FinPod

Meeyeon (00:00)
Hi everyone and welcome to Member Spotlight, the podcast from CFI where we showcase the incredible journeys of our members from around the world.

In each episode, you might be familiar if you've tuned in before, we highlight a CFI member's story, their career path, challenges, accomplishments, and explore how they're using their skills to grow in finance. And it's a chance for us to really celebrate our CFI community, share real experiences, and inspire others who are building their own careers, regardless of what stage they're at. And with all that said, I'm your host, Meeyeon. You have probably heard me here before.

I'm a VP of content here at CFI and you've likely heard my voice on several of these podcasts. Today, my guest is Iuliia Tuseeva lullia is an equity analyst at the BEAM Fund and a current university student at SFU, Simon Fraser University here in Vancouver, BC. She has also completed already in her young career, many CFI certifications and I'm so excited to have her here today. So welcome lullia.

Iuliia Tuseeva (01:04)
Welcome, welcome, Meeyeon Nice to meet you today.

Meeyeon (01:09)
So I'm really interested in what got ⁓ you started in finance. That's the question that I always open up with. that is my initial curiosity is Where did you first find that spark, that your interest in finance? Did you have a family member that worked in the industry or did you kind of just find this on your

Iuliia Tuseeva (01:29)
Yeah, that was a long journey. So I don't have any family members who did their finance major. So my father, he did business, but it's different area. My interest in finance really started in math. Since I was little, I always enjoyed ⁓ solving different mathematical problems. I participated in the Olympiads. And when I was in ninth grade of my school, we had a subject related to sociology, politics, economics. ⁓ And when we started to cover economics, I just

found that I really like this subject, I want to know more about it. So ⁓ I started to read about economics and since starting from my 10th grade of high school, I started to participate in Olympiads in economics. And I found that there is some mathematical problems that you could apply for the economic theory, which really excited me. So I just started to work on it during the last two years of high school.

And so when I graduated from high school between my graduation and the university, I also came across the course in trading. I just, this was a really basic course about stocks, bonds. So I passed it and I started to do trading using my father's account. And I was really excited about how the investment world works. I really wanted to know more about different strategies that you can use for.

investing, ⁓ how you can use, ⁓ how to analyze companies, industries, which decisions to make. So I was excited about it and I wanted to know more about that. after all of this, after the olympiads in economics, math, and after the trading, I understood that my career path should be related to finance because everything is what I'm interested about is related to finance.

So then I moved to Canada, it was in 2022. I started studying business administration first. It was a pretty easy decision because I wanted to go to finance concentration. Then I participated in different case competitions. And I think the turning point was when I was invited to participate in global Harvard case competition. Because at that time, I knew about the finance. I knew that I'm interested about the finance, economics, and so on.

I didn't know about high finance. didn't know anything about investment banking, mergers and acquisitions. So when I was invited for the case competition, which was mergers and acquisitions related, I didn't know anything about it. And this was the turning point since after the case competition, even though it wasn't successful for my team, we didn't place anything, but it was a really important point for me because I understood the world about the high finance. I started to read more about that, listening to podcasts, reading to books.

⁓ just learning about the high finance world and exploring the careers there. And I would say that these three maybe steps that helped me to sharpen my interest in finance. So math, economics, Olympiad, trading and participating in case competitions.

Meeyeon (04:42)
So my next question was actually going to be, there any sort of early classes, mentors, or student associations that you were a part of that helped shape your interest? And it sounds like you've kind of already answered that, which is through things like these case competitions.

Iuliia Tuseeva (04:58)
Yes, was indefinitely. Case competitions were one of the main parts in that process. But I would say that ⁓ that trading, as I mentioned before, was also important. people who invited me to participate in case competitions were one of the most valuable in my life. Maybe I'd to highlight them here. Rodrigo and Manola, Carlos and Sanakshya, these were the first people who participated in case competitions. I was really glad that

about that opportunity because I didn't know anything but I was invited and after that time my life has changed and I'm really happy that this happened with me.

