(From left to right): Jeremy Lee Weng Kin, Lim Haidee and Dwayne Teng Wen Hoe claim the first runner-up title at the CFA Society Malaysia Ethics Challenge 2021.
TAR UC Bachelor of Finance (Hons) students’ first attempt in the CFA Society Malaysia Ethics Challenge 2021 held on 11 September 2021 took them by surprise as they managed to clinch the first runner-up prize. Team Ethos consisting of Jeremy Lee Weng Kin, Lim Haidee and Dwayne Teng Wen Hoe, were excited and elated for having won a prize in the competition.
The CFA Society Malaysia Ethics Challenge saw about 20 teams from more than 15 universities competing with each other. The competition is designed to increase students’ awareness of the ethical dilemmas and issues they may face when they enter the investment management industry. The participating teams are required to analyse a real case containing a variety of ethical dilemmas faced by the investment professional and formulate to resolve these issues.
Jeremy, the leader of team Ethos, recounted his experience during the competition. “My experience throughout the competition has been nothing short of amazing and fulfilling. We prepared as much as we could before the competition and the release of the case study. Before submitting our presentation slides, I had a chat with our advisor, Dr Wong Mei Foong. She helped a lot by giving a lot of insights and pointed out some views that I might have missed out from the case study. We quickly amended some points and were satisfied with the changes made. We felt confident as we prepared ourselves to face the challenge the next day.”
“On the day of the competition, we were a little nervous but excited at the same time. We took some time to practise on our own and rehearsed one more time before joining the Zoom room. It helped us a lot during our preparation before the actual presentation. When it came to our turn, we gave our best to present with confidence and clarity by articulating and delivering our points. We felt relieved after our presentation as we believed we gave our very best,” he continued.
Haidee, the other team member spoke about how TAR UC education was instrumental in helping them win this competition. “One of the courses I took up during my course of study in Bachelor of Finance (Hons) was Ethical & Professional Standards where we were taught about the CFA Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. We applied the knowledge and methods taught by our amazing lecturer, Dr Wong Mei Foong, to analyse and apply standards to the case study and this gave us a great advantage in the competition,” she said.
“Our biggest challenge as a team was the time constraint of the presentation. As the case study was 5 pages long and we were only given 10 minutes for presentation, we modified our draft to be as simplified as possible and at the same time able to bring out the most in our points. We also did plenty of self-recorded presentations to time ourselves so that we did not exceed the time limit given to us as that would have affected our presentation,” said Dwayne, another team member.
Jeremy had this piece of advice for juniors. “Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself and take the opportunity to learn more outside of the classroom. It may seem daunting and scary at first, but you will grow in your confidence and skills to tackle many more challenges ahead. The more competitions you join, the sharper your skills in solving problems. Not only that, competition helps to build your soft skills such as teamwork, leadership skills and communication skills. I live by this saying, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for”. If you want to see yourself grow in the future, take small steps today to improve yourself. You would be surprised to see how much you have grown when you look back at your journey,” summed up Jeremy.
