A Technologist’s Path to Success
Some common themes have started to emerge as we’ve been talking with the amazing women of Tradeweb as part of our Global Women’s Network blog series. Chief among them has been the power of mentorship to shape careers, empower growth and break down barriers. Earlier this month, our Global Head of Compliance, Devi Shanmugham, shared how impactful it was for her to see other women around her in powerful positions early in her career. While that’s been a common refrain among senior women at our firm, we also wanted to get the perspective from those who are still at earlier stages in their careers.
Today, we speak with another colleague who has just begun her career journey to get her perspective on building a career in financial technology -- Akriti Singhal is Vice President, Institutional Fixed Income (IFI) Technology at Tradeweb, and this is her story.
Culture Makes the Company
Akriti was first introduced to Tradeweb in 2018 through Tradeweb’s summer internship program, where she had the opportunity to learn from and innovate alongside seasoned technologists and business experts. Through the program, Akriti worked on various projects with Tradeweb’s technology team, including a project that focused on enhancing the user experience through the development of composite pricing tools on the Tradeweb platform.
“As a woman entering the technology field, I was first drawn to Tradeweb because of the sense of comradery and inclusiveness that I experienced during the internship program, something I found unique to the firm,” she said.
While Tradeweb has over 250 technologists globally, many other employees are former traders and salespeople. This mix is by design and gives us an advantage; what’s familiar to a technologist may not be familiar to a former trader (and vice versa), which allows our employees to ask questions and learn from one another. For example, Tradeweb’s technologists are deeply involved in the creation of our products from initial design to integration, collaborating directly with the product groups to come up with new ways to enhance how our clients trade through innovative product designs and solutions.
By collaborating this way across the firm we’re able to present ideas that consider different perspectives, empowering Tradeweb employees to insert themselves deeper into our clients’ needs to create solutions that address and evolve with the everyday needs of the market. For some, especially those who come from a background that has little to do with finance, this mix of finance and technology can be a bit intimidating. But not for all.
Finding Your Passion
A graduate of NYU with a Master’s in computer science, Akriti always wanted to work at a fintech firm but knew she needed to learn more about the intersection of technology and finance to become successful in the field.
“This learning curve, which I thought would be one of the first and greatest challenges I would face at Tradeweb, turned out to be much easier to overcome than I thought,” she said. “Tradeweb provided me with the tools and resources I needed to familiarize myself with the business and industry, which proved invaluable to my career growth.”
Akriti quickly became immersed in her studies, and actively participated in the various courses that Tradeweb offered, which included internal workshops, seminars, presentations, lunch and learns and educational fixed income training sessions.
In 2019, with this new knowledge under her belt, Akriti joined Tradeweb full-time. Today, Akriti is Vice President, IFI Technology and works closely with the technology and product teams to implement new features to Tradeweb’s products, optimize code, resolve issues within the trading platform and help clients access Tradeweb’s composite pricing pages for various currencies.
In her short time at Tradeweb, Akriti has already learned so much more than she thought possible. She credits this to Tradeweb’s inclusive culture, which has inspired her to ask hard questions and take on new projects that have given her exposure to various parts of the business. She encourages others who are new to an industry and want to be successful to always stay hungry for knowledge, and see what programs your company can offer you to support your educational and professional development.
Related Content
Challenging Bias by Embracing Opportunity and Diversity
Reflecting on our involvement with the LPGA: Recognizing the women driving change