Meeyeon (05:38)
And so for these case competitions, you're in a team with your ⁓ fellow university students, right?

Iuliia Tuseeva (05:44)
Yes, yes.

Meeyeon (05:46)
Okay. And through, ⁓ I'm going to end up dating myself a little bit here, but you are going to university in a very different time ⁓ than the time when I went to university. I'm curious when you do these case competitions, what types of technologies do people use? What does the kind of presentation end up looking like? I wonder if today in university, the skills that you learn and the courses that are available are more practical.

than they were before. So for example, when I was in university, it was like a very traditional commerce type of program. Well, it was a business administration degree. And you learn about, you know, there's basic economics, you can take, you know, BCD level economics, there's finance classes that are traditionally just very, you know, like pen and paper based, we're not doing Excel based modeling or anything like that. But there's so much more technology.

today, especially since AI now has like a dashboard for people to actually work with. ⁓ What is the learning in your classes like and do you apply these different tools in your case studies?

Iuliia Tuseeva (06:55)
Yeah, that's a good question. I would say that studies at university are definitely important, but I would say they cover more theoretical side of the finance. And talking about case competitions, they're more practical. And so when you start to participate in these case competitions, you understand that you know very little about what actually is needed from you.

So for example, financial modeling, you usually study by yourself or you learn from peers or you take courses like CFI course ⁓ to learn more about the financial modeling, about how to use PowerPoint to build the professional presentations for finance. And I would say that a university was important to understand the theoretical side, for example, how the formula works, ⁓ how to apply them for financial modeling. ⁓

⁓ When you start to participate in case competitions, you gather this data with a combination of the, not the templates, but ⁓ the models that are used by other people, just to know about the financial modeling, how to use them. And after that, you have some understanding of what is expected from you. Then you start to advancing in this area and you build presentations by your own, you build financial modeling by your own, you do analysis. ⁓

And you do it by yourself, but with a combination of maybe deeper understanding of what you have learned from classes.

Meeyeon (08:27)
And I'm so glad to hear that you are doing these case competitions because for me, and I think a lot of young people today, you think about, okay, I'm going to go to university, get the best grades that I can, and then like, boom, I need to apply to internships. ⁓ I want to make sure I get them. How do I stand out? And one of the big things is that you can stand out by not only just participating, but doing well in things like these global case competitions. But one thing that I also want to touch on is that you, ⁓ when you move to

to take, go to university here at SFU in Vancouver, BC, you moved from Russia alone at a very young age to start yourself off here, right? And like for me, I have a similar experience. It's not, I'm not going as far distance wise, but I grew up in Vancouver and I went to school in Toronto and I'd been there roughly on my own since I was 16 for several years, more than a decade. But that requires a certain degree of

Iuliia Tuseeva (09:08)
Yes, that's correct.

Meeyeon (09:27)
independence, confidence that you will always be able to figure things out even though you kind of you have your support system back at home you could call them anytime you like but you are kind of physically off kind of here on your own to figure things out. ⁓ Did you get that practicality of coming here and being like okay like I'm doing academics which is important for me to complete ⁓ to eventually find a full-time job apart from internships?

Where am I going to get practical skills so that I can be kind of roll ready day one? Not only are you doing these online programs like we have at CFI, but you're doing case competitions. Did you get that type of practicality and ability to approach this type of, I guess, you know, problem solving from your culture, your background, or like maybe your family, maybe your dad? Sorry, that's like a really loaded question.

