2324T2 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/ Elton
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About Me
SMU email: elton.tay.2021@scis.smu.edu.sg
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elton-tay/
Academic Year: Year 3 (2023)
Degree: BSc Information Systems (Major in Digitalisation and Cloud Solutions)
Why TSM?
What motivates you to join TSM?
Silicon Valley is known for its culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, and it can be an inspiring place for software engineers to visit. Seeing the latest technology and hearing from industry leaders will help me spark new ideas and inspire creativity.
The talented individuals that we would get to network with will definitely offer an opportunity to explore different perspectives towards problem-solving, and i hope to take away some of their insights and apply them back home, be it in university or in the workplace.
Apart from that, hearing from the technologists their experiences firsthand, witnessing their huge offices - a testament of success, gazing over at a great dane sitting alongside their owner mashing away at their keyboard at the googleplex office, would definitely be an eye-opener.
Also, i love travelling and hope to be able to offer a helping hand in the months to come in preparation for the trip.
Where would you like to visit?
Asana, San Francisco
- Asana is at the top of my list because this is a company that prioritises workplace culture as a driver of success of the company. They seek to create a politics-free environment by approaching conflicts with curiosity
Apple, Cupertino
- One and only Apple shop in the world to carry Apple-branded merchandise
Canva, San Francisco
- Work-life balance? It exists in this company. A vibe team - elevated HR department - is responsible for setting good vibes, where they believe that good vibes = productive people = higher velocity. They think of ways to spruce up office furniture, daily menus and employee welfare to avoid burnout.
Computer History Museum, Mountain View
- You get to advance through history of the first 2,000 years of computing in a mere 2 hours, whilst geniuses like Alan Turing and Edgar F. Codd spent a lifetime to only breakthrough so much.
Googleplex, Mountain View
- Apart from the exclusive tour and interacting with talented googlers, we must check out the home ground of their canine companions - the Doogleplex
Starting a business
What types of business interest you?
One that is purpose-driven. In today's highly competitive market, i feel that companies embracing a clear and meaningful purpose that goes beyond mere profitability have significantly greater capacity for growth and innovation.
What plans do you have in starting a business?
Previously ran a small personal thrift business @array.vtg born out of interest in vintage wear.
I'm interested in the fintech industry and currently learning / exploring more about the existing opportunities in this space.
A particular area is Machine Learning Driven Investing and Adaptive Asset Allocation, where novel companies like Kavout have already seen success.
Following the idea of being purpose-driven, i aspire to build an AI-assisted fintech business that focuses on making market trading more accessible, helping everyday investors spend less time monitoring and studying the market, and more time on things they want to do
Past Experiences (optional)
Internships:
- Catalyst Funds Management - Role: Technology Intern (Aug '23 - Present)
- Truffle Technologies - Role: Software Engineer Intern (May '23 - Aug '23)
- Shopee - Role: Data Analyst intern (Sep '22 - Dec '22)
- Superminted Co - Role: Web Development Intern (May '22 - Aug '22)
CCA:
- Coder's Assembly - Education Director (Jun '22 - May' 23)
- ACE - Member (May '22 - Aug' 23)
- BIA - Member (May '21 - Aug '23)
- .Hack - Member (May '21 - Aug '23)
- SMU Men's Volleyball - Member (May '21 - May' 23)
Achievements:
- Open Government Products, Build For Good - Most Touching Solution Award (Jun '23)
- IS213 VMWare Tanzu Award - 2nd Runner's up (May '23)
- SCIS Dean's List (all applicable semesters)
