Celine is an Associate who came through the GIC Internship Programme (GIP) in 2020. Her role is to identify business pain points and gaps in the investment process and solve these problems by leveraging technology. Her team uses data and analytics to draw insights from the market and generate valuable ideas for the business. They’re also able to harness new technology in natural language processing to manage and extract information from unstructured data.
Outside of work, besides post-work team outings, Celine mostly spends time with her family and friends, enjoying good food together with them.
Why did you decide to join GIC?
While looking for internship opportunities in my third year of university, I came across the GIP on an advertisement panel. I applied for the program and was very fortunate to work with a dedicated and passionate team at GIC Labs! The 3-month stint eventually lasted a year, as I finished my final-year internship at GIC.
With a degree in Data Science and Analytics, the projects that I worked on at GIC were interesting and exciting, and that piqued my interest in joining GIC as a full-time employee!
What does your typical workday look like?
I usually start my day at work with ‘stand ups’, where we update the team on our pending or completed tasks. We have team lunches in the afternoon with a huge variety of food options near the office! We’d also talk about what we did on the weekends and plan team outings.
Aside from these, I spend most of my day building dashboards or experimenting with machine learning models; occasionally, I even get to experiment with new platforms from data providers and try out new alternative data.
What do you like most about working here?
The best part about working at GIC is the amount of exposure we get. Through rotations and projects, I am exposed to various types of alternative data, asset classes, and data science techniques. I also can express my opinions and propose new ideas whenever I discover new insights or patterns in the data. Even though I am an Associate, I am invited to meetings with senior members and share my thoughts and experiences.
GIC has a variety of diversity and inclusion initiatives, ranging from unconscious bias training to the diversity dashboard. There are many initiatives to raise awareness of team diversity composition and equip GICians with strategies to mitigate common workplace biases.
How would you describe the learning & development culture at GIC?
In one word: fulfilling. I’ve learned more about the various asset classes and how to apply data science and analytics techniques to solve real-world complex problems. Conversations with business and portfolio managers have made me more aware of how to communicate my findings in a non-technical manner and create a narrative that connects the insights from the analysis. This set of abilities will undoubtedly be useful in the future!
Following the internship and current rotations, I realised that I’ve gradually begun to pick up and learn more about the domain in finance, and my understanding of the business has grown with each rotation through different departments. GIC has provided me with an opportunity to learn more about the business, and despite my lack of a background in finance, I was able to learn more about the domain on the job.
What you should know before joining GIC
Keep an open mind and you’ll be able to learn new things! Knowledge changes you for the better, and continuous learning is required for innovation and success.