Interview with SeokYong Choi, VP at S&P Dow Jones

By: John Oh

11/2/23

On November 2, Ian Kim, the President of AAYA, and John Oh, the writer of The Third Eye’s Financial Journal, met SeokYong Choi, the Vice President at S&P Dow Jones Indices, to talk about his job, advice, and also how being an Asian American has affected his career.

When asked to simply tell us about himself and his career, he began by explaining his path to rising to such a prestigious position. He began with humble beginnings as an analyst. Choi describes this time in his career as extremely grueling, but also necessary for him to succeed later on. His job was essentially to analyze and make a profile of how companies are doing and if it is a good investment. He then moved into commodities, which are raw materials such as oil and agricultural products. In this position, he learned he had a talent in the commodity field, and used it to propel himself higher in finance. After moving up, he explains that his job is essentially being the Head of Business Analysis, meaning he is an executive and also is in charge of producing each tick on a stock market graph. When explaining how important his job is, he said that if his team were to make a mistake or miss a tick, people could be losing billions of dollars.

Obviously, Vice President Choi has to have great leadership skills in order to be in such a high position. We asked the Vice president, “What makes a good leader?” In response, he said the most important traits to have are good listening skills, constant respect, and sharp decision-making skills. Good listening skills are needed to learn things and also hear other ideas as well. Respect is also important as it also makes you a more respectable leader. Finally, decision-making is extremely crucial as well. For this trait, he said it is especially necessary in the finance field because when you are asked something, you usually need to give an answer quickly and also be certain in your decision as well.

Similarly, we asked him about what traits are the most necessary in the finance field. He responded by explaining that you need to be good with numbers. He emphasized it by saying that it's not just a matter of being alright with numbers, he said that you have to excel with numbers and it has to come naturally for you as well. Vice President Choi also stated that you have to be strong. While this is a trait needed for any job, he said that it is especially important in the finance field because there is so much human interaction. This will allow you to be good in tough situations or seem certain in conversations. Additionally, if someone else disagrees with your idea or presents an idea different from your own. In many cases, you have to be strong enough to stand by your opinion and perspective.

As future investors, we asked what the best way to start getting into stocks is. Vice President Choi had a very descriptive answer to this question. He said that in order to really get into stocks, you have to learn to analyze the market. To do so, he recommends purchasing money in a blue-chip company, a company that is large and unlikely to be very volatile, such as Amazon or Tesla. After doing so, you have to follow the stock and see how it is doing. When doing so, you have to do separate research on the company or events that could be affecting the company. This allows you to analyze what makes companies go up and down. This method is different from the conventional idea which is to invest and just become rich quickly. Vice President Choi discourages this mindset because it does not help you in the future. For example, if the goal is to become rich and a company you invested in increases in value, it could simply be a fluke. However, even though it is a fluke, many just mistake it for being good at investing. This leads to losing money because the person will continue to invest and lose money due to their lack of knowledge.

Finally, when asked how important he thinks an Asian American Community is, He responded by stating that such communities are extremely important because it creates networks and also because it gives you a community. He commended us at AAYC for creating such a community where members can create connections with one another and join a community of other Asian Americans.

In short, the interview that we had with Vice President Choi was very reassuring for AAYA and informative for both Ian and me. 

Thank you for reading,

Ian Kim, Editor