After working for
three years and a half at Mercer in Munich, Ana
was ready for the new experience and a different mindset to accept the
challenge working in Asia! She already knew
some of the Singapore
colleagues through joint project work (over the phone / e-mails) and thus, the
transition was very easy. Her first day working at Mercer Singapore was
also Simon’s first day at INSEAD (see previous blog entry). She had already set
up all her papers the Friday before (you can tell that she has been living in Germany for
quite some time!) and therefore, she could already start working at 100% on her
first day. Everything went quite easy: She met her new team and got her laptop,
Blackberry, etc and went out for lunch with her manager.
How is working in Singapore, having worked the past few years in Germany? You
can tell that Singapore
is one of the main financial centers of the world – everything moves fast, is
very international and efficient. The people (colleagues and clients alike)
seem to have a young mindset. The fast moving environment keeps positive stress
up high so most people really go the extra-mile and want to achieve something
in short timeframes.
Mercer’s office had
just moved to a newly developed area, close to the seafront. It is located at
the extension of downtown in a very modern building and Mercer’s sister
companies are also located here – that includes Oliver Wyman. Simon thus made
it to the building a few times as well. There are a number of restaurants and
food stalls in the area so going for a bite to eat is never a problem – if Ana
can deal with rush hour around noon (very German lunch time!). At night, one of
the streets transforms into a Satay street with a dozen of foodcarts selling
Satay (you know, these seasoned, skewered and grilled meat sticks) and it is a
lot of fun for locals and tourists alike.
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| Ana pointing at the part of the CDB where she works |
Besides the generally
fast working environment, Ana also needs to get accustomed to another thing: To
work in Singapore,
she needs to be officially licensed – in order to comply with the regulators. To
obtain the financial advisor license, she needs to pass exams that cover the
specifications of the Singaporean Financial Regulation, as well as insurance
market practices. How many exams? She has been told 4, but she just found out
that 4 are only the beginning; therefore it is likely that she may have to take
another 3 so in total 7! That actually leads to the fact that her non-working
time is not free-time – It is study
time. However, she passed the first two exams (the last one actually on the day
of this blog publishing) that she took in her first try.. Preparing for the
exams she spends more time with Simon at
INSEAD because as a partner of an MBA student, she is also entitled to use all
the campus facilities. So while Simon studies for midterm exams, writes papers
or completes projects with his group, Ana gets to spend time with him on the weekends
and holidays.
However, what does Ana
do at work? Actually, she continues working on International accounts providing
consulting advice on health and benefit related topics but this time she has a
stronger focus on Asia; and she also has the
opportunity to get involve in broader HR topics.
All in all, the
transition to Singapore
has worked out well and it is providing the level of experience and exposure
that Ana was looking for. So all is good and very exciting!
And besides the fact
that the life is much more hectic than in Munich,
Ana and Simon do manage to travel at least a little bit in the region.
More about this the
next time.
Many hugs from the tip
of the Malayan peninsula
Ana and Simon
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