An exceptional journey of Anna Baturina to Deutsche Bank London

To be honest, when I came to IE from Moscow, being a non-European citizen, I had no expectations about the job opportunities here. To my surprise (and everybody’s) at the beginning of October 2016, I started getting calls from London investment banks: Deutsche Bank, Lazard, Macquarie, RBC and Goldman Sachs. The selection process went quite fast, and in November I already signed a full-time contract with Deutsche Bank London (Anna Baturina)

Anna Baturina was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. As a child she wanted to study linguistics, but made a choice to do a degree in Economics specializing in Oil&Gas at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), arguably the most prestigious school in Russia. While studying she was actively involved in Models United Nations, case competitions and research work, traveled to Canada for an exchange semester and engaged with KPMG and McKinsey. Her team achieved the 4th place in a Cup Moscow case cup with 648 teams participating, which allowed her to obtain a merit-based scholarship from IE Foundation. She is now a student of Master in Finance at IE Business School in Madrid. Despite having never worked in finance and being a non-EU student, she was one of the first students to sign a full-time offer.

Viet Ha: Hi Anna, thank you for being here today. My first question for you will be: in your undergrad at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, you specialized in Oil&Gas and did internship at Rosneft, what made you switch to Finance?

Anna: I have always had an inclination for finance. In the 3rd year of my bachelor’s I went to Imperial College London Finance summer school, because I thought that some courses in Finance from a well-recognized school would complement my degree. What happened there was that I fell absolutely in love with the subject, bought a bunch of textbooks to read and started following the FT. I never really found myself until then, but there in a matter of 2 weeks I understood where I wanted to be.

Viet Ha: You were #4 on Best students of the University list and were awarded Dean’s and Gazprombank scholarships. It seemed that you were studying very hard!

Anna: Studying at Moscow State Institute of International Relations was challenging, but intellectually rewarding. I got to fulfil my childhood dream – In the 3rd year, I had 4 foreign languages in my agenda! Apart from that, I was engaged with International Models United Nations, OEconomicus Club, Business Club, did an exchange semester in Canada and at a point even tried parliamentary debates. I kept myself busy, but it was worth it.

Viet Ha: You volunteered for the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games Sochi 2014, how was the experience?

Anna: That was another “perk” of being student at MGIMO. My school hosted one of the volunteer centers for Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, training volunteers to assist members of International Olympic/Paralympic Committees (IOC/IPC). As students of my school all speak minimum two foreign languages fluently, which was a prerequisite for a position, the chances of being selected were higher. I was one of lucky ones, and spent unforgettable 10 days working at the guest pass center of the Olympic hotels. The experience was amazing, I met member of IOC, athletes, made friends with people from all over Russia, including so-called “silver volunteers” (elderly volunteers) and of course, got free tickets to the sports events! As it turned out later, I even met a representative of IE community there, Alfonso Martinez-Almeida, who used to be a professor at IE.

I got so addicted to the drive of the Games, that I applied for linguistic assistance at Rio 2016 in Brazil, got a position, but unfortunately I couldn’t go. Hopefully, I’ll get to do it again sometime!

Viet Ha: You were selected to the final stage for McKinsey Moscow´s position, but chose to do a Master degree?

I was considering working for a while before doing the Master’s, but halfway through the selection process I realized that I had a greater inclination towards finance, and since getting into investment banking “from the street” was almost impossible, I decided to invest a year into IE’s Master’s in Finance, hoping that this degree will open the opportunities for me.

Viet Ha: Congratulations on being an incoming IB Analyst at Deutsche Bank in London starting this summer, when and how did you get the job offer? What challenges did you face, not being an EU citizen, and succeeded in securing an offer in London?

Anna: Thanks, Viet Ha! To be honest, when I came to IE, being a non-European citizen, I had no expectations about the job opportunities here. However, I still applied to London and Madrid, along with Moscow offices. To my surprise (and everybody’s) at the beginning of October I started getting calls from London investment banks: Deutsche Bank, Lazard, Macquarie, RBC and Goldman Sachs. The selection process went quite fast, and in November I already signed a full-time contract with Deutsche Bank. The visa question was never brought up, if the bank likes you, they will sponsor it irrespective of your nationality and gender. All you need to do is spend some quality time on the applications.

Viet Ha: How did IE and/or IE Career Services help you achieve this?

I would like to say a personal thank you to Beatriz García from Career Services who held counselling sessions in between classes every time I was invited for an interview or progressing to another round. Her insights and advice were really helpful. IE Career Services do a very good job preparing candidates for the interviews. Networking simulations were particularly useful for me – by the end of September I was already feeling confident at any event.

Viet Ha: Any difficulty in being one of the few women in the Finance Master with the majority being men?

Not at all. As a matter of fact, all girls from my intake are very ambitious, intelligent, outspoken individuals, and we do not feel discriminated in any way.

Although I do believe that Finance programs should attract more women, mainly because right now opportunities for women are at peak. More and more female executives appear on boards of the clients of the investment banks. From what I’ve seen in networking events, it’s still an industry dominated by men, and banks need female representation more than ever. There’s a lot of evidence on the benefits of gender diversity in finance, and banks are becoming more and more aware of them.

Viet Ha: How competitive has the program been so far? What do you like the most about the program/school/classmates?

Anna: Extremely. The curve grading makes everyone work hard for every project and every exam, but it’s healthy competition, no one is here exclusively after the grades.

I think IE’s best feature is its professors and students. Almost all the professors are working practitioners, their insights into the industry are truly priceless. I learn a lot from the professors, and I sometimes learn even more from my fellow group mates. We all come from different cultural and professional backgrounds, and the depth of the discussions that we have in class every day is fascinating.

Viet Ha: Now that you are in finance, any recipe for a woman to succeed in a highly demanding, stressful environment mainly dominated by men?

Don’t be afraid. To an outsider finance may indeed look stressful and highly demanding, and it’s true, but it’s also very interesting and gives you a drive that you don’t get in many other industries. The gender situation is improving a lot. And it is not true that there is no work/life balance. It’s all about attitude and time management.

Viet Ha: Any advice for future candidates?

Anna: Study hard and work hard. Getting into IE will not be easy, but you will not regret it! Good luck!