Studied: Bachelor of Commerce and Masters in Personnel Management at Pune University, India
Joined CLSA: 2012
Languages: Marathi, Hindi and English
My home town is a beautiful village among the mountains, about 100 kilometres away from my work place. In my teens I wanted to be a detective, finally I guess I just wanted to be a boss, and I’m still working towards it. I joined CLSA in 2012, and it’s been quite a journey.
I belong to the India IDC-Women in Technology Network. Our goal is to connect all CLSA women so we can share our experiences and challenges and enjoy our journey together at work. It’s helped me connect with my colleagues and to understand the challenges women face across the firm. It’s also helped me recognise how strategic, resourceful and highly purposeful women can be once we wear our working shoes!
I love my job, it’s crazy and exciting and I learn new things every day. Our projects are a collaborative team effort with the main business, IT developers and business analysts all learning from each other to get the job done. Our successful projects build trust and camaraderie making for a productive, stress-free and very enjoyable workplace.
I chose to work in CLSA because I wanted to broaden my knowledge about the capital market domain. I felt that being an intern here would give me a broad overview of investment banking while allowing me to expand my knowledge across an eclectic mix of business and products, and it really did!
On a typical working day I’m on the phone, or writing emails to keep track of multiple projects or I’m meeting with the internal IT team, business owners and users. Being part of the IT Project team, I act as a coordinator between users and the development team, ensuring change is implemented or issues are fixed. My role changes, depending on each specific project. Being a business analyst, my job is to discuss and finalise each project with business owners, to analyse the process or the product change, and to provide my development team with the information they need.
The most rewarding part of my job is keeping up with fast changing markets and being able to come up with solutions that meet regulatory, system or client needs. Seeing a project come alive and being appreciated by my peers about how well a job has been done is very rewarding.
Working at CLSA is fantastic. It gives you so many opportunities to progress, it’s a great balance between challenging and encouraging you to take on additional roles and responsibilities while providing the support you need to maximise your development. You’re treated as an individual with your own style and development.
My advice to graduates seeking a career in finance is to smile and be happy. Don’t ever view a job as too low or insignificant, leverage your existing skills and acquire new ones. Once you’ve proved yourself, you’ll be given more important work.