Hello
friends. This was my 7th week , one more week down in my internship
at Citibank., so I have 3 more to go. This was a veeeeeery busy week, for me
that I really care about work life balance, I can say that the past days were
the only in which I really had to stay late. This week was about working in a
group project, which basically is solving a business issue for a division that
is not familiar to the team, and working with 7 people. It may sound easy but
it wasn’t. The big challenge was to deal with so many people in this team, so I
had to go back to my MO classes and take many useful tips.
Another thing that
happened this week, was our speaker series with Vikram Pandit Citi’s CEO.
Needless to say that it was great, very smart guy who was born in India, and
very down to earth, even charismatic. Which takes me to the first topic of
today, the company culture. Which has three major components. First, diversity across divisions and
business units. It is very natural to see people from everywhere interacting
with each other. Which make sense as they are know as the global bank. Citi is
not the biggest bank in US, nor in the world, but is the only bank that has
presence in more than 180 countries. Hence, diversity plays a critical role and
you see this in all different levels. A CEO who is from India, another who is
from Mexico, directors from UK,
Venezuela, Italy, China, and you name
it. For me it has worked very well, as being international student, you feel
that you are in a very open space where they are willing to promote and develop
people from outside of US.
Another important component of Citi’s culture, is it
openness with senior management. This
speaker series with our CEO is only a good example, but we’ve had had this type
of thing with other very senior leaders along the summer internship. Twice per
week to be more precise. This exposure
not only has helped to understand other areas of the organization, but also to
get worthwhile tips about personal and professional development. I found this
very relevant, as in my previous work someone told me once. “In a company it is
not only about delivering and working hard, you have to develop leadership
behaviors and get exposure from senior levels” The latter helps not only to learn,
but sometimes it may connect you with someone who share your background. Another aspect that I have enjoyed so far, is
the cooperative culture. It is important to note that I work in consumer
banking, whose culture may vary from Investment Banking and Sales & Trading.
Departments that are also part of Citi, but that require more daily hours,
which changes the dynamic of the work.
Well, as I was saying, in consumer
banking it is very common to work in cross-functional teams, and being
evaluated by your pers. This two things push the cooperation among team-members,
as you know that everyone needs from everyone, and that your rating or the
decision of hire or not hire will depend on the evaluation of your teammates. I
enjoy working and interacting with people, so it works for me. However, it may
be people who like more the individual work. But as I said, there is no good or
bad, the only important thing is to understand, and look for the right fit.
So
far, I have had a great experience at Citi, and I love that they foster these
three things on Citi’s culture: Diversity, openness with senior leaders, and
cooperative teamwork. And probably, I will add another component that creates a
good environment, good work-life balance. Here In NYC I ‘ve had the opportunity
to read, work out, work, and go out on a daily basis. Which at least for me, is
a great experience. This is it for now; I hope you have enjoyed my stories so
far; I will be posting soon my last one. See you until then.
Miguel
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