Julien: Bridging Cultures & Building Dream Career in Shanghai

Release time：2022-10-20    

As a French-Born Chinese, I grow up in an international environment and speaking 4 languages. I moved to Shanghai with my parents when I was 6 years old. I grew up here in this city, studied at the French School of Shanghai from primary school to high school, and left China right after graduation to pursue my bachelor studies in the UK at the University of Warwick.

Perhaps because I have been exposed to different cultures since I was a child, I always consider and interpret things happening around me and in this world from different perspectives. I see China differently compared to local Chinese, and of course differently compared to foreigners live outside of China. I hope that more ideas can be exchanged between people in different countries. This has always been one of my motivations, to build up a bridge for cultural exchanges.

I got often asked why I chose to come back to China, the answer to me is simple, because I consider it as my hometown and I love it deeply. And as a former officer of the Chinese Development Society of Warwick University, I have been following with strong interest in China’s economic and financial development. With China’s continuous opening up for financial industry, Shanghai is becoming one of the leading world financial centres, creating more and more career opportunities for multicultural background young professionals. I wish to build my dream career in the city I love.

Through the joint degree of Law & Business studies at Warwick University, I have gained a good understanding of the business world, financial market, alongside a solid grounding in legal studies with deep writing, analytical and research skills.

I’ve carried out two summer internships at Leaf legal and at R&P Lawyers in Shanghai, which are both law firms specialised in corporate cross-border M&A transaction, Private Equity & Venture Capital practices. These experiences have given me a great exposure to corporate finance application areas, and have confirmed my passion for finance. Therefore, I wish to further acquire financial knowledge and skills at the advanced level to become a high-level professional in the finance industry in Shanghai, more specifically, in the corporate finance area to leverage both my financial and legal knowledge and skills.

In this context, I started to look for a Master of Finance program which matches with my background and my career aspirations. I have discovered FISF EMF of Fudan University as a world-class institution, which is very distinguished from other Master of Finance programs. I was very attracted by the program’s vision with 3R (Rigor, Relevance and Responsibility) to form high-end financial leaders with global perspective in an international environment. In addition, this is a new and innovative program with cutting-edge and well-designed curriculum based on the market needs, offering well-balanced theory and practice with LIVE learning. Moreover, this program with Elective Track on corporate finance & law corresponds perfectly to my background and my career ambitions. Therefore, I chose to apply for the FISF EMF program of Fudan University and I made it.

I feel like the EMF program is extremely student-oriented, in other words, they care a lot about their students. I feel like I have joined a brand-new family. The tutors here are so nice and warm, making sure that you are welcomed in this program. Before the new semester officially began, I already have attended two on-site events, and I really enjoyed them. The first one was an offline/online training camp, in which managers from the most prestigious investment banks, PE/VCs have been invited to share some extremely valuable insights and experience with us. We had the chance to communicate with the managers face-to-face, and discuss about issues that matter to our career development. The second one was an offline gathering, the event started with the STAR Lab course led by professor Xu, then we had dinner together and spent great time together chatting and knowing each other. So far, the EMF program really spiked me, and I can’t wait to continue the journey with this new family.

I find out that the EMF community is composed of talented students ready to share, to discover, and to help each other with a social responsibility spirit. Having a multicultural background, I believe that I will enjoy being part of this diversified community and making my own contribution to it. I’m happy to help the international classmates to be familiarized with Chinese culture, to discover the city of Shanghai. On the other hand, I’m happy to share with Chinese classmates about western culture—as I say, build up a bridge for cultural exchanges.

I wish we could all spend a great time together for the next 2 years, here in this marvellous city of Shanghai!