I was drawn to Financial services when I was in high school, especially when the 2008 financial crisis hit, as it was proof of what an interesting field it would be to work in. My interest led me to choosing Accounting and Finance as my major in my Bachelor’s in Commerce course in the University of Mumbai, India. I actively followed the capital markets throughout my college years and, eventually, found myself particularly interested in M&A and decided that I wanted to pursue a career in Corporate Finance. During my final year in college, I secured a role with JP Morgan & Chase in Mumbai in Corporate and Investment Banking as an Accounting and Reference Data Specialist. After over two years into this role, I joined Citibank as an Investment Banking Analyst, taking my first step into Corporate Finance. I completed the CFA program in 2019. As I was always interested in doing an MBA, I decided that the time was right to pursue that. Ireland seemed to be a great location as it has good business schools and had several PE and VC funds setting up base here at the time as a result of Brexit. I applied for the MBA in Trinity College Dublin and successfully got in and graduated in 2020. During the MBA program, I applied for my current role in the ISIF as I was keen to move to the buy side and working in a sovereign fund would provide me with a unique opportunity in my career. I successfully secured the role and have been working in the ISIF for over a year now.

As a young girl, I had a good amount of exposure to accounting and finance as my father is an Accountant and I learned a lot from him during my high school years, which sparked a further interest in me and lead me to choosing financial services as my career path. He also guided me throughout my career to make the right decisions at the right times. Additionally, my Financial Reporting & Analysis professor, during my undergraduate course, guided me through the various opportunities in Corporate Finance and how to go about developing the right skills for the jobs I was interested in.

During the MBA program, I came across my current role on LinkedIn. I was immediately interested as I was looking to move to the buy side and the role offered a great opportunity for learning due to ISIF’s diverse portfolio that provides exposure to all major asset classes and their unique investment mandate focusing on both financial performance and economic impact. I applied for the role on the NTMA’s careers website. I was shortlisted for the first-round interview, which was conducted by ISIF and HR representatives. Then, the second-round interview was conducted, again with both ISIF and HR representatives, after which I was offered the position.

I work in the Irish Portfolio Monitoring team within the ISIF unit. In a nutshell, my job is to monitor the performance of a portfolio of Irish investments within the ISIF on both financial performance and economic impact grounds. My daily activities are a mix of analytical work and engagement with several investees in the Fund. I analyse reporting from the investees on a monthly/quarterly/annual basis, attend investor meetings and report my analysis to the rest of the team. As a part of my job, I also present an annual review report for each of the investments that I monitor. I also present a Quarterly Portfolio Monitoring report at the end of each quarter for all the Irish investments in the Fund.

My main challenge in my current role in the ISIF was joining the team remotely. I was the first member in the ISIF to join in a work-from-home environment. It took a good bit of work and effort on my part to learn different tasks on the job virtually. A bigger challenge that I still face while working from home is developing strong working relationships with everyone on the team, especially those that I may not work with on a regular basis. I have always found it a lot easier to build rapport through in person interaction. However, it has been a year of working remotely for me and I am always learning ways to make it work.

My job offers me exposure to a highly diverse pool of assets. As managers of taxpayers’ money, the team collectively holds a huge responsibility. The Fund is unique in its investment mandate; however, it is also highly agile in dealing with any new issues that may arise. A good example of this would be the setting up of the Pandemic Stabilisation and Recovery Fund, a €2bn fund to support medium and large enterprises in Ireland affected by Covid-19. Finally, is a fantastic team with people from many different backgrounds, giving me the opportunity to learn something new every day.

I would not say that there is really anything I don’t like about my job. If had to mention something, I would say I am not very fond of operational tasks in any job, which is, fortunately, only a very tiny part of my job.

Through the CFA program, I developed financial analytical skills, including application of investment tools, valuation of various asset classes, quantitative analysis and portfolio management. As part of my previous work experience, I have also learned advanced financial modelling, and am well versed with several databases, including Bloomberg, Factset and Thomson Reuters Eikon.

In high school, I chose Commerce and Accounting as my main subjects, which focused on the core basics of financial accounting, cost accounting, management accounting, auditing and quantitative methods for business. I certainly feel my subject choices at the early stage moulded me and gave me the strong foundation I needed for the career path I wished to take. I can very confidently say that almost everything I learned in the early stage was beneficial in progressing towards my goals.

As I previously mentioned, I completed high school with Commerce and Accounting as my main subjects in 2011. Following this, I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Commerce with a major in Accounting and Finance from the University of Mumbai in 2014. Post this, I cleared all the three levels of the CFA program. Most recently, I graduated with an MBA from Trinity College Dublin in 2020.

Looking back, every single step in the way has been crucial and important for my career. But if I had to point out the learnings most relevant to my current role, the CFA Program helped me broaden my professional expertise in the Financial Services industry and also strengthen my analytical skills and other crucial skills in the industry, including valuation of different asset classes. The CFA Level III exam focuses mainly on portfolio management. This has helped improve my knowledge and competency in the synthetics and evaluation of investment concepts in the context of portfolio management and wealth planning challenges. In my current role in the Portfolio Monitoring team, these learnings have especially been helpful and important.

I feel very happy of how my career has been progressing and every small success has been important for the overall journey. However, if I had to choose one something that I was particularly happy or proud of, I would say I’m quite proud that I passed all the CFA exams while working a highly demanding job back in Mumbai that required me to put in very long hours in the office.

Personally, I believe that I have always been very ambitious and dedicated towards my academic and professional goals. I tend to be very organised and systematic when it comes to managing time and tasks on hand. I never give up on anything without giving it the best shot I can. Finally, I also believe I am warm and cheerful to talk to, which has been very important over the past year in building work relationships remotely.

My career is progressing exactly the way I would like it to. However, if I were to just talk about my dream job, I would like to teach at a business school alongside my main job in Corporate Finance.

My job allows me time to maintain a good work life balance and a decent lifestyle. I try to set aside a couple hours every week for my hobbies, which mainly includes Indian Classical Music (Vocals and Violin). I also like to go on hikes once or twice a month. I mainly try to maintain my physical and mental well-being, which has been a very important factor since Covid-19 hit. I start my day with a run before work as it prepares me for the day and helps me stay active throughout. I make sure to take short 10-minute breaks every 2-3 hours during work. I end my evening with yoga and meditation post work.

For anyone interested in this role, learning fundamental skills such as financial modelling and valuation would certainly be helpful. In terms of qualifications, I encourage them to pursue the CFA program because the curriculum covers all asset classes in significant detail. Additionally, one could also pursue ACA/ACCA, if their interests are stronger on the Accounting side. Finally, it is also extremely important to stay on top of current affairs and market events as it is a time-sensitive industry.

Reliability, attentiveness and agility.

In my previous jobs, I had taken the opportunity to learn advanced financial modelling in Excel for valuation and to develop a good working knowledge of some of the key databases used to support several functions in Corporate Finance. In my current role, I plan to learn Data Analytics as it is a crucial function that has proven its importance in all businesses today and is highly useful as a tool to support decision making, which I believe will be helpful in my current and future roles.

For good work experience, one could join a PE/VC fund, a wealth management firm or an investment bank straight from university as an analyst. One could also join the corporate finance team of an accountancy firm as a trainee while studying for the ACA/ACCA.