it?

Jason Khu: 00:35:34

I think the best traits to how would probably be being number savvy.

Jason Khu: 00:35:39

Being able to be interested in keep expanding, being interested

Jason Khu: 00:35:44

in keep upon your skillset.

Jason Khu: 00:35:46

Within data analytics, it's there isn't a one size fits

Jason Khu: 00:35:49

all kind of tool or solution.

Jason Khu: 00:35:51

There's always something to learn and when you're working with different

Jason Khu: 00:35:53

clients, you're always learning as well.

Jason Khu: 00:35:55

You'd like to get experience of a more startup culture or get a

Jason Khu: 00:35:59

more kind of tech like culture.

Jason Khu: 00:36:01

If you're not interested in that and prefer something that's more structured

Jason Khu: 00:36:05

and more corporate then like for companies that are more corporate

Jason Khu: 00:36:08

would be the better option for you.

Jason Khu: 00:36:10

But yeah, Quantium it's a mix of pretty technical work.

Jason Khu: 00:36:13

So like data analytics and whatnot.

Jason Khu: 00:36:15

And also really great culture and really great people.

Jason Khu: 00:36:19

If you wanna build your skills but still work in a collaborative environment where

Jason Khu: 00:36:22

you're not really competing with anyone on anything like work, like competing

Jason Khu: 00:36:26

with people for projects or anything, then Quantium is a great place for you.

Jason Khu: 00:36:30

I know for like more corporate companies, there's competition between graduates

Jason Khu: 00:36:35

, what projects that they should work on.

Jason Khu: 00:36:37

At Quantium, you don't really get the stress , you don't really get that,

Jason Khu: 00:36:40

you don't get the stress on that.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:36:42

And reflecting on your time as a grad, is it a

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:36:45

biggest learning that comes to mind?

Jason Khu: 00:36:48

So what my reflection would be, probably be don't

Jason Khu: 00:36:50

be afraid to ask questions.

Jason Khu: 00:36:52

As a graduate, you even though some graduate programs, they expect

Jason Khu: 00:36:55

you to have some sort of degree or anything or something like that.

Jason Khu: 00:36:59

I feel like like the matter where you go you are always gonna learn

Jason Khu: 00:37:02

how to do the job and it's always gonna feel somewhat unfamiliar.

Jason Khu: 00:37:05

When when I joined as a graduate there were some things that were

Jason Khu: 00:37:08

familiar, but doing the job was just a whole nother piece I could learn.

Jason Khu: 00:37:12

No matter where you go, as a graduate, don't be afraid asking questions.

Jason Khu: 00:37:16

If you don't know something or need more or something, just put up your

Jason Khu: 00:37:19

hand because one of the things that I've learned from one of my internships,

Jason Khu: 00:37:23

one of my managers said, it's more frustrating to pretend that you know

Jason Khu: 00:37:27

something because later on you might not actually be competent in something that

Jason Khu: 00:37:31

you thought you were, if that makes sense.

Jason Khu: 00:37:33

So when you ask more questions at the beginning, you'll do your job

Jason Khu: 00:37:36

better, and just makes you look more proactive and deliver better

Jason Khu: 00:37:39

results in your work as well.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:37:40

No such thing as a silly question, especially as a grad.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:37:43

Is there anything that surprised you or that was different your

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:37:47

expectations when you came out of uni?

Jason Khu: 00:37:49

I think that when you're a student you focus a bit too much

Jason Khu: 00:37:53

on getting a grad job as opposed to the rest of the years in your career.

Jason Khu: 00:37:58

Like it's not just about the grad job that you learned straight up the university.

Jason Khu: 00:38:01

Your career is like a lot longer than that and it's about, and it's bound to change.

Jason Khu: 00:38:06

When I was at uni, I was like thinking, oh, what's the best company get into?

Jason Khu: 00:38:11

And what pays best or something like that.

Jason Khu: 00:38:13

And what is the best culture?

Jason Khu: 00:38:15

But I think if I were to go back and give myself advice, it's just

Jason Khu: 00:38:19

not to stress too much about it.

Jason Khu: 00:38:21

Like as a graduate, like it's only like a couple years program.

Jason Khu: 00:38:25

If you wanna move to another company, you can.

Jason Khu: 00:38:28

Just take the opportunity during that program to learn as much as you can.

Jason Khu: 00:38:31

Don't be stressed too much if, don't go your way.

Jason Khu: 00:38:33

You don't get the grudge job that you want.

Jason Khu: 00:38:35

There's 20 years, 30 years up in your career to do something else if you want

Jason Khu: 00:38:39

to, or explore another space if you want.

