Area of work

Structured Debt

Studied

International Economic Relations, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO)

Joined

2007

Working in

Moscow

My work involves the financial analysis of prospective clients and deals. Our relationship managers assist me in looking into every aspect of a company to analyse and calculate the potential risk, including operations, organisational structure, business management and production facilities. I write a credit proposal, which gives a judgement of whether or not it would be a good risk for us to take on. I work very closely with my senior colleagues in preparing this and they're very open and always there to help - there's never a problem in approaching them and asking about something I don't know.

There are seven people in my team, one other trainee, four analysts (including a senior analyst) and then the head of the team - I get on really well with the whole team. We talk a lot about things like film and politics or else after work we might go to the cinema or for a coffee. Obviously we work very hard but I still have time get out and enjoy Moscow after work. It's a fantastic city to live in and there's so much to do like skating in winter, there's an outdoor rink in the Red Square, and in summer there's everything you could want from parks, to outdoor cafes and bars.

I joined BNP Paribas because it's a global bank with a great reputation. I always knew I wanted to work in investment banking, so when I was looking for work towards the end of university it was about finding the best fit for my skills. I interviewed at a couple of other banks but I chose BNP Paribas because of the higher quality work, the European culture and the fact that I got along very well with my interviewers. Another bonus of working here is that French is my second language so I get to use three languages quite often, French, Russian and English.

I really like the fact that my work is so relevant to my university degree. It feels good to be able to apply the theoretical knowledge that I learned at university to the practicalities of actual cases - it's also great to know that my degree wasn't a waste of time! Of course nothing can prepare you for actually doing the work and I've learned a huge amount during my time here, both from my senior colleagues and just through doing things. I've been to Geneva recently for a professional training course in financial analysis, where there were people from many different offices in the region. It was really exciting to meet people from other regions doing the same role as me.

I think to be successful at BNP Paribas you have to be creative and a problem solver. If you're creative you can look at a particular problem, come up with many different solutions to it and then choose the best one. There was a particular project that I was involved in where I was researching the background of a prospective client and I had based my analysis on a well-known shareholder who provided a sense of stability to the project. But just before we had to present to the credit committee this shareholder sold his shares, making all the work I'd done until that date practically useless. Our team had to redo all the work in one day, and ensure that our analysis still gave the right judgement. When the credit committee approved our proposal, and we knew the hard work had paid off, it was very satisfying.