Meet Rebeca Anahi Sanchez Enriquez – a 24-year-old member of the Nordea Graduate Programme based in Copenhagen, working with credit risk-related project management, data and strategy. Rebeca holds an MSc in Economic Growth, Population and Development from Lund University, a BSc in Economics from Complutense University and a BA in Performing Arts from Alfonso X University. She joined Nordea in June 2023 and was enrolled in the Graduate Programme in September 2023, with Group Risk being her home unit, focusing on Data and Strategy in Risk Models.
The best part so far is the tremendous trust and responsibility I’ve been given from the very beginning. This has enabled me to discover my strengths and improvement areas, how tackle challenging tasks and ways of working together. This is truly valuable for people like me just embarking on their career. I highly appreciate the opportunity to be part of this process, helped alongside by welcoming colleagues who always take their time to collaborate and share their knowledge. My first year has confirmed the idea I had of Nordea’s corporate culture before joining the bank – that limits and growth are set by your own curiosity.
I’m excited about my journey ahead on the Graduate Programme and beyond. I expect I’ll continue to work on challenging projects that will push me beyond my comfort zone and expand my learning. To me, this is the best way to grow and expand aspirations.
I was inspired by a previous Graduate Programme member. I took part in a mentorship job search programme offered by Lund University, and one of the mentors – Amanda – was a previous Graduate Programme member! She explained her journey from joining the programme to her current role, as well as the support she enjoyed since early in her career. That made me want to be part of a company that offers career growth, internal mobility and an open environment.
I also wanted an opportunity that gave me the freedom to figure out where I wanted to focus my career. The Graduate Programme offers this, enabling rotations to different areas of interest – in my case, sustainability topics for example. Besides the possibility of exploring multiple business areas and functions, the programme also offers great networking opportunities in a big organisation.
My best advice is to go for it! While you won’t know what the outcome will be, the first step to finding out if the opportunity is the right for you is by applying. Once you apply, it’s important to remember that if you advance to the interview stage, this means that they already consider you to be a promising candidate, so have confidence in yourself and your skills. It’s perfectly fine to not know exactly what you want to do and the areas you wish to focus on, but always follow your curiosity, be sure to take ownership of what you do, and speak up. In my case, I ended up in the risk area, which was fairly new to me. However I had other experience with transferrable skills that gave me a solid foundation, enabling me to focus on building up the new knowledge I needed to acquire and bringing my perspective to the table. By asking questions, making suggestions and taking responsibility, you build up confidence in yourself and earn the trust of others.
I’m currently on a rotation as an ESG Analyst working for a workstream within the ESG Programme. My typical day contains meetings concerning the methodology we are developing, as well as data collection and cleaning, and brainstorming on how to bridge the gap between the current data and its implementation for the methodology. I never have the same task from one day to the next, and I organise my work as I see fit!
In my home unit, my daily work varied a lot as I worked on multiple projects at the same time. I often had meetings within my team as well as teams from other areas. I had several deadlines and different responsibilities that involved coordination and facilitation of multiple groups. No days were the same, so I always had my weekly priorities and organised my week based on that. All in all, my days varied a lot, which I really enjoyed.
Always be yourself. Bring your unique perspective and don’t be afraid to do so – even more so if, like me, your background brings diversity at the bank. In my case I come from Latin America and proudly embrace my heritage. Nordea actively promotes diversity and inclusion and one of the key steps needed to continue with these improvements is bringing onboard more perspectives from colleagues from different cultural backgrounds.
We offer a wealth of opportunities for students.
Learn more about the programmes in each of the countries where Nordea operates and see how you can start your career today! Let some of our graduates explain it to you; how it works, what we do, and about the many career opportunities we can offer you.
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