Jason Khu: 00:38:41

If you're applying for like a grad program, make sure, like

Jason Khu: 00:38:44

one thing's non negotiable.

Jason Khu: 00:38:45

It's that you learn a lot during the opportunity.

Jason Khu: 00:38:47

So that can help you reach greater high sector on your career as well.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:38:51

It's sage advice.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:38:52

I think it's easy for students to make the mistake of over optimizing

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:38:56

for the short term, right?

Jason Khu: 00:38:57

Yeah.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:38:58

And sacrificing what might have been better

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:39:00

long term career decisions.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:39:02

That's pretty common, going for that higher salary because an extra five

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:39:05

grand feels like a lot, but yeah, it's a it's a very common thing to say.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:39:09

Final question.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:39:10

Is there anything you'd change, looking back on your study and career path so

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:39:13

far, if you had your time again, is there anything you'd do differently?

Jason Khu: 00:39:17

I think from my experience personally, no.

Jason Khu: 00:39:21

That might be a surprising answer, but I feel like during my university , I

Jason Khu: 00:39:24

felt that even outside of studies, I try exploring something new.

Jason Khu: 00:39:29

I kept exploring my interests.

Jason Khu: 00:39:31

If I was interested in learning about someone's role or learning about a

Jason Khu: 00:39:36

particular area in the industry, I would go and learn about it . And

Jason Khu: 00:39:42

learning about those things helped me figure out what to do next and where

Jason Khu: 00:39:46

to pivot and set and helped me set the goals the next goals that I had.

Jason Khu: 00:39:51

I think one, one thing I might regret is that during or when I studied at

Jason Khu: 00:39:55

university, I did actuarial studies, but I didn't really enjoy everything that was

Jason Khu: 00:40:01

involved in the actuarial studies degree.

Jason Khu: 00:40:03

For actuarial studies, it's a very niche kind of area and a

Jason Khu: 00:40:07

mix of a a whole lot of things.

Jason Khu: 00:40:08

So you have like your statistics, your general insurance, life

Jason Khu: 00:40:12

insurance theory, and your finance.

Jason Khu: 00:40:14

But for me personally, and I think for a lot of other students

Jason Khu: 00:40:17

who do that degree, it's not.

Jason Khu: 00:40:19

You won't really enjoy everything or enjoy the mix of all those things.

Jason Khu: 00:40:24

And so for me, I really took the opportunity to learn what's out

Jason Khu: 00:40:27

there in the industry, learn about what I might be interested in.

Jason Khu: 00:40:30

And that's something I do not regret at all because I've took on

Jason Khu: 00:40:33

opportunities where I compared my data analytics experience, learned

Jason Khu: 00:40:37

like tours, and looked forward relevant opportunities in that area.

Jason Khu: 00:40:41

And that kind of helped me build up the skills and learn about

Jason Khu: 00:40:44

like an area that interested in get really good insights into it.

Jason Khu: 00:40:48

I guess one thing I do regret is maybe doing the actuarial degree, maybe doing

Jason Khu: 00:40:52

something a bit more broad . So I can do a bit more exploration, have a bit

Jason Khu: 00:40:55

more freedom and not be ashamed about moving away from a degree that's like

Jason Khu: 00:40:58

very prestigious or something like that.

Jason Khu: 00:41:00

But one thing I do not regret at all is definitely taking the opportunity to

Jason Khu: 00:41:04

learn outside your degree, seeing what's out there, seeing what picture interest,

Jason Khu: 00:41:08

and because who knows, you might find something that is really interesting

Jason Khu: 00:41:12

or like you might find something that you're really passionate about and that's

Jason Khu: 00:41:15

something that you keep working on.

Jason Khu: 00:41:18

That's something that you can just keep working on without having to,

Jason Khu: 00:41:21

be rewarded for it or anything.

Jason Khu: 00:41:23

It's something that you can do when you're downtime and feel very

Jason Khu: 00:41:25

like energized by just doing it.

Jason Khu: 00:41:27

So I've learned tools on the side.

Jason Khu: 00:41:28

It turned into an ambassadorship.

Jason Khu: 00:41:30

I taught workshops on it in my spare time.

Jason Khu: 00:41:32

And yeah, it's just, and it's now turned into a career that I really enjoy.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:41:36

That's a great attitude.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:41:37

Well done.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:41:38

Jason.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:41:38

I'm conscious of your time.

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:41:39

We should wrap it up there, but I know we could do a whole nother session on

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:41:43

your other internships and these kind of outside of work content creation and the

Jeffrey Duncan: 00:41:48

stuff we mentioned about what you're doing on LinkedIn ! So thanks again, Jason.