Arpan Bagui, SEAS & WH ’25, Tampa, FL
This summer was a chance for me to try something new. I wanted to do something besides finance, which is what most of my prior professional and academic experiences had been geared towards. On top of that, I wanted to be somewhere new – experience something I hadn’t experienced before. So when I saw an opening for product management at a company based in Singapore, I saw it as the perfect chance to do something cool in a new place.
I’m wrapping up an internship at Treehouse Finance, a company that build data analytics tools for investors. Product management is a fun role because it overlaps into development, design, and business strategy. At a startup, my tasks were even more widespread. One day I was coordinating with the quant team to build factor models that helped investors understand the breakdown of their portfolio returns, the next day I was designing a mockup of what that particular feature would look like. And with my desk being right in front of the founder’s, I could bounce ideas and ask questions casually – it was a great environment to be working in.
My time in Singapore was also unique. I had never been outside of the states for longer than a week, and I had only ever been outside of states about three times total. Singapore is similar and dissimilar to the States in a lot of ways. Social media has made culture across younger generations much more similar, and talking to people my age revealed how true that was. It was funny discussing stereotypes of America, most of which were true, but overall I felt more similar to them than different. However, there were differences. Singaporeans have a strict adherence for the law. Rules and regulations command every aspect life, and while it was never suffocating, it’s presence was always felt. The result is a well-functioning society that operates like a machine, and going through my day to day from public transport to the office to the grocery store – I could clearly see it.
Overall, it’s been a great experience, and I’m so glad Penn Career Services’ Summer Funding made it possible!
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2023 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
