Interview with Ianka Bhatia, Analyst (Strategy, Corporate Development and Consumer & Market Insights) at MassMutual
This week, we had the chance to speak with Ianka Bhatia, who is currently a part of the Immerse program at MassMutal. Ianka is a 2018 graduate from Wellesley, where she majored in International Relations — Political Science.
Hi Ianka! Thank you for speaking to Wellesley Investment Society today. Can you please introduce yourself?
Ianka: Hi everyone! My name is Ianka Bhatia. I’m a Class of 2018 grad from Wellesley. I just graduated with a degree in International Relations-Political Science. Post graduation, I was looking for a job that would allow me to leverage the skills from my degree but wasn’t necessarily political. I was lucky enough to come across an interesting opportunity, the “immerse” experience, at MassMutual, a consumer finance and insurance company. Based in Boston, I work across strategy, corporate development and consumer & market insights teams, giving me more of a broad feel for a variety of different sectors within finance and strategy. Currently, I’m in my corporate development rotation after working for about three months in strategy.
Can you tell me a little bit more about immerse and your past rotation in strategy?
Ianka: Immerse is a two-year experience in which you can work across three different corporate fields. The three fields are corporate strategy, corporate development and consumer & market insights. Strategy helps shape the direction of the company through fact-based analysis of internal businesses (i.e., performance across the different business lines) and external opportunities (i.e., evolving consumer preferences or regulations), working closely with and influencing key decision-makers and leaders within the company. They’re essentially internal strategy consulting. Corporate development is more about mergers and acquisitions. It uses a lot of the skills from investment banking to execute strategic transactions, involves the valuation of companies, and overall helps inform the company on what to buy, partner or divest from. Lastly, there is also consumer and market insights, which is a new department within MassMutual. It involves learning from our customers and competitors to make better business decisions. In my past rotation, I worked in strategy, looking at a broad picture of what MassMutual’s vision is for 2019. I worked particularly with our financial advisor line of business and analyzed different trends happening in the industry and helped create a presentation that was presented to our executive team.
Can you tell us more about what you did during your summers before going to MassMutual?
Ianka: When I started my job, I thought I had a pretty unusual background, although I’m learning it’s not quite as uncommon as I expected. For a long time, I thought I would go into politics or non-profit work — hence my political science major. Although that turned out not to be the case post-graduation, it has resulted in a variety of work experience unrelated to finance. My first year, I worked at a women’s shelter in Mauritius, which I followed up the next summer with a placement at Index on Censorship, a nonprofit in London. That work experience was a mix of event-planning, research, and writing articles. Junior year, I decided to foray a little bit into law and technology by taking on a boutique consulting job that focused on intellectual property litigation. I guess you could say I am a jack of all trades in many ways, and I think each of these experiences helped garner skillsets that I leverage every day at work.
How was your transition from college to an environment where you work forty or plus hours a week?
Ianka: Honestly, I am very much enjoying being a working adult and the transition wasn’t all that difficult even though my day to day is quite different from Wellesley. Initially, it was a bit strange to have somewhat of a set schedule/routine and be in the same building all day unlike at college where you are always moving around. Even though I am always going to meetings and wandering around the office for various reasons, I definitely don’t get as much exercise as I used to! Another difference is that work takes up so much of your day time that it’s super important to be methodological of how you’re using your free time in terms of making sure you’re still seeing your friends since you’re less likely to run into them organically. The other major transition for me was a bit more of mindset shift — I think at Wellesley, we are hardwired to be perfectionists. Although that’s definitely appealing for employers, it’s also important to take a step back every once in a while and make sure you’re working smart and hard in order to keep a good work-life balance. Put in extra hours when you need them, but don’t fall into a habit, and make sure you are communicating clearly about expectations. Good work environments are crucial for this, and I am lucky to have one.
What is the culture like at MassMutual?
