We gave last year’s entrants to the Mayor’s Entrepreneur the chance to learn more about our sponsors Citi Foundation at a special workshop. Here’s what Kellie and Esti from Imperial College London thought of the day…
Kellie
I found the day a great chance to explore Citibank and the financial services industry a bit more. It really opened our eyes to what working in the sector would be like which was incredibly useful. It was quite a full on day starting at 11:15am. We didn’t leave Citi’s offices in Canary Wharf until 6:45pm. We even had a chance to network with Citi staff too. During the day, senior staff came to meet the group and tell us about what their departments do. We found out lots about the research Citi is involved with as a company. We learned about their overall view on global energy, green bonds and how this can help solve our climate problem. We also heard about Citi’s CSR programme, ‘Volunteer Africa’.
Personally, what I found most useful was the chance to talk to senior managers about the banking industry in general, the changes over the years, and the future of green finance. They each gave us a chance to have a Q&A session without any rush at all.
We also had a chance to tour the trading floor and talk to some of the employees there. We asked about what were the best and worst parts of a typical working day at Citi. We got some pretty good insights and heard some really honest views.
After the tour, the HR team from Citi ran some really fun and interactive group games. I would have liked to have even more of these games. They were a great way to get to know ourselves a bit better and identify our strengths and weaknesses. These are the sorts of insights that help a lot when you have to decide what kind of jobs/ areas you should apply for, what interests and fits you mostly.
Esti
I found the session on building our personal brand to be one the highlights. We were given valuable advice on how we can market ourselves to help us pursue our individual careers. One piece of take-home advice I found to be very useful was understanding that essentially, our personality matters. I realise that the way we communicate plays an important role in excelling in a career. I also didn’t realise before that statistically our communication is 55% body language, 38% tone, only 7% the actual words we use. That was a real eye opener.
We were also given advice about how we can apply to Citi’s graduate internship scheme. Overall, it was an incredible day.