Iuliia Tuseeva (10:22)
Yeah, no, that's fine. ⁓ Well, yeah, solving problems is definitely what you learn when you move to another country, especially when you do it alone. And I would say when you move to another country, it's one of the biggest struggles that you have in your life, and it definitely prepares you for the future life. And usually when you have some problems at the beginning, the further problems with studying or with case competitions, they don't seem like really complicated.

and it definitely helps you with your future career and your future life. ⁓ I learned it just from my own experience and I understood that I'm moving to Canada because I want to explore more opportunities. I wanted to pursue my career there. I want to get the knowledge and to get something, you have to ⁓ sacrifice something. For me, it was my comfort and I think it definitely worth it because I exchanged

my comfort zone by the knowledge that I get right now, the experience and so on. And I feel like everyone should have the same experience, just understand how much you can achieve if you go just beyond your comfort zone. And when you have something that is more important than just staying at your home and yeah, just staying at your home.

Meeyeon (11:48)
And it seems so, it seems so almost off topic to talk about, but I think it was so important to highlight because anyone that wants to have a successful long career in finance, one of the things that you'll have to really master is getting to the other side of adversity. So going into uncomfortable situations, learning to pick up new skills, learning to be very comfortable in being in uncomfortable settings where

You are, for example, you are coming here, you're probably having to at some point find a place to rent, figure out how you're going to get your groceries, figure out your

Iuliia Tuseeva (12:22)
So, thank you.

Meeyeon (12:27)
⁓ schedule with school and trying to balance that with whether you need to travel or like all of these things that don't really come to students who, you know, go to university and commute from home. I remember there were so many things that I had to set up there. had to transfer a driver's license, get that started.

Make sure that I was able to pay my own bills on time. Make sure that I was able to go to the grocery store and I had a means to get there and bring things back. Like all of these little things I think help really kind of make you mature so much faster. And I think a big part of having a long successful career in finance is being mentally very mature from the very beginning of your career. So ⁓

For a lot of our listeners, want to highlight if you are at a younger stage of your career, if you're in university, it's really important to take these little things that you think might not be directly applicable to your career in finance in the future and know that when you are going through university, when you are writing those exams, when you are going to figure out how to get to the grocery store and get all of it back on time and within budget, those are all incredibly important lessons that build your character.

that you can be that really mature person so that you can have those successful careers in finance. I find that in finance, no one is more impressed than a really mature young person. so now diving back into the experiences that you've had so far, tell us about your private equity analyst internship at Alpine Vista's Capital because I think so many of our listeners

These are the types of internships that they're going to strive for. What skills did you build there and how did you find that experience?

Iuliia Tuseeva (14:14)
Yeah, Alpine Vistas Capital, it's Vancouver based search fund and it was my first and so far it's the only internship that I have.

But I think it was definitely a great one because you, I learned a lot. So before this internship, worked mostly with the public companies and private equity. It's a little bit different. You analyze the private equities, which are not publicly, not public companies. And ⁓ the first thing I definitely learned from that experience is the industry research, especially taking into account that I had to know more information about

niche industries like I worked on testing and measurement equipment, abatement and restorative, eggplant and sperm banks. So these are really niche ⁓ industries and to analyze them you have to collect a lot of statistical data to understand whether you should invest and search for these private equities in this field, whether it's worth it. And sometimes, and I would say it's pretty often, you can find

data right away. You have to do a really deep analysis of the industry and ⁓ go through hundreds of resources. So definitely it helped me to sharpen my industry research skills. The second one is analytical. So I mentioned before some of the data is not available and you have to find it through some sites that are not really common or maybe

You should have some coffee chats with the professionals in this field to know more about the industry. And you also have to provide the private equities for acquisitions. So for example, I had a task of providing 150 companies per each industry. And taking into account that it's niche industry and you have several criteria that these companies should follow, it's a really difficult task. But I think it's worth it because you just go to it.

and you have to do it because ⁓ it's your work. And the third one is ⁓ knowing more about the private equity and ⁓ balancing your time with the academic work. So for example, this internship was part-time for me. And as an international student, I had to take classes at the same time because if you have part-time internship, have to be a full-time student.

