Golam Sarour

Golam Sarour: Alumna of Financial Engineering. Risk and Operations Analyst with 4.5 years of experience,
focused on risk management and business operations. I specialize in efficient and effective
operations and risk analysis. I gained experience collaborating with companies from the banking
industry, e.g., Citibank N.A., State Street, Credit Suisse, BNY Mellon, and Innocap.

1. The most groundbreaking moment in your career?

The defining juncture in my career was spearheading an opportunity to meet and talk directly with a few experts in the industry at a career fair at our university. That networking helped me
start my career in investment banks. Furthermore, the advice and guidance of our highly experienced professors played key roles in preparing me for the financial sector, which I always wished for.

2. Your greatest professional success?

My most significant accomplishment to date has been having an opportunity to improve a local business in Japan by expanding the market and developing business strategies that helped to increase sales significantly. This endeavor demanded mastery of business operations, financial analysis, and analytical skills, underscoring the synergy between academic rigor and real-world execution.

3. If you could go back to the starting point, but with all the knowledge and experience you’ve gained, what would you do differently?

With hindsight, I’d prioritize working with a firm for a longer period. Albeit I had the opportunity to work in various banking institutions and a local firm, which helped me learn from different environments, cultures, and industries. While my trajectory at PUEB equipped me with quantitative acumen and analytical skills, I now recognize the imperative of lesson-learned agile decision-making in different markets.

4. Your recipe for success. How to achieve it? What to focus on? What to avoid? Which competencies gained from your studies at UEP (Poznań University of Economics and Business) proved to be the most important?

I believe that success relies on several things, with each individual defining it differently. I would say some of the key things are

• Focus: Cultivating domain expertise in coursework and projects at PUEB was instrumental.
• Avoid complacency embrace lifelong learning.
• Consistency: Never stop working on goals
• Leverage: Transferable competencies like critical skills and analytical skills, which proved invaluable.

5. What advice would you give to current students who are at the beginning of their careers?

To prospective talents, I would emphasize:

• Strategic Curiosity: Beyond grades, interrogate industry pain points (my thesis on predictions from ANN and time series models). A comparison at Poznan University opened doors to various opportunities.
• Resilience capitalizes on setbacks as iterative lessons.
• Network with Intent: My first breakthrough emerged from a professional referral— relationships compound over time.