Rhodes winner: Hong Kong rewards those who seize the opportunity

 

https://paper.hket.com/article/2531765/%E7%BE%85%E5%BE%B7%E7%8D%8E%E5%BE%97%E4%B8%BB%EF%BC%9A%E6%B8%AF%E7%8D%8E%E5%8B%B5%E6%8A%93%E7%B7%8A%E6%A9%9F%E6%9C%83%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%BA?dis=pd&pdlist=srap001&mtc=70024

 

Siddhartha Datta either got 5 ** or 5 * in DSE, and the worst was 5. He originally planned to enroll in medical school, but because he didn’t understand Chinese, it was difficult to communicate with local patients. A bachelor's degree in global business management known as "theology".

 

He taught himself computer and wrote programs, and became the only local intern at Credit Suisse last year.

 

"Every time I cross an obstacle, I find that Hong Kong rewards me and rewards those who seize the opportunity."

 

About 10 months old, Datta moved to Hong Kong from Bangladesh with his parents. "We lived in a small village. I'm not sure if there is a hospital there." He grew up in Hong Kong and never learned Chinese.

 

Bangladeshi immigrants pay more for education

 

His dad was an accountant in Bangladesh. The employer told him that he had a company in Hong Kong. The father brought his mother and him to Hong Kong in 1999. The mother who worked as a kindergarten teacher in his hometown became a housewife. His sister was born 3 years later.

 

Parents often urge him and his sister to read books, hoping that their future is better than themselves, and climb up the social ladder; parents who could have lived in Bangladesh in middle and upper class, are willing to come to Hong Kong to drop another class, and try their best to save money in order to provide education for children. They have been living in Yau Ma Tei since they came to Hong Kong. Even if the owner doubled the rent and wanted to take the opportunity to drive them away, their parents continued to rent, and they did not move to Sai Kung or Yuen Long, where rents are lower. "

 

Their family heard that there was a good aided boys' school in Kowloon. Datta applied for the test. After entering the school, his parents were informed by friends that they knew how good the school was and had a large campus.

 

Datta is in the top 10 of the full year in the middle school exam. After S.4, his classmates continued to study for DSE, and his grades improved by leaps and bounds. "I don't understand Chinese, so I can't go to a tutorial school." He continued to study hard. He originally chose medical school, but when he heard that not knowing Chinese would prevent him from becoming a doctor, he decided to study at HKUST Global Business Management.

 

After a while, he found that he was very interested in computer science. He was good at writing programs and solving other people's problems. He had written a chat robot to help people overcome the pain of breaking up. It was used by more than 200 people. "This is a tangible output. It's not like an exam. You study hard, get a high score, and then take the next test. It's not like a lawyer. You get an influential client and create a track record."

 

During his six-month exchange at the University of California, Berkeley, he participated in a university hackathon hosted by Cal Hacks, with thousands of students, including Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and others. His team designed a computer-connected, eye-recognizing eye mask that can help people with cognitive impairments find objects. The team eventually won, telling him that even though he was a business school student, he was not a bad computer scientist. The best. "

 

Self-learning computer programs

 

It should be noted that his computer knowledge is all self-study! After graduating from the University of Science and Technology of China this year, he went straight to Oxford to pursue a PhD in computer science as a bachelor.

 

Datta used "self-directed" to describe himself, and his secondary math teacher was his role model. At S1, he had poor mathematics and was convinced that he would not leave any student's math teacher. After school, he carefully taught him, "not to teach me how to get the correct answer, but to make me understand why it is correct." For example, inaccurate calculations by engineers can lead to The spirit of injury was deeply rooted in his heart, so when he wanted to do something, he learned thoroughly; after falling in love with the computer, he could study the algorithm until 4 or 5 am, "that is the inner drive."

 

Last summer, Credit Suisse hired 16 interns. Datta was one of them and the only local student. The rest came from prestigious Ivy League schools such as Harvard. He writes programs and software in the sales and trading department. His internship income is two or three times his father's monthly salary. He can't help but feel a little bit floating, and feels close to the peak of Hong Kong society. After graduation, he can work comfortably in an investment bank, but his family can live a comfortable life. He soon discovered that the investment bank gave him a "false sense of safety."