Taking internship plus three classes, it was really difficult. But I think it also helps you with your time management skills, how to prioritize tasks, how to find time to have a rest as well, because it's really important. So I think it was not just professional experience, but life lessons as well. And so it ⁓ helped me to work to grow as a student, as a professional, and as a person.

Meeyeon (17:05)
And while you're doing all this type of stuff, it's so important to ⁓ find a community I find, whether it's through your university students associations or a mentor at work. I find having some sort of sense of community can really make a difference between whether you kind of go by versus where you can become really successful because people are supporting you. What was it like to be part of the RBC Women in Investment Management experience? Because that's a really great mentorship program.

And I don't get the chance to speak to as many ⁓ young, ambitious women in finance as I would like to. And this platform is a way for me to share that with as much people as I can that I may never get to meet in person. But I'm sure they would love to hear from you. What was it like to be part of the RBC Women in Investment Management Mentorship Program?

Iuliia Tuseeva (17:58)
I think our BC Women internship program sounds ⁓ really complicated, but it's a pretty easy program. So you are assigned with one mentor with who you should meet at least one per month. And ⁓ you have like coffee chats, you're talking about some questions that you have about the job.

you probably can have mock interviews with this person or you are discussing resumes or cover letter. But for me, ⁓ of course, this was important and I could ask some questions that I was ⁓ a little bit hesitated to ask during the usual coffee chats because they seemed silly for me. ⁓ So from that experience, I had the chance to connect with the person who went through the path from student to the professional field.

First of all, I felt comfortable for sharing, for asking questions, for hearing his experience. And secondly, it reshaped my understanding of how the connection works. So it's really important to connect with other professionals in the field where you'd like to grow in the future. So if you're pursuing a career in sales and trading or asset management, doesn't matter, connect with people in this field or maybe some others. They might have the experience.

and might have problems that you're struggling right now and could help you to solve these problems. Also, if you take into account their experience and avoid them in your life, it would help you to be maybe more effective or avoid these mistakes just to succeed faster. So I would say that this RBC Investment Mentorship Program for Women

was important for me just to understand how the connection works and how it's important to connect with people and talk with them. And I still believe that ⁓ the sooner you start to talk with people, even though you're not professional, even though you're a student, I mean, in high school, it's still really important to talk with other people and get to know them.

Meeyeon (20:08)
find this so fascinating that at such a young age you have this level of maturity because I find that, for example, ⁓ my first in... No, it wasn't an internship. My first full-time role was in capital markets and I was in the capital markets team. So I'd often see the sales and trading interns, whether they were ⁓ graduate MBAs or master's finance or undergraduate. And the big thing is, you know, it's not a glorious task, but... not everyone asks for this, but you...

go and get coffee for the entire sales and trading team. And that can oftentimes mean you can get anywhere from 10 to 25 coffees. It's a lot of coffees to bring. viewing that task as not just, ⁓ this is a rite of passage and it's really embarrassing, but as an exercise, as you said, of learning how to meet people, learning how to meet people that are in career fields that you're interested in.

learning how to even just introduce yourself professionally for the first time, right? Like when you're in high school, ⁓ you might be part of student council and all sorts of different things, but it's very different when you're going into a professional working environment and learning how to interact with other more senior colleagues, getting to understand their line of work and being able to understand this learning experience is packaged in to the getting coffee for people.

is not a connection that a lot of people make. And so I'm so glad that you bring it up because I think it's so important to understand that every task that you generally do at work is, it's, it really is what you make of it. And the idea that it's so important to learn how to meet people, learn how to introduce yourself, learn how to make friends, become a kind of go-to person, it was really, really, really helpful at building your career and generally just

Iuliia Tuseeva (21:58)
.

Meeyeon (22:00)
being a likable person really helps and it also polishes off your communication skills ⁓ and that is something that is so important.

