823 Advizers

Zu

Director Of Strategic Finance

Tala

University of Toronto
MBA, University of Toronto

This Advizer is open to you reaching out!
Zu, has over 14 years of experience in Finance, Strategy, and Operations across industries including AI, Marketplaces, and Fintech.
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Finance
Biology & Related Sciences
Economics
International Student
Honors Student
Immigrant
Worked 20+ Hours in School
Student Athlete

Q1Career path

Investment Banking

Career Development

Finance

2:15

"I remember being very confused. I was like, why does Uber want a finance person? Like I'm not an engineer?"

Q2Main responsibilities

Financial Analysis

Cross-functional Teamwork

Decision Making

2:10

"Our team is supposed to help the company make profitable business decisions."

Q3Day in the life

Strategic Planning

Business Partnering

Financial Analysis

2:42

"And then two, doing the actual financial analysis. So that's one example of what it looks like."

Q4Most important skills - role

Data Analysis

Communication

Financial Modeling

3:01

"I personally like using a lot of gifs or gies. Um, that's sort of like how I, uh, tame the complexity of models"

Q5Favorite parts - role

Data Analysis

Cross-functional Teamwork

Strategic Thinking

2:12

"you truly get to work cross-functionally and wear many hats. You are the connective tissue for the company."

Q6Biggest challenge - role

Data Analysis

Communication

Teamwork

2:44

"the biggest challenge in my current role...is the notion of folks being on different pages of the same book."

Q7Favorite parts - industry

FinTech

International Development

Microfinance

2:47

"I grew up personally in East Africa, so I know what it's like to not have access to capital."

Q8Who thrives in industry

Relationship Building

Technical Skills

Customer Focus

3:02

"Be really good at modeling. Uh, triple check your work. Uh, don't be shy to, to ask folks, uh, at your company to, to double check your work."

Q9Wish known before - industry

Startups

Data Analysis

SQL

1:14

"Understanding how data-heavy a role is would've been very beneficial."

Q10Entry-level positions

Strategic Finance

Finance Careers

Entry-Level Positions

1:20

"That foundation will just help you so much in becoming a really strong strategic finance associate or analyst."

Q11Significant lesson - career

Preparation

Executive/Leadership

Communication

2:21

"I always say you wanna be softly prepared for that."

Q12College ideas for success

Networking

Financial Modeling

Creative Problem-Solving

2:17

"I did a lot of case competitions. I networked a lot, um, played a lot of sports."

Q13How identity impacted career

Networking

Overcoming Challenges

Career Development

4:05

"I didn't realize what I didn't know until like, so much later on."