Our Freshmen| Shanxiao Zhang: I'm the Tiger Girl
“猛虎啸山林”
——我是女生张山啸！
Hearing the name “Shanxiao”, which means “roaring in mountains”, you might come up with a boy full of energy and strength. Surprisingly, though Shanxiao is also energetic and conversable, SHE is a girl from Chongqing, delicate, likable and feminine. However, over time, you will discover her openness and coolness as her name implies.
一听“山啸”这个名字，你脑海中是不是马上跳出一个阳光健硕大男孩的形象？哈哈∽她确实很阳光，很健谈，但却是一个不折不扣、娇小可爱，浑身透着一股日韩系可爱范儿的重庆妹子！但如果你和她深度接触，发现还真是人如其名，这个明媚的女孩的确带着几分“汉子”的爽朗大气。
This is Shanxiao Zhang, a freshman of SAIF MF 2017, our “Brother Shanxiao”.
她是同学眼中的“山啸哥哥”，也是高金2017级MF新生张山啸。
Logic Guided me from Geology to Finance
“逻辑”带我从“石头”转向“金融”
Graduated from the School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Shanxiao was also granted with a Bachelor of Economics from the National Development Institute of Peking University. Born in a family of educators and influenced by her father, a physician, she was enchanted by mathematics, physics, programming and all other disciplines and topics related to logic, ever since her childhood. In the 1st semester of her senior year at high school, Shanxiao took part in a Geoscience Summer Camp organized by Peking University and later was recruited by the Department of Geology at Peking University, thanks to her outstanding performance during the camp.
张山啸本科毕业于北京大学地球与空间科学学院，并获得北京大学国家发展研究院经济学双学位。出生于教育世家，深受学物理的父亲的影响，张山啸从小就着迷于数学、物理、编程等一切与逻辑有关的学科与事务。高三上学期，张山啸参加了北京大学的地学夏令营，并且凭借在夏令营中的突出表现，以优异的成绩被北大地质学录取。
Though it seemed that she was on the right track, once on campus, she found her study deviated from logic and wondered whether she really wanted a career dealing with geology, landform and rocks. Therefore, Shanxiao started to explore unknown territories, by studying in Physics in her freshman and sophomore years, and also sitting in the classrooms of History and other subjects. After all these efforts, she turned to finance. In the 1st semester of her junior year, Shanxiao managed to participate in an exchange program at the Faculty of Science of The University of Hong Kong. During this one-year program, she established a general perception on finance, “I enjoy the fun of finance, which involves the logic of mathematics, capitalizes on my previous knowledge base and skills of mathematics and science, and interacts with applications and reality, while it isn’t too academic or abstract. It appeals to and fits me perfectly.”
看似走在一条十分顺畅且令人“艳羡”的坦途上，然而入学后的她却逐渐发现，自己在学习的道路上离“逻辑”越来越远，整天与地质地貌、与石头打交道好像并不是自己真正想要的生活，于是山啸开始了各种探索与尝试：大一、大二期间辅修了物理学，同时还挤出时间去旁听了历史等专业与学科，经过多方尝试与了解之后她将目光转向了金融。大三上学期，张山啸顺利申请到了香港大学理学院的交换项目。在一年的交换期，她初步建立了自己对金融的认知：“我体会到了金融这门学科的乐趣，既有数学的逻辑，可以发挥之前学的数理基础和技能，又有实际应用和社会现象交叉，不致太过专业和抽象，我觉得这很吸引我也应该适合我。”
At the end of the exchange program, Shanxiao returned to Peking University for the 2nd semester of her junior year and immediately started her efforts. In addition to the courses of Geology, she also applied for the 2nd degree program of Economics, not to mention TOFEL and internship at a financial institution. Thanks to her dedication and extraordinary ability of learning, Shanxiao completed all the courses of the three-year Bachelor of Economics Program in just one and half years. “During that period, I worked so hard that I doubled the workload of my classmates. However, I made it and became better, with more sound fundamentals of Finance…”, claimed Shanxiao.
