What's Good about Hard Work | Interview with Dexter Yu Galan

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SUMMARY

Get insights to what it really means to render a good work, to work really hard, and balance work & life from Dexter Yu Galan. Dexter is a Filipino investment banker who has been working in New York for 7 years. He is an MBA 2016 graduate from the Kellogg School of Management. His tips for working hard include:
1. Focus on what your goals are.
2. Learn the best you can.
3. Do a good job in whatever task you have in front of you.
4. Find a bigger meaning in what you are doing.

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INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

TRANSCRIPT

You always hear this: that you have to work hard you always have to put passion into your work, you have to always put a lot of energy into your work. But what does that exactly mean? Today we have Dexter Yu Galan, an investment banker who has been working in Wall Street for the past seven years. He graduated from the De La Salle University in the Philippines. He was one of the top MBA students to watch for in 2016 from the Kellogg School of Management. Let's hear it from Dexter Yu Galan.

Dexter, my first question: is if there is one word or it can be a phrase that can describe your career path, how you have arrived up to this time in your career, what would that word be or what would that phrase be?

Yeah I think it's harder to describe in one word but the way I'd explain it is I think everybody gets opportunities and you get these opportunities in school, at work, with other programs you can apply for, and then travel things like that. And I feel like I've always had these opportunities whether it was back in La Salle in Manila when I did my first job, when I was in Singapore. I also worked in Manila in corporate for a little bit as well, going to business school it's just always trying to give things your best shot, you know you get opportunities to apply for jobs, apply for schools, apply yourself in academics, apply yourself in extracurriculars, outside of the workplace as well. And when you give it your best shot I think it opens a lot of doors, a lot of opportunities whether it's a career, or the chance to work in different cities and different places.

What does it mean to give your best shot?

Yeah well it means to focus on what your goals are, try to learn the best you can, do a good job of whatever you have in front of you, and also try to be thoughtful about what are you trying to achieve in the longer term. What's important there I think is you wanna put your whole mind and heart into things you do and on top of that you know whether it's studying or doing work, you also wanna try to see a bigger meaning in what you're doing you know- whether it's based on a personal achievements you want to attain or it's based on something around faith. I think what's important is you're able to put try to do your best and at the end of the day you can always say that I was trying to do things of the best of my abilities.

Did you ever foresee yourself being an investment banker in New York?

I would be lying if I said I imagined myself working in New York 10 years ago. So a little bit about my background you know when I started out in the Philippines in La Salle for college I did accounting just wanting to get as much quantitative and technical business exposure that I could and I honestly didn't really know  what kind of work or Industries I get into down the road. I was fortunate enough to land a job in Singapore so I worked for Procter and Gamble in their brand management division for a couple of years. I learned a lot there I realized it wasn't exactly what I was looking for from a long-term career perspective so I eventually moved back to the Philippines in Manila. I worked at Shell for about three years or so. I did a little bit of sales operations and also Corporate Finance so I kind of got this broad toolkit across different companies in different Industries and different functions so I use that to pivot into getting my MBA in the US. I went to Chicago. I went to Kellogg for my MBA and this is basically where I use the MBA to find different opportunities. And Investment Banking happened to be one of those opportunities or one of those doors that opened through the MBA program. It was through this that I learned a little bit more about what investment banking was all about. I was able to apply my Finance and Accounting knowledge and eventually land an internship that turned into a full-time job you know like basically seven years later when I looked back at it the opportunity kind of just fell into my lap. And obviously it didn't exactly come for free. You have to put in the work, you got to learn, you got to do interviews, you got to network. But it became a pretty enjoyable Journey I've learned a lot I continued to grow my career and from a personal perspective as well I feel like I've been able to develop.

So tell us a little bit about your daily activity in New York.

It's hard to explain a typical week in New York City much less a specific day but I think most of my days are obviously focused on work. Monday to Fridays are typically busy and work can entail me being in the office or traveling to meet clients across the U.S. The weekends are usually time with friends. I do various hobbies. Sometimes work kind of creeps into the weekends as well but and I've been around for a while that I know how to match that. I spend a lot of time with different groups of friends here in New York City. I think people have different experiences about New York. Some say it's hard to make friends or it's hard to meet people but for me I've been fortunate enough to move into New York with a whole bunch of friends from business school and we all keep closely in touch. We do different activities we do various New York things- we go out to eat, we go to events, we watch shows, we just spend time, do other social activities as well. I'm also big into sports so I try my best to get my exercise. I like playing golf so I try to get out of the city whenever I can.

I think the way I'd describe the New York experience is it's fast paced, there's a lot of things going on, you're always busy but the important thing is just be on top of your schedule whether it's a work schedule or a personal social calendar.

How would you define work-life balance? Is there such a thing as work-life balance?

Yeah something I think about on a daily basis but you know I try my best to be thoughtful about the activities I do. I personally feel like I put a lot of energy into my work into my hobbies as well and you know when you're able to approach the daily things you do in a passionate manner you know it puts a lot of meaning into your day and makes things exciting and worthwhile for me. the thing that keeps everything together whether it's work with personal things would be faith and prayer. If the work I do, the social activities I do are aligned to making me a better professional or a better person of character and help strengthen my faith and everything I do is worth it and if they're not aligned to that then it's important for me to take a pause from the busy schedule, rethink about the things I'm doing and try to realign accordingly.

Would you mention a sort of event or happening that somehow was not aligned to what you said about faith and church? how did you go about that misalignment?

