In this blog post, based on my investment experience and insights into exchange rate fluctuations, I will introduce how KEB Hana Bank applicants can convincingly incorporate their financial philosophy into their self-introduction letters.
Outlook on life
“That could be true.”
My outlook on life was influenced by my parents. My parents often tell me to work hard, live sincerely, be the best, and be successful. This view of life is consistent with my parents’ way of life, and they taught me a lot. So, I listened to my parents and tried hard to live diligently and sincerely wherever I went. However, these teachings had both advantages and disadvantages. My parents emphasized working hard and being successful, so they were quite obsessive.
They often compared our family to others around us and sighed that we still didn’t have enough money or a big enough house. Even when I got a 95 on a test, they were disappointed that I didn’t get a perfect score. Because they always aimed for the best, they only saw what was lacking and couldn’t find the other 95% of happiness. So, as I grew older, I developed my own set of values. That is the idea that “it could be like that.”
Even if you try hard in everything you do, you cannot always achieve 100% results. Sometimes you get more than 90 points, but sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you don’t even get 50 points. So, I decided to focus on the 90 points rather than the 10 points I lost, and to focus on the 50 points I gained rather than the 50 points I lost. This is a way of valuing the results of my efforts and a way of healing myself by accepting that I don’t always have to be perfect. No matter what the result, if I worked hard, I told myself that it was okay. Thinking this way, I began to see life from a more enriching perspective and live without being too impatient.
School days
“I studied hard because my family was poor.”
My parents always worked hard, but sometimes they were so obsessed with making money that they worked themselves sick and lived a difficult life. However, there were good reasons for this. When I was in high school, our family fell on hard times. My mother made a mistake in guaranteeing a loan for a close relative and suffered a significant financial loss. My mother’s mistake made our family’s financial situation difficult and caused my father and mother to lose all the money they had earned together in an instant.
After losing a large amount of money, my mother and father fell into despair. They were often depressed and fought a lot. The relative who had borrowed the money had poor credit and was unable to repay the loan. As a result, my family was suddenly burdened with debt and had to live a difficult life to pay off our debts. With our family in such dire straits, my parents emphasized the importance of studying hard even more than usual and worked even harder than before.
Seeing my parents like that, I decided to study hard to help support my family in any way I could. I realized the importance of credit management and asset management from a young age. So, I majored in economics and took classes in finance, preparing to find a job quickly. After entering university, I worked steadily to pay for my tuition while continuing to study hard to receive scholarships. Starting in my second year of university, I began looking for a job earlier than my friends and prepared thoroughly so that I could find a job as soon as I graduated.
Hobbies and special skills
“I have a knack for financial management and stock investment.”
Studying economics and finance gave me a lot of knowledge about financial management. That led me to believe that it is more important to manage money well than to simply save it. While I was in college, I joined a stock investment club and invested the money I earned from my part-time job. At first, I was just learning, but I turned out to have a talent for it, so I was able to try systematic investing.
As a result, within two years of starting to study investment, I achieved a return of over 150% and was ranked as the student with the highest return in the club. My investment secret is, above all, the systematic collection of data and thorough analysis based on that data. My success in stock investment enabled me to pay for my college tuition, and I gained many junior colleagues who wanted to learn about stocks from me. I not only saved the money I earned, but also invested it, taking into account interest rates. I saved my money in a small cooperative bank rather than a regular bank, so I could get a higher interest rate on my principal and interest. I also invested in funds and insurance, so I think I had a much smarter college life than most people.
Challenging experience
“One year of living in Japan: the results of my challenge”
During my college days, I naturally had the opportunity to study abroad. I followed my father on a business trip and spent a year living in Japan, which was a very rewarding experience. I took a year off from school to take on this challenge, and I believed that I would gain a lot depending on how hard I worked during that time. So, I worked hard to make friends in order to learn Japanese, and at the same time, I tried to gain work experience in Japan. I became very close with my friends from the educational program.
I asked them for advice on traveling around Japan, and they even acted as my guides, which was very helpful. I also stayed with a friend I met during this time for a short period, which gave me an opportunity to learn about Japanese family life and culture. Traveling around Japan made me realize that I had been ignorant and prejudiced about Japanese culture and way of life. But as I walked around Tokyo, I fell in love with the neat alleys and restaurants. After my trip, I looked for a job in the local financial industry to gain work experience.
I worked as an assistant at a bank, and since it was only a part-time job, my duties were simple. I mainly gave numbered tickets to customers who came to the bank and asked them to wait, and I also supervised the ATMs to make sure there were no problems. I also provided detailed information to customers who were unsure of which counter to go to. Through my various tasks, I realized that there was not much difference between banking in Korea and banking in the US. I came to believe that working in banking or finance is similar regardless of the country, and that I could be a good employee as long as I could realize the value of trust and customer service.
Based on my overseas experience, I will faithfully perform my role as a foreign exchange specialist who provides differentiated services to customers at your company. I have gained a wide range of experience at the bank, from basic to specialized tasks, so I will be able to demonstrate my professional skills through my understanding of foreign exchange and the structure of derivative products.
