What qualities should an ideal Consultant have? Is moving from operations to a FinTech company a smart and feasible career move? What supports this journey and what are the key aspects of this profession? Hanna, Lead Talent Acquisition Partner at SimCorp, along with SimCorp Consultants, share insights on what this transition entails and narrate the story of how embarking on a FinTech career journey at SimCorp looks.
The IT industry, as highlighted in numerous reports and debates, continues to be one of the most desirable and ideal career choices for individuals seeking significant career growth and greater job fulfillment. The modern IT landscape, enriched by AI, is vast and diverse, offering a plethora of opportunities that don’t necessarily require hard programming skills.
Companies that have on their recruitment plate roles that stand at the edge of the IT world and other industries, should be a target for those who have already embarked on their journey towards IT through reskilling or learning methodologies used in the IT world.
SimCorp ADC
SimCorp, as a leading FinTech product company and the number one provider of investment management solutions globally, can be considered such a vast plate of job opportunities.
Foremost, SimCorp’s Global Advanced Delivery Center (ADC) stands out as an attractive option for consultants transitioning from the financial industry to IT or those already in consulting but serving other sectors. ADC, with locations in Warsaw, Manila, and Mexico City, is a strategic division dedicated to help SimCorp clients onboard them to our proprietary solution, which is integrated investment management platform, whether in the cloud or on-premises. With an expanding client base and a growing project pipeline, we are actively recruiting different profiles in all three locations.
Skillset of an ADC consultant
At ADC, regardless of a team, a combination of specialized financial knowledge (i.e., Investment Accounting/Operations, Investment Performance, Risk Analysis) and IT skills (such as reporting/BI, software integration, system implementation, or data migration) is highly valued. Given our global operational environment, openness to cultural diversity is a must.
Expanding on the ideal profile of a consultant, great communication skills, an unwavering client focus, and a strong sense of ownership are essential, not just buzzwords. These traits are crucial if you aim to deliver projects to the customers, where 40 of them are among the world’s top 100 financial companies. All these ideally backed up by the knowledge, or at least awareness how the project-based type of daily work looks like. Focus on delivery, communication with various stakeholders, managing expectations from different corners – this type of job is for curious and ambitious people who are ready to step out of their comfort zones, but then they delight in the satisfaction that comes!
Built on a foundation of innovation and progress, SimCorp has consistently followed a smart strategy that has allowed us to conquer new markets, attract new clients, and expand our solutions portfolio. For our new consultants, we offer intensive onboarding from the very beginning, ensuring they are well prepared to join us on this journey. For our mutual success, beyond the required skills for an ‘ADC Consultant,’ having a strong commitment to learning our SimCorp tools and continuously growing within the investment industry is essential.
SimCorp Poland
SimCorp’s position in the Polish market is already well established, as our journey in Poland began in 2015 with the hiring of the first three contractors, laying the foundation for today’s ADC. Over the years, other strategic teams have been added to the Warsaw office, such as Product Development, SaaS Operations, Global Advisory or Global Finance. In total now, we employ more than 500 staff, representing 22 nationalities, with 31% being female fintech professionals. Our site contributes significantly to the overall SimCorp’s landscape, enhancing company’s global reach and capabilities.
Insights from consultants
Let me ask a few questions to our ADC consultants to capture a glimpse of their success stories, experiences, and insights.
Hanna: Karolina, your career journey involves transitioning from Operations to FinTech. What motivated you to make this move, and after a year, would you choose to follow the same path again?
Karolina: After several years in Operations, I’ve made this career move due to various reasons. Firstly, the FinTech industry is at the forefront of innovation, constantly evolving with new technologies and solutions that drive the transformation of financial services. This dynamic environment is far more engaging compared to Operations, where daily tasks tend to be rather repetitive.
Moreover, FinTech companies often offer a high degree of autonomy and project ownership, enabling me to utilize my operational expertise while embracing new challenges and responsibilities.
Hanna: What was the biggest challenge at the beginning, and what advice would you give to those who are hesitating to embark on a similar journey?
Karolina: The most challenging aspect is stepping out of your comfort zone into an unfamiliar environment where you’re no longer the expert. Initially, such a transition might seem like a step back, but in the long term, it’s a huge leap forward, just in a different direction. FinTech and IT-related roles offer significant career progression advantages. For those hesitating, consider how the financial industry will evolve in 10-15 years with advancements in AI and process automation. In planning your career, it’s essential to ask yourself, ‘How can I stay ahead and maintain a competitive edge in the job market?’
Hanna: Which non-IT-related skill contributed most to your success story?
Karolina: I believe the key factor is maintaining an open-minded approach to problem-solving. This mindset encourages openness to new ideas and diverse perspectives, ultimately leading to innovative solutions. Additionally, strong communication skills and focus on building new relationships and expanding your network can facilitate and speed up the transition process. By engaging with more experienced individuals and staying curious, you can acquire knowledge more efficiently.
