Joyce is a graduate of the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) programme. She is currently the Financial Analysis Manager of Bank of Communications. Here she talks about how the EMBA programme helped her rediscover herself and prepare for future challenges.
I was born in a family that had caught up the chance of China economic reform in 1970s. At that time, my parents started their garment business in China, witnessing China’s road to become “the world’s factory” and its rapid economic growth. Despite the days in my childhood is not wealthy at all, I could still receive well education in Hong Kong, and pursue my undergraduate degree in Canada. I chose to study accounting and aimed to become a professional accountant.
In my adolescence, I had chances to help my parents’ business and meet with bankers. At that time, I cultivated certain interest in the banking industry, and understood more on how do the banks operate, handle cross-border transactions, create banking products, and help clients remit funds and facilitate their needs etc.
After graduating in Canada, I came back to Hong Kong to start my career in the banking industry. I served several institutions including banks and insurance institutions as fund accountant, management accountant and FP&A analyst etc., covering areas such as trustee, retail lending, retail banking and corporate banking. However, after I worked in the industry for a decade, I got a bit lost and I found my knowledge was inadequate for me to take another step further in my career. Therefore, I considered to pursue a professional or master’s degree.
I finally landed on the EMBA at CityU. I chose CityU EMBA because of its compact classes, which allowed me to meet leaders in different industries and become a member a close-knit group of learning partners. Also, the programme puts emphasis on innovation management, asia connect and financing strategy which helped me keep abreast of the current business trend and stay at the forefront of knowledge.
My EMBA studies was a process for me to rediscover myself, through observing, interacting, and learning from different industrial professionals and learning partners. I have better understood my strengths and weaknesses in both my personality and capability. I would like to give my deepest thanks to Dr John Leung and Dr Michael Wong who offered me the opportunity to be a member of the CityU EMBA family; and my family for their constant support and backup.
(June 2022)
