Dual Degree Program in Technology & Management (T&M-DDP) of HKUST targets high achievers with the vision to be a tech-savvy leader in the business world. Having the opportunity to acquire both hard technological knowledge and soft business skills and build up extensive networks with industry experts, Benjamin LAU was determined to join T&M-DDP.
Benjamin is a 2021 graduate of T&M-DDP with majors in BEng in Computer Science and BBA in General Business Management. Throughout the 5 years of study, Benjamin equipped himself with up-to-date knowledge in the field of computer science and business, and grasped every chance to try out different job duties in large-scale corporations. After taking up IT-related interns at Li & Fung Limited and A.S. Watson Group in Year 2, he joined HBSC PayMe team during the winter where he helped the launch of PayMe for Business. To gain better exposure to a complete technology stack, he worked as a full stack developer during summer at PwC Hong Kong. Benjamin also worked for some startup companies for gaining hands-on experiences. All these eye-opening internships were valuable in shaping his career path.
In his penultimate year, Benjamin went through vigorous screening activities to secure a summer internship at Morgan Stanley as a Technology Analyst. The work was challenging, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, there was no face-to-face interaction with his colleagues under the remote work setting. Instead of being constrained by the work setting, Benjamin gained full support from his direct manager and took the initiative to reach out to colleagues from his team and other departments to learn about their daily work and job responsibilities. Upon successful completion of the internship, his outstanding performance earned him a return offer from Morgan Stanley.
Benjamin suggests junior students to make good use of all the unique exposure brought by T&M-DDP such as an extra year of study (extra internships!), corporate projects with renowned corporations and international business plan competitions. Being open-minded during career exploration is also important, for example, joining nimble start-ups may allow you larger freedom to implement new ideas and provide you with more a hands-on experience, while large organizations have structures and workflows that are stable and efficient for large team collaborations.
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