Yeah I think maybe a couple of examples. Maybe in work you know there are certain situations where you get into very busy stretches of work whether it's a specific project or transaction you're working on and you kind of lose track of everything else that's going on in your life. I think it's important that you're able to focus your energies on your work and naturally I think I'm pretty much wired to try to do a good job. But I think a lot of people in my industry are of the same thinking but you also need to be able to spend time to think about you know spending time with your family, with your friends, also spending time to do activities that help strengthen your faith. I think like when I was busy during that time it was also a mix of Covid you know you just kind of caught up in your room, working every day. But what I did there was I tried to force myself to go to a retreat. I told my team that I'd be out for a few days, used that opportunity to you know reflect on what's important in life and also refresh and I came out of that weekend retreat a lot more focused on the things I was doing. And then also just from a personal life perspective you have a lot of control over things you do you know whether it's you go out for lunch or dinner, you go travel, you do different things with your friends or people you know in the city, you need to also ask yourself sometimes if you're just making yourself too busy and you don't have enough time to rest or relax a little bit and reflect on things. So it's also on me to be proactive in managing that schedule and being able to find opportunities to make sure that I'm not just kind of getting lost in I'd say the whirlwind of different activities I could work I could be doing.

It seems to be very challenging I mean I can just imagine that you're so much into work and then you catch yourself really trying to like working a lot. Do you have a mentor? How do you manage so many activities and still keep grounded in faith?

Yeah which reminds me I need to schedule time to catch up with my mentor but the answer is yes I have you know multiple mentors in different aspects of my life. So from a purely professional perspective I have mentors in the workplace who help me you know focus on work but at the same time they also give me guidance on how to manage life outside of work and thinking about the work incurred a broader perspective beyond just doing the actual work at hand. I also had some friends they're older professionals who've also gone through different phases of life and also have similar careers or are familiar at least with what the corporate New York Life is. So they give me different advice on you know life, family, managing prayer life, spiritual life and things like that and they're extremely helpful because they've had a lot more personal experiences in their life so they're able to give me some ideas of how I should be thinking about things how to avoid issues and how to strengthen my faith.

And I also have you know a few mentors who are Catholic priests as well and their focus is very much more in the spiritual stuff you know. I guess their ideas are a little bit less focused on the daily life given that they know that I have a unique life experience and everybody does but they helped to give me you know pointers or key points of faith that helped me to align or think about what I do on a you know a day-to-day basis, week-to-week basis, on a year-to-year basis.

Does this disposition to really prioritize spiritual life not run counter against the usual I mean what is Wall Street?

All work can be good work and the important thing is that you align yourself to work that is that you believe is able to add value to society as a whole. I think you know a lot of the big banks and corporations also try their very best to help align the work they do as well to some at least general greater goods if you think about  what we do in terms of helping companies that help the environment you know, help provide sustainable solutions, in our focus on good governance. I think these are some structural things that large organizations do.

And then from an interpersonal perspective I would say a lot of the co-workers I have and the people I work with on a daily basis are genuinely good people. They're just people trying to you know earn a living, working in finance and you know they have families, they have normal lives, and they're actually nice people, they're collaborative people. You need to think about your daily interactions at work as opportunities to you know live your faith and apply that. Whether it's the way you work with your managers or your junior teams you want to treat them in a way that you think is appropriately Christian. You want to use an opportunity to be a good example and live your daily work in a way that you would like to  reflect who you are. And I feel like you know there are certain challenges around being busy and getting things done but at the same time I don't think I've really encountered any significant issues where there's a straight out contradiction between faith and the work you do.

And if there is a clear contradiction at some point you know I'm not afraid to walk away from the workplace and I think that's something that like you know kind of give gives me comfort that on a daily basis and maybe align my work with my faith. And I think you have to have conscious effort to try to do that on a daily basis.

Coming from a privileged position, do you think you really have to work all this hard? I mean your family can provide for you.

That's an interesting question I mean the way I think about it is I've been given the opportunities to get a good education, have a good childhood. I think the important thing there is for me to take these opportunities to be the best version of myself that can be. I'm sure I have personal skills and talents that I can continue to develop so I can make a bigger impact in society, be a better influence to people I work with people, I spend time with. I think that's the important thing about trying to continue to work hard and be a better version of yourself in terms of you know making a bigger impact in maybe it's in the economy or in society. Hopefully I get to that point but I think the thing is continue getting better you know being able to mentor people along the way. I think overall it's just more meaningful and it's an enjoyable way to live life as well.

If some young people are going to apply precisely in your department, what would you emphasize in the hiring process?

I think there are two points to that. Number one is the more structural aspect. Typically we recruit people from certain programs whether it's you coming from a specific undergraduate program or if you come in through the MBA process. We typically look for MBAs so I think the first important thing there is being able to understand what is the right platform from an educational perspective and going through that path to find the opportunities into investment banks on the street.

And the second part is just having a mind that is focused on working hard. And learning the work isn't extremely complicated. It's not easy but you learn it on the job, you learn it through different training and educational materials that you can find on the web or through different training programs. We look for people who have the grit and are willing to spend time and just get better at their craft. Typically the most successful people we recruit are those who are confident in their abilities but also very humble to continuously learn daily basis and try to improve their skill set.

Okay great thank you very much Dexter. Really you have spoken so much, so many good things.

It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me I really appreciate this opportunity.