大三下学期交换返校后，张山啸立即开启了学霸的“战斗”模式，除了地质学本专业学习，她还申请了经济学双学位课程的学习，加上托福考试与金融机构实习，最终凭借坚定的意志和极强的学习能力在一年半的时间内修完了经济学双学位三年的所有课程。“那段时间真的过得很拼，很辛苦，单单一学期的课程量就是别人的两倍，但我觉得实现了自我成长，并且金融基础又扎实了一些……”张山啸感叹。
2
An Open Environment of Diversity
OPEN的氛围和多元化的背景碰撞火花
“SAIF is quite open-minded, which focuses on today and tomorrow instead of yesterday. Therefore, SAIF MF students are diverse, from all kinds of disciplines. It’s particularly interesting, because we often take different perspectives even when studying the same course,” noted Shanxiao.
“高金很OPEN，比较看重一个人现在以及未来的发展，过去经历则相对比较淡化，所以招收进来的MF学生背景也是比较多元化，我们班上各种学科背景的同学都有，这样特别有意思，会让我们在学习同一门专业知识的时候碰撞出不同的思维火花”，张山啸表示。
Though on the campus in Beijing, she paid attention to Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) based in Shanghai. However, the participation in Mini Camp organized by SAIF MF Program in March 2016 brought her closer to SAIF.
本科期间虽然身在帝都，但山啸早就通过多种渠道关注到高金这家位于上海的金融学院。通过参加SAIF MF项目于2016年3月举办的Mini Camp，她真正第一次与高金建立起亲密的联系。
“I read about SAIF’s Mini Camp and immediately registered. I took part in a variety of activities, attended the training of business etiquette and sat at Prof. Nengjiu Ju’s course of Finance, which created an in-depth understanding on SAIF. The subsequent field visit to SAIF Shanghai Campus helped me make the decision.”
“我当时看到SAIF要在全国举办Mini Camp的公告，就马上报了名。通过参加各种活动，还有培训商务礼仪，听了巨能久老师的金融课，让我对SAIF有了一个比较深的了解，而后通过到上海高金的实地参访，更加坚定了我报考SAIF的决心。”
After over two months on SAIF campus, Shanxiao described her experience and perception as “being pushed forward in a mighty current”. Every day is fully scheduled, with courses, assignments, workshops of financial institutions or preparation for CFA and CPA tests. Though this situation of multi-tasking is busy and exhausting, she understands it also creates fast progress. “By communicating with amazing classmates, it always reminds me to reflect what I really want to do, what I can actually do and what is the direction of my future,” said Shanxiao.
如今迈入SAIF大门已有两个多月，谈到入学后的体验与感受，山啸形容“就像被一股洪流裹挟着一般向前”，感觉每天都是“被安排”得满满的，要么有课有作业，要么就是有各种金融机构来高金宣讲，要么就是准备CFA、CPA等考试，每天都是多条线交叉进行的状态，虽然很忙很辛苦，但她感觉这个过程让她进步得很快。“通过与身边优秀的同学们交流，会时刻提醒自己，或者反思自己真正想做的、能做的事情是什么？未来的方向在哪里”，张山啸称。
In fact, before her enrollment at SAIF, Shanxiao served as an intern at a number of buy-side and sell-side financial institutions, including Citic Securities, Haitong Securities and Grand View Capital, which also helped her identify the capabilities required by her career roadmap, for example, industry analytics, programming and other computer skills, financial analysis and valuation modeling. Without systematic training, one or more skills may be missing from a holistic mindset of financial analysis. SAIF MF Program offers both financial fundamentals and elective courses, including quantitative programming calling for exceptional mathematical and scientific knowledge. Meanwhile, SAIF also provides enriched resources and training programs to structure knowledge framework and capabilities in terms of financial analysis and valuation modeling, which helps her customize her own curriculum.
