Self introduction and why apply for this program?

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview with you today. Let me start from education.
I have finished my master’s degree in FinTech in Nov last year at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Prior to this, I have achieved my first master’s degree in Marketing Management and my
bachelor’s degree in international business in the UK.

Through my education and various course projects I have gained solid knowledge in Corporate
finance, economics, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency, Financial Derivatives and Risk Management.

Most recently, I am a full-time business analyst with the institutional client group division at Citi,
where I have been leading various projects related to system integration and new functionality
design, managing the entire project/sprint cycle including requirement collection, BRD &
systematic workflow drafting, jira/confluence status monitoring, scrum meeting hosting. QA &
UAT testing and project go lives. Through my past working experiences, I gained insight into the
financial market, enhanced my communication skills and confirmed my interests in financial field.

One of the most critical reasons I applied for the HKEX graduate program is that I am passionate
about the Chinese financial market. As a fan of stock market, I made my first 1 million in the
Chinese stock market in 2020 and via reading through equity research reports and analysis, I
witnessed the tremendous growth of a number of high-potential pre-revenue and early-stage
technology companies, and with the recent announcement of new rules by HKEX, more
technology and science companies that haven’t yet generated revenue will be allowed to go public,
I think this programme will definitely provide me an opportunity to work with industry leaders -
both inside and outside the business, as more and more investors will be entering the HK market.
On top of that, I am a result driven people person with strong interpersonal skills, communication
skills and analytical skills, which made me a good fit for this position. I cannot think of a better
place like HKEX to uplift my expertise in the financial field to the next level, while having an
opportunity to bring my knowledge, skills, and commitment to the team.

1. What interests you most about HKEX and why?

Sure, I am actually very excited to answer this question. The reason why I am interested in HKEX
is definitely its Vision and values. In particular, to build the Marketplace of the Future by
facilitating the two-way capital flows between East and West with integrity, excellence,
engagement,, diversity and collaboration. I think it really allowed HKEX to serve its clients at its
best capability, and me personally, given my current and past experiences as a BA/Project
Manager, Whenever I am in a conversation, I always aim to resolve conflicts and problems that
include opposing opinions and viewpoints to ensure smooth conversation and maximize delivery
outcome, so I think that really resonated with myself.

2. Describe a situation in which you identify an unexpected problem/obstacle.

When I was a project manager, I leveraged resources across business unites, developers, UX, QA
to create and send deliverables to clients. We once had a client who needed to push up their
delivery deadline for timeliness. We had two weeks to complete the revised mock-ups, get client
approval on the final designs, create the campaign deliverables across the art, photography and
copy teams and deliver the assets for publication.

In nearly two days, I reorganized the whole team's production schedule. I first reviewed the
deadlines for our three other clients and calculated how much time we could spend doing less
work on their projects to make time for this client's rush project. After discovering we only had
three days of excess time, I met with the developer team leads to reallocate team members to the
rush tasks. I then collaborated with team leads to vet and hire external contractors to take on tasks
for other clients to ensure work was still completed. Then, I reviewed the budget to see if overtime
for internal employees was feasible.

Finally, I held an all-hands meeting to communicate the new goals and delivery dates for the rush
project, assign team members to review externally contracted work for other clients and provide
opportunities for overtime that fit within the budget. And I also met with the client to let them
know of the deadlines for each stage of the revised process to ensure we were all clear on the new
expectations. With all of this reorganization, the team was able to meet the new rush deadline
without compromising other client projects.

3. Tell me when you have set challenging targets for yourself and exceed them
During a recent project with PwC, my leader asked me to complete a marketing report based
on two of our top competitors. The requirements were simple; I had to fill out the answers to
questions about our competitor's products, their prices and sales percentages on a spreadsheet
to present in a meeting. I saw an opportunity to go above and beyond by making colorful
charts and graphs comparing our current numbers to our competitors, and I assessed what we
needed to do to beat our competitors. I presented the information in a clear and precise way,
using a slideshow in our meeting. My charts helped everyone in the meeting to stay engaged,
and our brainstorming session about our next steps was successful. It was proud to witness the
product I designed exhibited on Shanghai 2021 Expo and adopted by some of the multi-
national companies such as GSK and coca-cola which generated over 5 million revenues for
PWC.

4. Describe a situation when you were asked to do something you did not agree with
While working on a project for a previous employer, one of my team members regularly
challenged every solution I presented. He also had a tendency to interrupt and talk over others
without listening to their input. I experienced a challenge in maintaining my patience when he
interrupted others without listening. It reached a point where our respective managers counseled
both of us on our behavior.

“To resolve this conflict, I had to recognize that I cannot change or control his behavior. I also
acknowledged that this behavior, from both of us, was likely a result of stress due to the heavy
workload of the project. Therefore, I adjusted my own communication style to increase empathy,
avoid triggers and build patience with interruptions. We were able to complete the project and
maintain polite correspondence whenever we needed to work together after that.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kongs-stock-exchange-proposes-pre-revenue-tech-listings-
11666178171

Hong Kong’s stock exchange is planning new rules allowing some technology
and science companies that haven’t yet generated revenue to go public, its
latest effort to boost initial-public-offering volumes.

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., 388   1.19% ▲  operator of the

exchange, wants to lower the bar for listings of pre-revenue and early-stage
technology companies. That would expand the number of potential IPOs in a
market that has struggled this year. Primary and secondary listings in Hong
Kong so far this year have raised $10.78 billion, down 71% from the same
period in 2021, according to Dealogic.
The proposal comes amid a worsening relationship between China and the U.S.
that has deterred some Chinese companies from listing on U.S. exchanges,
raised the risk of delistings for others, and encouraged a group of state-owned
companies to exit the market.  

It also follows the U.S. government’s decision to tighten exports in the

semiconductor sector, a move that sent shares of China’s chip makers reeling.
Semiconductor companies are among those specifically targeted by the
proposed changes to Hong Kong’s listing rules.

The exchange currently requires companies hoping to list to pass one of several
tests, including a revenue requirement of at least 500 million Hong Kong
dollars, equivalent to $63.7 million, for the most recent audited year. A
consultation paper published Wednesday proposes waiving the revenue
requirement entirely for some companies.