2019 new year resolution review

1. Change my job to a more promising field/industry

My original plan was switching to buy-side quantitative researcher or data scientist role as my next career step, say Citadel, Two Sigma and DE Shaw. To achieve that, I kicked off the study plan during late 2017, including MIT online course, Qishi buy-side workshop and systematic reading/studying on data science and machine learning. However, a few lessons I learned gave me direct feedback that (1) I am not solid enough and (2) I don’t have competitive advantages in this field among PhDs and top talents.

Also, I have spent a significant amount of time thinking about life goals along with my personality. The final conclusion lies in data science + fintech for short-term career goal and startup/innovative work in the long term.

Being through many interviews internally/externally, I found a data product specialist role in JP Morgan this may, which is a (1) front-office role, (2) startup culture, (3) fintech product driven with big data/AI technique. It is a good combination of my competitive edge and career target. My parallel careers (VC + Quantitative Finance) finally converge into one common path (Fintech + data science + startup driven).

2. Kickoff the startup project

I have been incubating the jewelry startup ideas since Sep. 2018, also added another quantum computing into the pipeline in late 2019.

In the meantime, I have been actively recruiting the team members, testing MVPs and collect user feedback. There are tons of experience/knowledge I have learned when actually DOING/IMPLEMENTING the startup project. -> So, keep that in mind: “知行合一” | ” Mind and Hand “

The project details can be found from:

Jewelry Project

Quantum Computing Project

About life

1. Keep running (500km+), twice a week, every Wed and weekend.
2. Stick to market recap habit (regularly review and write market view articles) | 2019 Recap and 2020 Outlook
3. Healthier life habit, less sick this year. (Had a bad time during 2018 H2)
4. Allocate my time more efficiently on things (1) I truly interested, (2) with slow but long-lasting impact
5. Be very clear on things I love: 1) Running, 2) Football, 3) Chinese Calligraphy, 4) Farming, 5) Saxophone
6. Be very focused and patient

About knowledge:

1. Better Spark/Hadoop skills
2. Get a taste of quantum computing in finance -> Will organize the quantum workshop in 2020
3. Less proficient with Python OOP and market risk metrics
4. Understand my knowledge gap of being a quantitative researcher in top tier hedge-fund
5. Better product design experience, learned design thinking
6. Dig out little a bit more on jewelry, 1) Appraisal, 2) Recommendation on Computer Vision
7. Book reading: Book List

About career:

1. Switch from quantitative research to product manager about AI ML on payment transaction field
2. Invest significant amount of time writing the business plan/doing market research on startup projects.
3. Good news from VC, great progress so far. New funding is coming.
4. Not many highlights on JPM job, slow progress on product development. Luckily, received a good rating in the end.
5. 参加春晖杯：
   1. 对创业的逻辑和lifecycle有个完整的了解，知道下一步干啥了
   2. 对国内政府对接有充分了解
   3. 认识一批背景不同的创业的朋友
   4. 回国路演的一些想法 （1）（2）（3）（4）

2020 new year resolution

1. [Career] H1: Further develop my startup, test different MVPs
   1. Jewelry: Develop more business connections and partnerships. Three potential directions.
   2. Quantum Computing: Kickoff the workshop idea
   3. Altron: (1) Funding application, (2) Mouse drug test, (3) Innovation competition.
2. [Career] H2: Generate some revenue for my startup
3. [Life] Human flag 把身体练好，以能够做人体旗帜为验收标准。