Choosing your university major can be a tough decision to make, especially with the many available different varieties. Before committing to a major, there are several factors that must be considered. To help address this dilemma, Shape Your Life organized an Instagram Live series inviting a couple of guest speakers to share their insights on the majors they have chosen to pursue in university.
As a way to start the series, we have invited Zhafran from the City University of Hong Kong, Anna from the University of Amsterdam, and Sekar from the University of Toronto to discuss further why they have chosen business and finance as their majors, and why you should also consider these majors as well.
How did you first get interested to choose your majors?
Anna (Business Analytics): During high school, my grades in business subjects performed really well, and because I also took an IT, class, it really helped in building my passion for business, especially in business analytics. On the other hand initially, I was also interested in interior design, but I soon realized that it was better to be more of a hobby rather than something that I would pursue as a future career path and university major.
Zhafran (Business Analytics): I joined a couple of business-technology competitions during high school, specifically in data analytics. Because of this, I wanted to try to participate and challenge myself in more competitions at a university level, and fortunately enough in Hong Kong, there are quite a lot of opportunities for this, plus the professors are very supportive of the students about it.
Sekar (Management): At first, I wanted to be an architect; however, during high school, I joined the student council and I planned a lot of programs during the pandemic in which I learned many new things, such as financial planning and marketing as a way of adapting the programs to better suit how things were very much centered on online platforms. From there, I felt those experiences encouraged me to pursue business management as my university major and future career because I consider it the perfect mix of human relationships and numbers.
What convinced you to choose the Business and Finance major?
Anna: I look at my grades and the classes I took during high school, and from there I compared them with the university’s curriculum and see if I could also excel and enjoy the classes there. On top of that, I try to find out what the alumni have achieved and created after graduating, which helps in motivating me to also hopefully make positive impacts on my surroundings.
Zhafran: I pay attention to the job prospects after graduating, and see if the knowledge I will gain during the 4 years of university will be useful for the future career path that I would like to pursue. We mustn’t waste our time learning things that won’t leave a positive impact, not just on our career later on, but also on the people around us.
Sekar: Definitely after taking a closer look at the university’s curriculum, I saw that the subjects were very appealing to me. I think this is an essential step, because, during high school, I was actually a science major student, meanwhile it’s very clear that I’m much more interested in social science, so I didn’t want a repeat of that during my university years.
What are you currently studying in the Business and Finance major?
Anna: During my first block, I learned math, calculus, and python. Now since I’m in my second block, I’m currently learning microeconomics and statistics. Later though in my third block, I’ll be fully learning to program. So, I’m really looking forward to it.
Zhafran: What’s really nice about studying in Hong Kong is the flexibility. Students have the freedom to choose whichever classes they would like to take, so they have more room to decide if they’re ready to enroll in much harder classes. Currently, I’m learning microeconomics, financial accounting, operations, and information management. On top of this, specifically for the City University of Hong Kong, there is a program called gateway education, which allows students to learn things outside their own major. For instance, my friends are taking social networks, as well as movies and psychology.
Sekar: For now, I’m learning calculus, accounting, marketing, and intro to programming, but during my 2nd year later I will have to start taking my specialization.
Did you encounter any differences between your expectations and the reality of your major?
Anna: The main difference is definitely in the teachers and professors. During high school, I feel that in Indonesia the students are often guided by the teachers, but in university, it is just not quite possible for the professors to guide each of the hundreds of students enrolled in their class. I was also surprised that there are a lot of math and programming classes, so there was definitely an adaption period for me.
Zhafran: I thought the people in Hong Kong would not be so welcoming, but it turns out that even the seniors help out the juniors and teach various learning materials. What I also found unique was that students would mainly learn business in general during their first year; however, once they start their second year, they will start learning business subjects that are more related with programming. And so, this made me realize that there are actually a lot of things that I need to catch up on later on.
Sekar: In my university, the professors won’t record your attendance, so if you don’t discipline yourself, you might just start getting lazy and stop going to classes. In terms of learning business itself, I initially thought it was all about money and profits, but after taking some classes in management, I start realizing that the people and psychology are actually also big factors.
Is there any class/course that you find particularly fascinating?
Anna: Definitely programming, because I enjoy seeing other people’s clueless reactions and how they don’t understand what I am actually creating and the codes that I’m typing, but they are still amazed when looking at the final product.
Zhafran: Right now, I’m really interested in operations management. This is mainly because of the geographical location of Hong Kong is a big export region. I also enjoy learning more micro things, such as why people have to stand in line at restaurants, and information management, especially in terms of social media and e-commerce data.
Sekar: I actually really like marketing, even though I still don’t want to make it as my future career. But after learning more about marketing, I become more aware of businesses marketing strategies. I also enjoy learning financial mathematics, because I find it pretty cool that we can calculate various things in my daily life with the formulas and theories I’ve learned in class.
How is the education system that is implemented in each of the universities you are enrolled in?
Anna: In my university, the relationship between professors and students is quite tight-knit and close, to the point that it feels like a parent teaching their kids. They also don’t just teach theories, but also explain how we can use them practically in real life.
Zhafran: Everyone is very supportive of whatever the students would like to pursue. For instance, if they would like to learn financial technology, the university provides an open course from HSBC that provides hands-on experience straight from accredited professionals. The university also provides additional merit scholarships based on students’ academic achievements.
Sekar: At the University of Toronto, the professors are very passionate about whatever they teach, so they will try their best to answer every student's questions. There is also a program, which also serves as a graduation requirement, called co-op management in which I have to do a 4-month-long internship that helps me learn to network and how to write a good CV and cover letter.
What are the things that you struggle with the most when learning your major?
Anna: Sometimes I am still quite shy when raising questions in a big class because I am also an introverted person. I also struggle a bit with time management, considering that I have to continuously discipline and motivate myself to go to class and do the assignments because the professors will not personally guide students.
Zhafran: Definitely the language barrier, because a lot of students from mainland China find it difficult to speak English fluently. I also feel the pressure from the competitiveness of other students, as well as the high living cost in Hong Kong.
Sekar: I have to adapt to how introverted I am because you really need to have a good network and at the University of Toronto, they don’t hesitate to push you to start networking from the very first moment you join on campus. Additionally, I have to discover how to hold conversations and figure out what kind of conversational topics work for different groups of people.
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