【ZA Bank】 My adventure with ZA Bank-From Intern to Associate Manager

As a Penultimate Student who has just finished his final exams, I thought to myself: how can I better prepare myself for graduation? There were moments I struggled and felt lost, yet the ancient poetry said, “well there is no way, one good thing came out of it". I was fortunate that an internship opportunity was given to me. It was very much a surprise and good news, and without any hesitation, I gladly accepted the offer and started interning at the Risk Management Department of ZA Bank. That was June 2019, and I have never regretted this decision.

As a Risk Management Intern, I assisted different risk aspects, such as Credit Risk, Operational Risk, Market Risk and Counterparty Risk, and none of these is easy. During the tenure, I was responsible for developing scripts and programs for the department, drafting risk management related policies and procedure manuals, and investigating foreseeable risks in daily operations and new products...etc. I have learned not only the risk management framework and the mindset of a risk manager, but also the reality of the virtual banking industry that one could never have understood without really getting involved in this invigorating industry.

Time flies, the summer holiday soon ended and I continued learning at ZA Bank as a Part-Time Risk Management Associate. To be very honest, life was getting more and more difficult at then. Not only do I have to deal with university assignments, final year projects and exams, I also have to prepare for meetings, conduct different risk assessments and develop programs and tools, not to mention the effort to handle other personal matters. However, as Benjamin Franklin had said, “energy and persistence conquer all things”, I was fortunate enough to have the support from my teammates, colleagues and family, and was able to persevere through the challenges.

Another major benefit of interning at ZA is that the work-life balance here is tremendous. We embrace hard-work and working quality, but also value team building and work-life balance. For instance, we organize Chill-Out Night party every month to relieve our people's stress, we play football and basketball to promote team spirit, and sometimes we play video games together, too.

One year quickly passed and I completed my Bachelor's. I am starting a new exciting page of my life, here, at ZA Bank, as an Associate Manager of the Risk Management Department. Words cannot describe how grateful I am for having such a great starting point of my life long career. The happiness of experiencing moments that you can be proud of for your entire career is precious. Having the opportunity to learn, to innovate, and to take challenges in Hong Kong's first fully launched Virtual Bank is one of these moments! More importantly, I am ready and looking forward to creating more memories together with my team!