I usually get to the office at around 8:30am to catch up with colleagues from different time zones. It is important that I stay up to date with our internal teams overseas as my clients work in markets across the world.
From Graduate to Associate Director – Elaine’s career at Standard Chartered, Taiwan
In 2017, Elaine Wu embarked on her journey with Standard Chartered Taiwan as a member of the Graduate Programme. Five years later, she has moved from strength to strength with the Bank as she has taken on roles in retail banking, the CEO’s office and international teams. Currently, Elaine is an Associate Director in the Digital Banking team with a mission to provide her clients with the best-in-class digital products and services.
Retail banking is the first and most important access point to financial services for every individual and as a finance graduate, I am passionate about making banking services accessible to everyone. I believe that technology can transform traditional banking services and is intrinsic to empowering people to control their finances. Taiwan’s market is advancing technologically at an exponential rate and is a hub of innovation, making it the perfect environment to enmesh my passions for banking and technology. By working in Taiwan, I can keep up to date with the latest innovations and access resources that aren’t available in other financial markets.
Day in the life of Elaine Wu
Before work
9:00am
Once my colleagues get to the office, I start the day by analysing the performance of Standard Chartered, Taiwan’s digital platforms. I use the data to predict the digital sales of the day and identify actionable insights.
9:30am
I attended a meeting with the Credit Cards and Personal Loans teams as a digital representative. This meeting is organised to drive cross-function performance and promote new ways of working. Individuals from teams across the business share their data and information to resolve any hurdles impeding digital sales from organic sources.
10:00am
As the Lead of the Personalisation Experience at Standard Chartered Taiwan, I am responsible for helping Product Managers to identify their target audience and run isolated user experience testing. At 10am, I worked on building testing activities that are powered by AI and then shared my findings with Product Managers.
11:00am
I oversaw the user experiences for all the Bank’s new digital services, workflows and ongoing projects.
12:00pm
I always have lunch with my colleagues from different departments as it’s a great way to build connections and understand what other teams are working on. Building relationships with my colleagues during my lunch hour has helped to facilitate cross-team partnerships as well as broadening my horizons and aiding me to understand the strategic direction of the Bank.
2:00pm
I attended the project progress meeting with the team. These meetings are a crucial part of the work that we do to track and manage the various complex digital projects that the Digital Banking team do. It’s a great opportunity for our external partners from Hong Kong, Singapore and India to come together to make sure that the business requirements are understood, detailed assignments are properly defined and documented, and those task assignments are accurately reported on to keep track of the progress of the critical stages of projects.
3:00pm
I presented a business proposal to senior management, involving cross-industry business cooperation, in which I shared key details such as market landscape, client value proposition, and the proposal’s key business model, before opening the floor to a discussion on the business case and roadmap for successful cooperation and implementation; key elements of the work that we do.
4:00pm
I was pleased to attend an inter-Asian forum for a Digital Use Case. Six separate markets shared what they had done to improve their Digital Sales and Marketing within the last 30 days, and were happy to share their findings. I find these sessions extremely valuable in that I know that I will usually have strong findings to take away, with the view to implementing the most successful use cases from these other markets and applying them on a scaled-up level in my native Taiwan. The global network of resources offered by Standard Chartered is incredibly unique, and I appreciate that the bank maintains an intimate relationship among different markets, something that I also take value in when learning about features and building diversified perspectives.
5:00pm
As a team leader for Digital onboarding, I keep a 30-minute block open for catch-ups with my team. These serve as a great opportunity to get status updates on ongoing tasks, and to understand and assist if anyone is struggling – I’m a firm believer in keeping the team engaged and offering support where necessary.
6:00pm
I used this hour as an administrative hour, writing materials for our Board Meetings, and preparing a slide deck for our update sessions.
Off work
I usually take part in the informal virtual meetups after work, as I rather enjoy engaging with my colleagues from different countries and workplaces, and hearing their stories – after all, we spend a lot of time together in the working day! It’s great for me to obtain cross-industry knowledge and insights, and sometimes, even network a little.
Standard Chartered is one of the world’s leading international banks and has a strong retail presence in Taiwan. The Bank’s global footprint and leading reputation attract a range of high-profile businesses and start-ups that are allured to Taiwan’s rapidly expanding market. This creates a unique opportunity to build a unique career that is characterised by rich exposure, access to the newest fintech and plentiful prospects to grow.