 

Credit Suisse internship

 

Credit Suisse is located on the 90th floor or above of the ICC. Whenever there is a thunderstorm, he looks out of the window from the office and the clouds are under his feet. He sees some gray-haired Chinese traders, consciously has great power, makes a lot of money, and is at the top of society. They are indeed at a very high position, "but they are still a long way from the rich net worth. At the end of the internship period, he reflected many times. "That is like an echo chamber. Everyone feels very happy and likes to save money. If I do these (work) in the next 5 or 6 years, I have already been there, so why not go further? "

 

So he decided to study abroad. "Having a comfortable life is not a real success. For me, a real success is something I'm proud of." As a child, good grades made him consciously successful; when he was in college, he designed software or programs that can help others, He felt successful. "Over time, if I can make a difference in society and improve the lives of many people, it is my sense of accomplishment."

 

 

Minority of majority; dedicated internship to add competitiveness

 

https://paper.hket.com/article/2531763/%E5%A4%9A%E6%95%B8%E4%B8%AD%E7%9A%84%E5%B0%91%E6%95%B8%20%E6%8B%BC%E5%91%BD%E5%AF%A6%E7%BF%92%E6%B7%BB%E7%AB%B6%E7%88%AD%E5%8A%9B

 

Datta has become accustomed to ethnic minorities: He is a Hindu, but 90% of Bangladesh ’s population is Islamic. In Hong Kong, there are very few Bangladeshi people.

 

Middle school and university classmates' fathers are many lawyers, doctors, and bankers, but his father is a textile company accountant, however Datta has never felt the pressure of social and economic status. “My classmates are very decent, they have a lot of respect for me as I get good grades.”

 

The whole family doesn’t understand Cantonese

 

Most of the discrimination he had encountered was when police checked his ID cards and searched schoolbags on the street, suspecting that he had possession of drugs. Their whole family did not understand Cantonese, and they were often bullied at first. For example, they bought tadpoles, sold fish for 12HKD, and hawkers charged 50HKD. The original rent of 9,000HKD was 15,000HKD.

 

Now his Cantonese can deal with ordinary answering less than 10 minutes, but he took the initiative to add: "Enough to know that someone is saying bad things behind my back", he smiled across his face.

 

Worried that race and lack of knowledge of Chinese would hinder development, he desperately did an internship after college. In addition to discover his personal interests and strengths, he also established competitiveness and proved the value to future employers. He has worked as a hedge fund, e-commerce, investment bank, and venture fund, and his intern employers are notable international companies such as Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.

 

In the first grade, he did three internships at the same time: two in Central and one in Tsim Sha Tsui; one in Central was full-time and the other two were part-time, so he took the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui during lunch time for part-time internships. , Then returned to Central to continue to work, and another part-time work from home.

 

Reading all the academic papers of each review before selection

 

After graduating from the University of Science and Technology of Hong Kong in May this year, he first interned at Goldman Sachs before going to Oxford for further studies in September. He prepared for the situation last September. "I don't know the result of applying for further studies. In order to balance the risks, I applied for an internship and full-time job to give me choices."

 

What is surprising is that when he applied for the Rhodes Scholarship, he did not know his reputation at all, but the HKUST happened to have the promotion of the scholarship. He wanted to further his studies and felt that the name of Rhodes was pretty good. However, before the selection, he read the background and academic papers of the reviewers, "one of them is a neuroscientist."

 

Datta is a volunteer of Rongle Club and has obtained a scholarship from the club. This time he obtained a Rhodes scholarship. He believes that it will help increase the confidence of ethnic minorities and go farther than they think. Prove ability to break walls. "

 

If you can prove it, you can break the wall

 

Datta said that many ethnic minorities are consciously marginalized, but today people are aware of the problem, and being an ethnic minority no longer represents an opportunity being taken away, "(it) has the ability to seize the opportunity."

 

 

 

--