Hanna: Damian, you’ve been with SimCorp for several years now. While your current role is highly technical, more than a decade ago you worked as an analyst in a financial institution. How did your career change when you joined SimCorp?
Damian: I’ve always had a natural curiosity, which drew me to analytical roles. While working in finance as a financial analyst, I realized I was missing the technical aspect. However, I also knew that a purely technical focus wouldn’t satisfy me. There needed to be a connection with the business domain. This is why a purely financial role wasn’t ideal, nor was a purely technical role. SimCorp emerged as the perfect place where my two worlds could meet.
I need to feel that I’m contributing to something tangible with business value, and here, it’s possible. Working on important projects for big clients truly resonates with me.
Hanna: Now that you’re in a client-facing role, what are some challenges you’ve encountered that might not be obvious to those considering a switch to project-based work, particularly when working closely with external customers?
Damian: Working with business requirements and communicating with the client are the most challenging aspects, and your approach to it is crucial. You need to be smartly flexible in constantly changing situations. Often, the client doesn’t fully understand what’s feasible within the system we provide – that’s where our expertise as a trusted advisor comes in. We must engage in dialogue to identify the customer’s crucial needs and collaboratively build solutions, present our standards remaining open to further changes. As a consultant and advisor, a proactive approach is essential. By asking the right questions, you move closer to the final outcome. However, a very meticulous approach isn’t always the best; you should be curious and prepared for mistakes or ad-hoc issues from various angles, and accept them.
Flexibility and the ability to anticipate challenges are skills that you develop over time. As you gain more experience, your approach becomes more modest and forward-thinking, leading to solutions that are more scalable and universal for the future.
Hanna: Kasia, before joining SimCorp, you accumulated significant consulting experience in other industries. How does working in FinTech now differ from your previous roles?
Katarzyna: The significant difference lies in the type of data, as we work with financial data. This constant exposure provides a great opportunity to naturally build and expand our knowledge. By working in different areas of investments, we not only specialize in various segments but also consolidate our knowledge, leveraging our expertise for a holistic understanding.
This industry is fast-paced and ever-changing – imagine the London Stock Exchange. Additionally, in project-based work, you switch between projects. All of this makes it far more dynamic than sectors like healthcare or automotive. The evolving situation is reflected in the data you work with. On SimCorp projects, during the analysis phase, it’s fantastic to engage with high-level management, including VPs, who provide valuable insights with their high-level and long-term views on solutions. This is a great opportunity to compare technical perspectives with the strategic suggestions of VPs.
You develop in parallel with the solutions you build. When I transitioned to finance, I noticed that the strong connection between the technical aspects and the business domain is present in every project.
Hanna: Your technical focus is on data warehousing and reporting. For those who are beginning their journey in Business Intelligence and reporting, what tools would you recommend mastering?
Katarzyna: I recommend learning and mastering powerful Microsoft tools such as Power BI and Power Apps, which are essential for analyzing data and building custom applications. Tableau should also be on your radar, as it is a widely used BI and analytics platform, known for its visualization capabilities.
As the industry moves towards the cloud, familiarity with Azure Databricks, Azure Data Factory, AWS, and Snowflake is essential. These technologies serve as a bridge between on-premises and cloud environments.
A solid understanding of data modeling concepts and best practices is fundamental. Additionally, knowing SQL and Python is very useful, as they are frequently utilized in the data field for creating ad-hoc queries and they both integrate with various platforms. Once you have a strong foundation in these areas, learning another reporting tool will simply involve familiarizing yourself with its interface and specific features, making it a relatively quick and straightforward process.
Hanna: Hubert, you recently joined us, significantly enriching our ADC Investment team with your extensive financial knowledge and interest in modern ESG-related topics. You’ve also worked for multinational companies and have lived and worked in Germany and the US.
How can working in FinTech further develop your skills and knowledge in the investment field?
Hubert: SimCorp gives me a platform where I can use my asset management experience while also leveraging the solutions and ideas I picked up during my time in Frankfurt and New York. I’ve brought a solid business understanding, and now I’m naturally developing my technical skills by working with Dimension. I’ve already started learning CommServer, SimCorp integration tool, which wasn’t part of the initial plan but turned out to be a missing piece that helps me understand the full process. So, I’m not only using my current strengths but also improving in other areas!
Hanna: You’ve already referred some of your colleagues to us, what can mean you are happy with your decision joining SC. What exactly is in line with your values and expectations?
Hubert: That’s exactly what it means! I am delighted by the atmosphere here. I haven’t met a single unfriendly person yet. It’s so much easier to face challenges when you’re working as a team. I always make sure to tell all of my friends that SimCorp is a fantastic place to work, and they can clearly see how much I enjoy it.
Hanna Brzózka
Lead Talent Acquisition Partner at SimCorp
