Week 5: Personal Contributions

During one of my first weeks at UBS, someone on my team heard that I was a Spanish minor and sought me out in the back room where the interns typically work. She handed me a packed labeled “Descrubre Mas” which translates to “Discover More” in English, and asked me to go through this document that is entirely in Spanish and edit it.

For context to this project I was given, UBS has gained more traction in Latin America and my boss John, who runs wealth management, manages their offices. We are trying to implement our practices, and in this case what we call the “discovery process” in Latin America. The goal of the discovery process is for the financial advisor to engage with their clients through questioning and listening to better understand what’s important to them and how they can effectively manage their assets based on these personal goals.

I found this project to be challenging yet exciting because I was able to practice my Spanish and also learn more about the discovery process, something that’s very central to UBS and their wealth advice. Among all the other projects I’ve been given, it was refreshing to do something I’m familiar with and something I enjoy doing. However, my Spanish is a bit rusty and I was nervous to make changes because it’s an important document and my changes would be seen by my manager and the head of wealth management/Latin America offices. I was surprised that they’d let an intern do something that important, but feel really lucky to be apart of the project and I’m happy to be putting my Spanish to good use/practice! This upcoming week I have a meeting with John and Bonnie to discuss the changes and talk about the discovery process further. I’m nervous but also excited to be in the meeting!