Cadet Profiles
Liya Wu - 4th year UBS Cadet in Finance
University: The University of New South Wales
Course: Bachelor Commerce
I am a final year Commerce student and have been a Finance Cadet at UBS since 2008. My biggest passions include travelling and skiing. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, playing piano, watching John Hughes films and listening to 80s music.
I attended Sydney Girls High School where I excelled mostly at languages and mathematics. I enjoyed a range of extra-curricular activities, representing the school in netball, athletics and table tennis as well as participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. To maintain my interest in music, I was also a private piano tutor on the weekends.
I applied for a Business Cadetship as it seemed like a great opportunity to combine practical work experience with the theoretical knowledge learned at university should I choose to pursue a career in business.
I honestly enjoy coming to work every day, and this is due to the wonderfully supportive people I have had the pleasure of working with and the new and challenging work that each day presents. I have worked in a number of business areas during my time at UBS. My first taste of corporate life began in Equities Product Control and I later transferred into Market Risk Control. Having just returned from a university international exchange, I am now in the Financial Reporting team, working on some high level project work that allows me to draw on my knowledge and experiences from working in different areas of the bank.
For the first two years of my Cadetship, I worked full-time while studying part-time. From my third year onwards, I worked part-time and went to university full-time, with a half year leave of absence from work to undertake an international exchange program at NYU – Stern School of Business. UBS was fully supportive of me taking time off for exchange and it was truly one of the best experiences of my life. Balancing work, study and social life can be difficult, but once you learn how to manage your time effectively, it is a valuable skill that will serve you well throughout the rest of your career and life in general.
My cadetship has been an invaluable experience, exposing me to the world of corporate finance and investment banking. During my time at UBS, I have acquired a depth and breadth of knowledge, as well as key professional skills that will no doubt be beneficial in the future.
Jennifer Gao - 3rd year UBS Cadet in Operations
University: The University of New South Wales
Course: Bachelor of Commerce (Liberal Studies)
Working at UBS over the past two years has opened my eyes to the business world immensely and I have been able to develop a solid understanding of what it is like to work in a top-tier global organisation.
I applied for a Business Cadetship during my high school days at North Sydney Girls High School, where I was involved in a range of extra-curricular activities including the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, Model United Nations and Young Achievement Australia. In addition, I helped with community and volunteer events such as Legacy Day, Charities Day, the Red Cross appeal and the 40-hour famine for World Vision.
Currently, I am studying a Bachelor of Commerce (Liberal Studies) at UNSW and although it has been challenging to work on a full-time basis and study as well, it really does enable you to develop lifelong skills, particularly in management and planning.
The Business Cadetships Program interested me because it offered an opportunity to obtain relevant work experience in a field of interest. I studied Economics in my later years of high school and this helped me decide that I wanted to learn more about finance and business. UBS was my first choice because it is one of the leading financial firms worldwide in terms of banking and investment and because of its focus on a culture of performance, learning and innovation.
Working at UBS has allowed me to develop knowledge and skills that I would not otherwise have acquired. I have had the opportunity to work in a range of teams, such as the Data Services Group, Equity Trade Support and Client Service and Equity Derivatives Operations. Within these teams, I have been given substantial exposure to various departments within the Bank, such as domestic and international trading, legal and compliance, and risk control. The experiences that I have gained have been immeasurable and as such, this has provided me with a much deeper insight into an industry that has an incredible amount of talent, diversity and creativity.
Dean Fremder - 2nd year UBS Cadet in Operations
University: Macquarie University
Course: Bachelor of Applied Finance
I was lucky enough to have been offered a cadetship with UBS Investment Bank and started work in in February 2010.
I am now in my second year working with the Bank and cannot overstate how beneficial the experience has been to me so far. I attended Masada College, where my interests always lay in the areas of economics, business and mathematics. I have always had ambitions of working in Investment Banking.
The cadetship program afforded me the opportunity to dive straight into my chosen career and gain priceless experience that, without the cadetship program, would otherwise have been impossible. I currently work in Asset Servicing in the Investment Bank, having worked for the past year in Equities Settlements while undertaking my Bachelor of Applied Finance at Macquarie University.
Managing the balance between work and study has not been easy but this balancing process has developed my time management and planning skills in an immeasurable way. The cadetship program is an invaluable means of kick-starting your career and something that I would recommend highly to anyone who is driven to succeed and is prepared to make the commitment to their future.