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Hello,
I'm Haotian Gu

Finance

CLSA

Bachelor degree in International Business

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

2018

Chinese / English / Japanese

Hello,
I'm Haotian Gu

Finance

CLSA

Bachelor degree in International Business

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

2018

Chinese / English / Japanese

About Haotian Gu

I was born and raised in China and came to Japan for undergraduate degree after high school. After 4 years at APU, I started my career as a management consultant and now I am working in equity research.

The reason why I came to Japan is because I saw Japan as the best place that would enable me to achieve my goals. I was fascinated by foreign languages and cultures when I was exposed to those in junior high school, and decided to study in a university abroad as well as to work as a "bridge" moving forward leveraging my communication skills and global mindset. Japan appeared to be one of the best fit for me as I could develop a third language, and many Japanese companies have global footprint and are right in the process to expand to overseas market.

What did you do during college?

I focused on both academics and extracurricular activities. Two activities that I put most efforts in are GBCC and CFA challenge. GBCC is a business case competition organized by APU, and teams of four students from all over the world compete for the best solution to solve a business case, while CFA challenge is a similar competition focused on equity research in terms of valuation and financial modelling. Also, I spent most of my time on internship during third year as I was trying to get a better understanding of different industries and overall job hunting system in Japan. There were many failures along the way but those helped and guided me to find the right path.

The most memorable or proudest thing during college

One of the most memorable experience was the multicultural week held at APU. Multiple weeks featuring a specific country or region are held annually and I was part of a Chinese week where I was cooperating with 100-200 members to deliver many activities and events for a week. It was memorable as it was challenging in terms of scale and level of complexity, as well as the fun and teamwork experience it brought. Another one was GBCC where we, a team of 4, went through training and worked together to solve a case within 24 hours. I had a very diversified team and this experience enabled me to be a better team player and to deliver under pressure.

What I wish I had done during college

I wish I hesitated less and acted more. I would tell myself 4 years ago to just do it - whatever idea you have, even with the slightest interest, just go for it. I had several ideas in terms of what to do after graduation from university and was hesitating about what to do for some time. I wish I could just go ahead and ask for advice, facts, experience from those people who actually experienced it. For things I can experience myself such as internship, I wish I participated earlier. All the hesitation was unnecessary and acting earlier could possibly do no harm but only guide yourself in the right direction eventually.

What career advice would you recommend for job hunters?

I went through the "traditional" job hunting process with the whole setsumeikai - entry sheets - interview - naitei process, and I did not participate in any events such as CFN.

For advice, I suggest you to act early and find a mentor. Mentorship can be very useful especially if the mentor has a similar background and works in the industry of your interest, as you can obtain facts about the job itself and also have someone providing subjective advice for your decision making.

What are the beneficial skills needed for working in Japan?

I think communication skill is crucial for all jobs, and it does not just mean JLPT N1 or speaking fluency - these are really just the baseline. The significancy is about learning and mastering to convey your idea clearly and concisely.

Another one would be the ability to link knowledge with real scenarios, especially between academic knowledge and the business world. I studied accounting and finance in university and I hope I could try to learn more outside of the textbooks, for example, to understand how accounting standards are being applied in real financial statements and how they differ between industries. This also applies after you start working, because we always need to connect dots of knowledge into the lines and beyond to have a successful business.

What does Finance Do?

Work Environment CLSA

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