As a compliance officer, I have a unique position on the investment banking team. I serve as an advisor, supporting our Latin American investment banking franchise across six countries and all product lines. I also work with our US corporate derivatives desk, which primarily helps clients manage foreign exchange and interest rate financial exposures. As part of the compliance team, I help our businesses navigate what can be a complicated global legal and regulatory landscape.
Compliance exposes you to some of the largest deals in the world. We’re closely tied to deals in the financial services sector, and we also see the impact and development of global policy. In this way, we interact with the overarching regulatory political landscape and how that influences the business.
I didn’t take the expected path to finance. In college, I took classes related to public policy and legislation. Experience reading policies, legislation, or even a Supreme Court case can help to become familiar with how governments legislate and regulate. More generally, classes where you learn to express yourself in a formal, concise, and clear manner are helpful to the work that we do in compliance. Every day, compliance officers use soft skills learned in college like asking informed questions, forming opinions, and stating those opinions in writing.
Goldman Sachs is supportive of my continued education. Through the tuition reimbursement program—which provides financial assistance to our people who continue their education in fields relevant to their work—I have the opportunity to pursue my Master’s in Corporate Compliance. My peers and colleagues have been accommodating – if not encouraging – when I share that I’ve gone back to school while working full-time.
The firm’s culture of mentorship is top notch. As an intern, I had a Black Analyst Initiative Program (BAI) coach. Later, through the same program, I was assigned a mentor. BAI is a firmwide Diversity & Inclusion program which supports our junior Black professionals through mentorship, networking, and leadership development. I also am giving back as a mentor through the LGBTQ+ Inclusion Network. At the firm, everyone is a resource to you. Senior leaders are excited to make themselves available for you to reach out to and learn from their experiences. Our people want to share their insights and knowledge with others, especially the more junior team members. Nobody is setting you up to fail—they’re setting you up to succeed.