Meaningful work with an employer that invests in you, so you can invest in others. At PwC, Yulia works on her professional development and is also committed to several causes with a high social impact. As a Senior Manager Customer and Operations in the Financial Services practice, she feels a strong connection with the projects she works on, both internally within PwC and at the client.
“We listen to each other and encourage to strive for more, this is a real uplifting moment.”
I joined PwC because of its commitment to solve important problems. This higher goal is very appealing to me and is aligned with my personal values. Apart from the projects I work on, I am also involved in the topics that are close to my heart, such as Female empowerment, Diversity & Inclusion and Sustainable Development. One of the female empowerment initiatives recently piloted within PwC is called “Lean-in” circles. What we are aiming to achieve there, is to build a close-knit female community within the Financial Services Consulting, that will help female leaders and women who are just in the beginning of their professional journey to grow in their role and feel supported along the way. It is a nice feeling to know there's always someone you can turn to if you have a problem or would like to share or discuss new ideas.
Diversity and inclusion are given a special attention and generally supported by the way of working within PwC. The open atmosphere within the company means that it's easy to approach people, and to find someone with similar experiences. That can really help you to build your internal network and add value to our clients, irrespective of your background.
I have also benefited greatly from the individual coaching I have received at and through PwC. A good mentor knows exactly what questions to ask and how to trigger you in thinking how to grow as a person and a professional. I also learn a lot from coaching people myself. I do that with my coachees and I would like to grow further in this role by being involved in the partnership with the Refugee Talent Hub (RTH). The aim of this initiative is to pair up female leaders from PwC with high-potential women from the RTH in order to help them to navigate the job market, find their bliss and build their own independent career.
“It gives me immense satisfaction to help someone else to grow and develop themself.”
It is great to be able to help someone and make sure they can achieve their full potential. That experience also helps me a lot as a senior manager – guiding and encouraging someone to strive for more. But above all, I just love doing it!
There are also lots of training courses at PwC where you learn a great deal on many different topics. We have an extensive internal curricular of trainings you can apply for. It focuses on the development of both soft and hard skills, for example public speaking, coaching, presenting with impact, as well as designing operating models, optimizing business processes, reducing costs and enabling ESG. The programme I have been recently involved in is called Digital Accelerator. The programme is focused on upskilling of the PwC workforce to become more digitally savvy. I have done several learning tracks on data management, data visualisation and learned how to tell a compelling story with data. It has given me a broad understanding of what data is, where the data possibilities lie, and how we can further help our clients to harvest data benefits.
I find it very satisfying to collaborate across competences and lines of services and finding the right people for a project. I feel great responsibility and ownership for the project, and the final result we achieve as a team. I have the freedom to explore various possibilities to find the best solution for the client. That is what I like about the work I do.
I am currently supporting one of the insurance clients in their transition towards the new reporting standards called IFRS17. It is a massive transition which involves a complete redesign of their Finance function, technological landscape, internal processes and data flows. Recognising the challenge, bringing a team of multifunctional experts together and going that extra mile to help our clients to achieve their goals is what drives me in my daily job!
“It’s always great to see the result of bringing the right people together. I believe in 1+1=3 and that is what our new strategy “The new equation” is all about”