Iuliia Tuseeva (22:10)
Yeah, I'd to just add up that going to networking event is also important for a student at every university level. ⁓ Just go to networking event, get to know people about their experience, then have coffee chats. Probably it's even more

⁓ easy for you because you are, ⁓ when you go to networking event, you have, you see other students who might also be hesitating to reach out to people, but it's fine. And when you have such a community of people who are unsure how to approach other professionals, you feel more comfortable. So go to networking event. Definitely it worth it.

Meeyeon (22:47)
Yeah, you're not like if someone listening feels like, like I have a networking coming event coming up at school or as a young professional and I feel really awkward about going to it. Don't worry. So many people feel awkward about it. And so now you, so let me ask you a question because I am, I've never been an international student myself, but ⁓ in order for you to do your internship, you need to be a full-time student.

Iuliia Tuseeva (22:59)
Yeah.

Sometimes you have to be a full-time student, but if you are part-time student, you have to take other classes. So I'm not sure about other universities, but for my university, for fall and for spring semester, you have to be full-time student or full-time job. If, for example, you have part-time internship during your summer semester, you're allowed not to take any classes.

Meeyeon (23:19)
⁓ wow.

Okay, wow. So that is probably for like visa purposes, but that makes it so that it's quite a workload. It's hard to balance. So you really need to understand how to balance your time like from a very early age.

Iuliia Tuseeva (23:44)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yes, exactly.

Meeyeon (23:51)
And now you're an equity analyst at the BEAM Fund. ⁓ Can you tell us a little bit more about the BEAM Fund? It's unique in that it's associated with the university. So maybe you can kind of share with us what the BEAM Fund is all about, what kind of projects you're working on, and how you connect the, I would say, classroom learning with the real world analysis and experiences that you're having at the BEAM Fund.

Iuliia Tuseeva (24:17)
Yeah, sure. So BIM is a great experience. BIM, I would tell it's a Biddy Endowment Asset Management Fund. This is a student led $10 million ⁓ student led fund. So we invest in different ⁓ equities like global equity, Canadian equity, and fixed income. We have different people covering different sectors. And so

What we do is we analyze how our portfolio is performing. We are analyzing the industries. We are analyzing companies that we are investing in. We develop investment strategies by looking for which companies performing better or which companies are undervalued, for example, and would be great for investment to get the value from the underperform, not underperformance, undervaluation. ⁓

Also, we prepare earnings reports, analyze news, we help each other with networking by sharing job postings or by asking questions like technical questions, we have all questions to prepare for interviews. I would say we do everything in Beam that would be applicable for your future work. And not just specific job like sales and trading or equity research, we do everything. I think if you perform successfully at Beam,

You're prepared for almost every career, at least right now I think it is so. Because you do every job. do equity research reports, you prepare for equity research. ⁓ You analyze news, you do presentations, for example, analyze the strategies. You prepare for investment banking.

So I would say that this is a great program where you can learn lots of skills that would be useful for your internship, for your future job. And ⁓ at the same time, as you mentioned before, time management skills, prioritization is also important because ⁓ you are taking BIM as like a part-time job. So you have to complement it with your studying and you have to find time to allocate enough ⁓ time and effort to both BIM and studying.

So it's really important to balance both of them and to succeed in both of them. And I think it's also a good lesson for your usual life, for professionalism and so on.

Meeyeon (26:38)
And apart, so you're clearly, you've got a really full calendar, but you also are quite involved in extracurricular activities and leadership experiences outside the classroom. ⁓ You have quite a few, and I want to ask you, what do you think is your most meaningful extracurricular that you've had at your time at SFU so far? And if you could offer a piece of advice to maybe our...

younger listeners, what type of extracurricular activity you think they would get the most, ⁓ most meaningful value.

Iuliia Tuseeva (27:13)
Yeah, that might sound a little bit trivial, but I would say that Investment Club was one of my important experiences because it was at the time when I knew something about financial modeling, but I still didn't have enough experience. joining to Investment Club in my university, it's called Simon Fraser Investment Club. I also would like to highlight it because it also somehow shaped

me right now. So yeah, during the investment cloud participation, you learn how to do the reports, how to present in front of your peers, you are involving, you're involved in community of people who have the same patient about the finance, but maybe not as experienced as BIM students. So I think this is one of the activities that I'd like to highlight.

