It has been two weeks since I started interning for Ellery Partners. This unique experience under the unprecedented time provides rewarding challenges.

One of the biggest challenges for me is to test my time management skills. While transiting in this new role, I also start my summer school at my college. Thanks to the remote modes both for work and school, I can split up my time to study and work. However, the time commitment is different than having a time schedule. For the first week, we had a lot of training sessions that conflicted with my classes, and my workloads mixed with my homework, which occupies me. But fortunately, I have been working with my teammate Michael in “HOAMOTY” (Homeowner’s Association Manager Of The Year). My teammate sets up additional meetings to help me catch up with the training sessions that I missed, and we negotiated efficiently and updated in time in terms of our weekly goal. With help within the team, I am able to transit smoothly. Great teamwork pays off: our team exceled in this week’s KPI.

Another challenge is the work itself; being an analyst brings many responsibilities, and each responsibility touches on different skills. When trying to find suitable industries for investment interest, I need to be acute and creative; when it comes to finding information about the industries, I need to gather up all my analytical skills; when I am sourcing, I need to be organized and efficient; and when I am outreaching, I need to tailor to the conversation as a personal friend. Thankfully, I learned and applied what I learned (maybe from school, experiences, or Jalen and Orlando’s training!) swiftly to accomplish these goals. This experience, while helping me finish my job, enrich my skills (both interpersonal or analytical) will be essential to be successful in the Finance world.

These two challenges are not only interesting but also refreshing. Clearly there will be more as we are taking new missions, and I am always looking forward to them!