FDM China’s First Consultant in Nanjing

After completing his training at the FDM New York Academy, Harvey Zhao became our first consultant to be placed on-site in Nanjing, China. Here he shares his career journey with us.

I was born and raised in Wuhan, China where it was always my dream to go to America one day. After completing school I decided to make my dreams a reality and moved to the United States to pursue higher education. I got into Boston University and studied Finance and Management Information Systems in its Questrom School of Business.

After a tough and long period of job hunting, I found FDM. I applied and was accepted into their Graduate Programme where I began training at their academy on Wall Street. I trained in the application support stream and soon secured a placement at Misys, as a business consultant.

I now live in Nanjing, China and am the first FDM consultant to be placed here. Nanjing is not a big or modern city like Shanghai but it definitely has its own special unique charm. It was one of the cities ancient Chinese emperors claimed as a capital; as a matter of fact, six dynasties have come and gone. Many of its historical attractions still remain and it has some great museums that I enjoy visiting. Every day in this city is a learning opportunity for me, both personally and professionally.

I have been at Misys for two months now and have been involved in many decision-making meetings and helping my manager collect and organise our clients’ requests. One of my most important job functions is to analyse demands and see if they can be implemented by our system. For example, is it supported by our base system? Or do we need our IT personnel to do some coding to develop a few customised functions?

I am also responsible for accompanying our clients to carry out testing once functions are implemented. For example, in the fixed income market, the calculation of a bond’s duration, convexity and its other volatility indexes need to be tested and verified to fit our clients’ demand.

This is an exciting opportunity for me as my background in finance and IT are both being utilised and I am learning every single day. I work with a giant and complex system which carries out financial trades in fixed income and equity markets and financial derivatives such as forwards and futures. It requires a deep understanding of the financial market and one’s mathematical abilities. It allows me to deepen my knowledge in the field and learn more about areas I have not covered before.

My advice for people who are considering joining FDM is to step out of your comfort zone. FDM is a great company that provides very comprehensive training and gives you the opportunity to work with amazing clients. Take the opportunity and learn as much as you can, ask questions as often as you can and get to know as many as people as possible. It will all be worth it.

You can learn more about the FDM Graduate Programme in Asia Pacific on our website.