The second one is case competitions for sure. So when you learn about ⁓ some technical stuff like financial modeling presentations, ⁓ it's important to apply this in the real world. So case competitions is a great chance for you to get this experience, to apply this knowledge. And even if you make mistakes, it's fine because it's your learning. And at the same time, when you are networking during these case competitions, you also meet some other people who

may be also interested in pursuing in doing other case competitions. You may collaborate with them in the future or they may some interesting career path and which you'd like to also replicate. And I think that case competitions is the second part, the second thing that ⁓ is important to do. The third one is looking for internship and looking for internship. I think it's not like activity, but doing coffee chats.

Also not sure if it's activity, but it's important, should be part of your schedule for sure. At least one coffee chats per week, starting from first year would bring you a lot of benefit in the future.

Meeyeon (29:13)
And I'm also curious about your, I would say that what do I characterize it as, extracurricular additional learning? You've done a lot of online programs and you've completed, for example, several of CFI's programs. You've done the FMVA CMSA, FTIP, FPWM. I'm always curious, how did you find out about CFI? has there been...

like kind of like an aha moment where you found that what you learned from our courses was particularly helpful to you in your day to day.

Iuliia Tuseeva (29:46)
⁓ Yes, definitely. So CFI course, I knew it just by myself. ⁓ I said on the LinkedIn and I saw different certifications. I just saw the post about different certifications that would be great to have if you would like to a career in finance. So I know CFA was for sure there. And the second one I was considering was CFI and other which I don't think is good for mention here. ⁓

Meeyeon (29:59)
⁓

Iuliia Tuseeva (30:15)
So I was considering CFI and other ⁓ courses, but CFI, I liked it because it provides you lots of skills that are not just about financial modeling. And they're pretty at a pretty good price. So you get a lot of different courses. You can earn different certifications at a lower price than other companies would suggest to you.

Meeyeon (30:36)
You could feel free to name and

mention all of them. We welcome for you to share whoever, like whichever certification you're taking. We support our competition in that way. We know that there's, for example, I was taught by the founder of the Marquee Group. I think they're called FMI now. I think you might have taken a program from them. Yeah. But yeah, the person that founded the Marquee Group was my teacher when I started my

Iuliia Tuseeva (30:56)
for my

Meeyeon (31:06)
investment banking analyst program and I did that kind of like two weeks of in-person training. He taught me and he really opened up my eyes to the incredible benefit of practical hands-on based practice and learning for a career in finance. ⁓ Back when I was doing that though, it wasn't available online. So I find it so interesting to now the concept that it's available to everyone. It's so much more like democratic. You don't have to know someone to know someone or you don't have to

have ⁓ a job at one of the main banks in whichever region you might be in in order to access this type of information. ⁓ But going back to my question, did you find that it was particularly useful for you anywhere?

Iuliia Tuseeva (31:52)
Yes, so I started to talk about that.

At the time when I took a CFI course, I had the goal of learning more about financial modeling for the first. ⁓ At that time, I participated in National Investment Banking Case Competition and we were invited for the final round. So I really needed this structural ⁓ material or course that would provide me the insights into how to do financial modeling to succeed in the case competition. So this was the first goal why I took a CFI course.

And also I understood that these skills would be really useful for me for my future job. But at that time, it was important for me just to get as much knowledge as I can during the short period of time, during the holiday break on New Year ⁓ to prepare for case competition. And it's definitely worth it. So we were placed top 14 teams at National Investment Banking Case Competition, which I was really proud of because ⁓ it's one of the

biggest case competitions in the finance and it's a big honor to be one of the best teams.

Meeyeon (33:00)
And when you, as you complete your last year of university, do you plan to take the first level of the CFA?

