It will be Aug soon and we only have 5 months left to the year.
It has been an interesting and difficult 2022 for most of us as markets turmoil and aggressive rate hikes curb the excesses of loose monetary policies since the 2008 GFC. Weak portfolios aside, there is a window of hope that markets might recover by early 2023 after some big event risks late into the year (mainly happening in Nov) as I had covered in my previous blog.
I had been actively working on my game plan for the near future since returning from my New York trip in May. The stars seem to be aligned and hopefully it would be bearing fruits soon as planned.
When I came back in May from my vacation, I was wondering “what’s next?” for my halftime journey. I had finished a 3+ months full time course with the School of Computing’s NUS Fintech coursebecause I had wanted to get deeper into the nuts and bolts of the technology to see if I am up to it. There were also a number of classes like algotrading and smart contracts in the later modules which interest me.
My conclusion after that course is that it is quite difficult at my age to pick up tech skills like coding and cloud computing. For most of the classes, I was lost by the time we were midway into the lesson. The younger classmates seems to be able to pick them up easily. I do not have a competitive edge against the tech savvy younger generation. I then signed up for 2 more classes in Jun and Jul to understand the power of Excel and Tableau for greater data visualization as these were linked to a goal I set for myself in my 2022 New Year resolution list in Jan.
Look back to the courses I did to date, I guess I have to pivot to Fintech using my other strengths as my weakness (getting on par for technical IT skills) will not make me stand out against the Millenials. My main strengths with be my past banking experience, people management skills and the ability to think like a C-suite manager to get tech projects done. I can be a successful bridge between senior management and developer for Fintech projects.
I then signed up for the RISE 2.0 program https://bcg-rise.com/rise-2-0 by the Boston Consultant Group (BCG) which I had recently completed the aptitude and interview stage. The new format is a compressed 10 weeks of full time study versus RISE 1.0 last year which was for 6 months. It fitted nicely to my expected schedule for 2022 which I will explain later.
I had also applied for IBF’s TFIP program https://www.ibf.org.sg/programmes/Pages/TFIP.aspx again this year as I was unsuccessful in 2021. It is a full time training program followed by an attachment to a Financial Institution which last from 12 to 18 months. It has a very attractive allowance to help citizens do a mid-career pivot to switch into a Tech career. I chose Business Analysis and Agile Project Management this time as we can only pick 2 and I believe that they can leverage on my strengths as I mentioned earlier. The aptitude assessments has just been completed and the next round will be the interviews with the chosen FIs. Shortlisted candidates will likely begin classroom trainings in late 2022.
2 other things came along to occupy me for my remaining 2022 timeline too. The first one was the revival of the idea to do a class reunion post-Covid. The last one was held in 2016 and we promised to do it again when we turned 55 but that could not happen last year. Given that the pandemic had decisively moved to an endemic phase now, we decided “why not now?”.
Reunion planning kicked off in May/Jun. We looked for feedback to gauge interest before securing a venue. Then we started a marketing campaign in FB and via email to encourage people to sign up. I am very excited to return back to normal with big group gatherings again and to celebrate nostalgia with childhood friends again.
The second thing that occurred: I had very interesting exploratory discussions with 2 old friends on possible business opportunities. One concerning fund raising that may happen in late Sep in S’pore. He is based in HK and may need someone to help with the contacts and arrangements. We will discuss more as we reach the dates as he is also planning to join the reunion in mid-Aug.
The other discussion was more fruitful. It resulted in a consultancy contract that will start in the last quarter of 2022 which may evolve into a full time job sometime into Apr 2023. It has an ESG angle linked to the production of solar panels which may lead to carbon credit as a financial product. This excites me on the many possible opportunities that has yet to be explored. It can result in the creation of a new ecosystem that is win-win for all and whose time has come. The recent horrendous scorching weather was a reminder that climate change is real and staring at everyone’s face as we see record historical high temperatures everywhere.
With the above, I think my 2022 calendar is pretty full now. I just need to ensure that the timings line up. I would also want to fit in my family’s expected vacations – a short BKK trip in Sep followed by a longer Europe one into Christmas at year end.
So the timeline is as follows: Class reunion in mid-Aug, have a short BKK vacation in mid-Sep, start RISE 2.0 for 10 weeks from late Sep into early Dec, start my consultancy project in Oct and see how the TFIP application goes.
Meanwhile, I would also be looking to fine tune my portfolio to hopefully catch the pick up in early 2023 as the Fed pumps the accelerator again to prevent a recession.
I strongly believe that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Doing nothing is not an option. I want to constantly drive my halftime journey to the way I want it to go. There are times when nothing seems to be happening. But if I continue to push and explore, new doors will open ahead of me.
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