其实早在入学前，山啸就尝试了中信证券、海通证券、大观资本等买方、卖方金融机构的实习，通过实习也进一步厘清了自己需要进一步学习夯实的方向，比如行业分析方法、编程等计算机技能，财务分析能力和估值建模的能力，而这些技能若不经过一个系统的训练则可能会有很多遗漏，难以形成系统化的金融分析思维。在高金开设的课程中，有扎实的金融基础课程，各类金融特色选修课也涵盖了对数理要求极高的量化编程等课程，同时SAIF也有着丰富的资源和培训项目来帮忙学生构建财务分析与估值建模方面的知识架构与能力，让她可以有针对性地拾遗补缺。
3
Fresh and Independent
特立独行如清流
Though Shanxiao fell in love with finance at the first sight during her undergraduate study, after joining SAIF, she actually explored the world of finance and realized what she wants and is able to do. Shanxiao recalled that during the first consulting session of Career Development Center (CDC), the staff helped students to sort out their hobbies, interests and strengths, and then provided resources accordingly. “For example, some of the students are eager to enter the business of investment banking, so CDC will invite some investment bankers and interviewers from financial institutions for lectures. If you prefer industry research, CDC will work with Oriental Securities in joint training and courses.”
如果说本科期间山啸对金融有了初步好感，但真正让她对金融建立较深认知，明白自己具体想做什么，能做什么，可能要算进入高金之后。山啸回忆，CDC老师在给同学们做第一次职业发展咨询的时候，就会帮助同学们梳理自己的爱好特长，再为大家提供资源进行对接。“比如有些想进投资银行，老师就会邀请一些IB过来办宣讲会，请金融机构的面试官来做分享交流；对于想做行研的，CDC就和东方证券等机构合作，开展联合培训和课程的分享与训练……”
Shanxiao stated that she would focus on buy-side research on the secondary market of public funds, “I believe it’s perfect for my personality. On one hand, I prefer a workspace of equality, freedom and communication. On the other hand, it convinces people with logic instead of seniority.” Moreover, the investment decisions of buyers directly influence the market, which means the results of her investment analysis is directly assessed by market performance and such immediate feedback will create pressure and “growing pains”. “Many of my classmates plan to serve as IBD in international banks. My career roadmap is new and fresh,” smiled Shanxiao.
山啸明确自己未来想做公募基金二级市场的买方研究，”我觉得二级市场的买方挺适合我的个性的，一方面我比较崇尚工作环境平等，同事之间自由交流，另外一方面觉得这类工作是以逻辑而不是以资历说服别人。”此外，买方的投资决策会直接影响市场，也意味着自己的投资分析会通过市场的表现直接反映出来，这种直接的反馈方式能让她直面压力，在痛中更快成长。“班上不少同学想去外资行做IBD，像我这样的可以说是一股清流或者逆流。”山啸调皮一笑。
”Independent and courageous enough to face pressure, she reveals her coolness and muscularity. Due to her energy and aggressiveness, she is often called “Brother Shanxiao” or “Mountain King” by her peers.
特立独行，勇于直面压力，从这儿也可以看出山啸真正“女汉子”的一面。因为活泼爽朗以及不经意间流露出的霸气，生活中的她也被同学们戏称为“山啸哥哥”、“山大王”。
In fact, similar to other girls of her age, she also loves Korean soap operas, hiking, scuba diving and other adventures, who holds an Open Water (OW) license. “Under water, you will feel clear and pure, discovering a world and yourself in a totally different way.”
“山啸大王”像大多数同龄女生一样爱看韩剧，同时也喜欢徒步、潜水等冒险性运动，她还为此特别去考了一张OW潜水证。“在水下你就会有一种很明净很纯粹的感觉，发现一个完全不一样的世界和自己。”
This is our Shanxiao, energetic and lovely, yet strong and brave. We hope this independent and decisive girl would enjoy a smooth and successful journey to her dreams.
这就是山啸，阳光可爱而又坚定勇敢，让我们祝愿这个独立、果敢的女孩在追梦的征程中一切顺利。