Iuliia Tuseeva (33:07)
I was thinking about that. ⁓ I was thinking to take a CFA maybe next year or maybe in 2027. I think it's definitely worth it. Plus it is a few ⁓ upper classes, upper level classes are preparing you for a CFI certification. ⁓ And I think, yes, I will do it maybe in one or two years depending on my schedule.

and so how much internships I would have and my availability, but definitely I would do it in next two years.

Meeyeon (33:38)
So I think you have an extremely well-rounded background that you've developed not only through your education, but all those internships that you've had, whether it's with Alpine and private equity, through the RBC Women's Mentorship Program, ⁓ through your role in the Beam Fund, that prepares you pretty well for a lot of very different areas in finance. For example, the FMVA is very focused on ⁓

as it says, you financial modeling, but that's very much geared towards your traditional investment banking, deal, valuation oriented type of roles. But you have such a wide range of experiences that are also tailored to different types of areas like asset management or capital markets. As you get ready to graduate, what are some, what do you think actually is going to be your key area that you're going to target for a full time role?

Iuliia Tuseeva (34:27)
Yeah, that's a good question. So my primary choice is equity research because based on my case competition experience, my work at BIM, I understood that building financial models, analyzing industries and companies and preparing the work in the report as a version of reports is what really interesting for me and where I see myself in the future. But at the same time, since I have one or two more years at school, depending on my schedule,

I would like also to try myself in sales and trading or asset management ⁓ because I'm just interested to see how is it be to be in these shows, in these industries. So my primary choice is equity research, but I'm open to other internships and other roles so far.

Meeyeon (35:12)
And during your time with Beam, have you found an industry or sector that you're particularly interested in?

Iuliia Tuseeva (35:19)
Yes, ⁓ I'm really interested in healthcare. I really like it. yeah, that's not really... That's obvious for me, because ⁓ when I was in ninth grade, I was also considering to go to medicine school. And I had this choice, either economics and business or medicine. So right now...

At my third year, I still thinking about the medicine and I think it's a really good combination of things that you like when you invest, when you work with the, where you analyze industries, companies, and at the same time you do it within the sector that you were patient about before, not even before, during the whole of your life in and right now. So healthcare, the combination of healthcare and investing is what I'm patient about right now. And so.

In the future, probably I would like to work there.

Meeyeon (36:16)
Are you ready to pick up and move again for that? Because typically sales and trading internships are, at least in my experience, predominantly on the East Erin part of Canada, the United States. Would you, is that an experience that you'd be excited about moving potentially towards Toronto to do an internship there?

Iuliia Tuseeva (36:36)
Yeah, sure. Toronto is a great city where you have lots of opportunities. Vancouver is also a great one for finance roles. But again, I'm open to any roles in any city in any country because it doesn't matter for me where you work. The main thing is that I do investing or I do equity research. I do it, for example, in health care or maybe some other industries. And this is the main thing and it doesn't matter where I placed in.

Meeyeon (37:04)
And one final question just with regards to where you see yourself career wise. ⁓ Where do you think you see yourself in five years time?

Iuliia Tuseeva (37:17)
Yeah, in five years, would probably be, I see myself as an associate at one of the big names banks and probably covering healthcare industry as an equity research associate. So I would say that I see myself in this field.

Meeyeon (37:36)
And I think based off all of your preparation, typically I would ask someone, and you know, what are you doing to like prepare yourself for this role so far? But throughout our conversation, it's so obvious that everything that you are doing is so purposeful and so intentional and really a great linear path to build towards being an equity research associate eventually to an analyst. And now I want to spin to a little bit of a fun portion. Now that we've kind of gotten to know you as professional.

I'm gonna ask you some fun questions to get to know you just as Julia as a person. ⁓ Top three travel destinations on your bucket list right now. If you all of a sudden had unlimited budget, you could go to three places around the world, where would it be?

