Hannah Song's career strategy involves going "all in" on her current position, rather than constantly viewing it as a means to an end. This deep focus allows for greater skill acquisition and a more deliberate, thoughtful career progression, even if it feels "behind" peers on a traditional timeline.
At age 17, Hannah Song deliberately chose to study accounting, viewing it as the "language of business." This foundational knowledge proved critical for her later pivots into investment banking and private equity, giving her a distinct advantage and deeper understanding of company financials.
Staffed on a lean deal team, Senior Associate Hannah Song was forced to perform the duties of a VP. This experience taught her that you don't need a formal title or all the answers to step into a leadership role; you can learn by doing and trusting that "everything's figureoutable."
A counterintuitive piece of advice for new MBA students is to avoid immediately volunteering for leadership positions. By first participating as a member, you can better observe and decide where to invest your time, leading to more meaningful and intentional involvement later on.
After becoming proficient in investment banking, Hannah Song realized senior roles were primarily sales-focused. Her desire to dig deeply into a few companies' strategies and operations—going "a mile deep" instead of "a mile wide"—prompted her successful move into private equity.
Contrary to the stereotype, private equity is less about financial engineering and more about solving complex operational and strategic problems. Firms with leaders from diverse, non-finance backgrounds often excel because they ask different questions and approach challenges from unique angles.
To combat the grind of mundane tasks like financial modeling, Hannah Song mentally turns them into a game. By challenging herself on speed or accuracy, she reframes the work as a competition she can "win," which helps maintain a positive, competitive mindset and makes the process more engaging.
Hannah Song initiated a key mentorship by being vulnerable and reaching out to a managing director at a partner bank. She was candid about wanting to connect, as it was her first time seeing a senior Asian woman in finance, turning a professional interaction into a valuable career relationship.
To transition from audit to investment banking, Hannah Song emphasized how her KPMG experience developed crucial soft skills. She articulated how being process-driven, detail-oriented, and organized in audit was directly relevant to the highly structured nature of M&A transaction work.