Sharmishta Chakraborty
Data Analytics & Business Strategy
Background and Specialities
Background: MBA (Finance) and Engineer (Information Technology) with 6+ years of experience in Banking and Technology for North American, APAC and Indian markets. Seasoned Banking Professional and Cross-Functional Technology Leader responsible for Products, Business Analysis and Strategy, Financial Modeling, Analytics and Risk Reporting
Specialties: Financial Modelling, Business Analyst, SQL, Operational Improvement, Investment Advisory, Client Servicing, Building Partnership, Account Management, Management Reporting, Risk Reporting, MS Office, Analytics, Mentoring, Training and Development.
Preferred Mentee profile
- Background in data or business analytics preferably in banking and technology
- Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in IT/finance/business management
- Excellent communication and presentation skills
- Adaptable and willing to learn cultural nuances
My story of finding employment in Canada
Congratulations to all of you who have successfully moved/ decided to move countries to make Canada your new home. It takes a lot of courage to say goodbye to a comfortable well settled life and land into an unknown territory. And you should give yourself a pat on the back for that.
Moving to Canada
Like most of you, decision to move to Canada for me was nowhere close to easy. It took me more than 6 months after getting PR to finally pack my bags and land in Canada in the freezing month of January. However, what I did in those months was to connect with people, in my circle and friend’s circle, who were already in Toronto. That helped me get some idea about the life in general here and how to settle down initially.
I am a computer engineer and MBA by education and had worked for 6+ years in various business roles and data analyst roles in Accenture, ICICI Bank and Credit Suisse before landing in Canada. Immediately after landing here, I tried to connect with as many people as possible in my field of interest, i.e. Data Analytics and Insights. Oh and did I mention, I had also updated my LinkedIn profile when I was in India. That saved me some time here and I could approach people from Day 1.
While I was meeting people for coffee chats and trying to understand the banking business and application of analytics in banking, I made sure to apply to the job postings as well that comes on various job search websites. My biggest learnings from the coffee chats are to be patient and asking the right questions. After a couple of weeks, I had lined up few interviews with the big 5 banks and most of them were by just applying on the job sites.
In the interviews, there is a lot of focus on soft skills and the ability to blend into the multi-cultural environment. Mostly into the data analytics role, several business scenarios will be discussed to understand the candidate’s approach to problems and questions around basic technical knowledge will be tested. I was glad to clear the interviews and fortunate enough to be a part of TD bank family and contribute my bits here.
Tips for Data Enthusiasts:
- Analytics industry is competitive and growing well with the employers always looking for talent.
- Revamp your CV. Review it with multiple people.
- As most of the roles are supporting business, it’s always a great idea to get some business insights around the roles that you want to apply for.
- Analytics tools may get outdated, not your mindset. Demonstrating critical thinking and analytical approach takes one a long way.
- Provide examples from previous work experience with structured data or analysis. The focus is story-telling targeted towards the job description.
- Improving communication skills; verbal, written and using data; will be beneficial in the long-run.
Here are some articles by Sharmishta
My story of employment in Canada
Congratulations to all of you who have successfully moved/ decided…