Iuliia Tuseeva (38:07)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ that's a really good question. So the first thing I would say is Germany or Austria. Because I like Europe and actually I've already been there in these countries but I like them so much so I'm ready to travel them anytime around the year. The second destination would be Singapore. Because I've never been...yeah.

Meeyeon (38:29)
Mmm.

wow, yeah, it's a great

place.

Iuliia Tuseeva (38:48)
Because I've never been there and I saw a lot of videos about the culture, about how Singapore looks like, so I'm interested in seeing in my eyes. And the third destination, probably Antarctica. Yeah, because again it's an unusual experience and I think if you have unlimited budget, it's worth to go to the...

Meeyeon (39:06)
wow, ⁓ my gosh, I didn't think of that.

Yeah, why not,

right?

Iuliia Tuseeva (39:18)
Yeah,

why not? Why not go to such an unusual place to visit? So yeah, definitely that would be the third place.

Meeyeon (39:26)
And are you a night person or a morning person?

Iuliia Tuseeva (39:30)
I'm a night person for sure. since my childhood, I really like to work until the late of the night and I don't really like to wake up early in the morning. Sometimes I have to. I would say most of the time I have to, but the most productive time of my schedule is definitely night. So I'm a night person.

Meeyeon (39:48)
And one last question just to get to know you for fun is what is a recent, ⁓ I guess there's lots of types of media out there, YouTube channel, podcast channel or like book that you've read, listened to or watched lately that you recommend for everyone.

Iuliia Tuseeva (40:07)
Well, this is a really good question.

Meeyeon (40:09)
It could be something

fun, right? could be on Netflix, something that you've enjoyed recently.

Iuliia Tuseeva (40:15)
Recently, ⁓ well, no, I would say that I really am a person who is really enjoy reading books. And I think this is this is important for everyone, even though it's 21st century and everyone is using technology. I think it's still useful to read books, because it helps you to concentrate on things. It helps you to learn something from the other people experience who lived a long time ago and had ⁓

the whole journey that they wrote in this book. So I would say reading books is what I would recommend to everyone, even in the future when the technology would be the most important part of our lives. the book that I would recommend to read is probably... a Russian, I'm a Russian. So I would recommend the Russian writers and probably that would be either Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky because they are my favorite writers. And I feel that the...

not the poems, but the work that they write is what helps you to solve lots of problems in your life. It's not just about investing or about how to build financial models. It's just how to manage your life, how to approach people. And I think this ethics side of your life is also really important because sometimes when people go to finance, they forget about their family, about

something about their hobbies and something that they did before they did finance. And I think this is really horrible thing because they forgot about themselves, about their personalities and how to approach other people. That other people also have feelings, they also have emotions. I feel reading books, especially Russian classics like the Steya's Kirtel story or maybe some other people, some other writers. Sorry.

Meeyeon (42:09)
Anna Karenina.

Anna Karenina is another voice Tolstoy. Yeah.

Iuliia Tuseeva (42:14)
Yes, yes, they could

help you to stay human in every situation and probably find some answers to your questions, your deep questions that you have in your heart. So I would recommend these books. And talking about the books again, I would say depends on person because sometimes when you read books, you don't see something that other persons see in it. It's I don't know how it works, but it's just the way you view, you see the world.

And when you read the specific books, it doesn't mean that everyone should read it because you liked it. It means it just helped you to answer this question. So my advice would be read as much as possible to understand what and to know more about this world and to find the questions in the work of professionals, the writers who already live their lives and could share their experience.

Meeyeon (43:10)
And I cannot, I can't think of anything better than those words to end this podcast on. It's been such a delight to talk to you today. Thank you everyone so much for tuning into this episode of Member Spotlight. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to check out more stories from our Community Explorer resources at CFI. And until next time, thank you everyone for listening and I will see you all here again soon. ⁓ my gosh, thank you so much, Julia.

Iuliia Tuseeva (43:35)
Thank you, Meeyeon for having me today.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me today.