Ianka: When I hear the word insurance, I have a lot of stereotypes in my head, like old brick buildings and traditional mindsets. Luckily, I haven’t found that to be the case at all. MassMutual has been around for more than 160 years and I think part of that has been because they’ve specifically worked to develop an innovative culture that keeps up with the times. That comes from both aggregating unique perspectives and carefully curating our environment. For example, my team is very diverse. We share different nationalities and work experiences; one of my co-workers was a law professor at West Point, another played piano at Julliard, and one even came from a tech background. I think our diversity helps foster creativity and is a major reason our team is so successful at what we do.
In terms of the environment, our physical spaces are also built to foster collaboration and innovation. We’re actually transitioning to an open concept workspace, which involves communal tables without assigned desks and glass conference rooms that you can walk in and out of. It gives off tech and startup vibes, topped off with a really soothing ocean view. It’s very beautiful! This coupled with our generally flat hierarchy means that you can interact with and learn from people who work higher levels as well, which is a great bonus.
Did you use any concepts or skills that you learned from Wellesley at your current work, and how has a liberal arts education benefitted you so far?
Ianka: Honestly, for a while, I felt a bit of imposter syndrome when I first started my job. I was really excited to learn new skillsets but felt like I wouldn’t be able to contribute given my limited financial experience prior to joining MassMutual. It wasn’t until I had actually looked at my co-workers’ backgrounds that I realized mine wasn’t all that unusual. Many of them have liberal arts degrees — and there’s a reason for that. Workplaces can teach you skills, whether that is coding, modeling, or even just basic functions on excel, but it is a whole lot more of an investment to teach creative and critical ways of thinking. At Wellesley, given all our degree requirements, we are always learning how to think with different perspectives. It’s a huge asset; don’t underestimate it!
Honestly, I think any major you pursue at Wellesley will give you useful skillsets you can leverage even if they aren’t necessarily the most numerical (although it is important to some degree!). My political science classes taught me to think critically in a structured yet creative way and then how to articulate it. Whether you’re struggling to come up with a thesis for why something is happening in Syria or interpreting a line of French poetry, you are learning to creatively problem-solve, and that’s a skill that is transferable no matter where you work.
What do you like about going to work every day?
Ianka: I took this job because I wanted to learn a variety of different skill sets and feel like I was doing something new every day. I’m someone who really enjoys project-based work — diving deep into something, becoming an expert, coming up with a solution, and then doing it all over again in a different setting… So, what I love most about this job — the thing that gets me into work every day — is the fact that I never know what to expect. I’m always meeting new people and working on solving something new — it’s very exciting. I also have great co-workers that always have interesting perspectives and are always teaching me something new.
How would you say the people in your team helped you learn new skills? What kind of support did they give you?
Ianka: I think one of the most important things to do when you start your first job is to look for a mentor, someone who’s really going to look out for your best interest. For me, I’m very lucky in the sense that I didn’t have to look for anyone; they came to me. As the youngest member of my team, I feel like all of my colleagues try really hard to help me think critically about what skill sets I want to build and help me set benchmarks for that. It’s important to have mentors who just recognize the balance between helping me solve my immediate problem (“here’s the command you need to fix your excel sheet”) and coaching ( “Here are some resources to help you think about this problem, why don’t you look it over and then we can brainstorm together”).
Also, one of my managers made a good point about different types of mentorship. He says that there are three: 1) people who will give you feedback and guidance on how you are doing in your specific job, 2) people who give you more general career advice and help you figure out your future trajectory, and 3) people who give you specific advice for certain topics. It’s important to have a good blend of all these types of mentorship. Whereas the first track of mentorship is fairly easy to find and often built into corporate structure, the latter two require a fair amount of introspection and self-advocacy in terms of finding the right fit. Honestly, though, most of the time, if you have trouble figuring out what you need, you just have to ask!
What do you like to do outside of work?
Ianka: I am a very extroverted person, so outside of work, I make a concentrated effort to get dinner with someone else every single day — I’ve become a big foodie, checking out lots of restaurants in the Boston area. On my weekends, I like to take long walks wandering the city, exploring new cafes and museums, and exploring some of the smaller parks just outside Boston when the weather is nice.
Do you have any advice for students interested in going into finance, investment, insurance especially students who are coming from more non-traditional backgrounds?
Ianka: You are your own best advocate. Don’t ever undersell yourself, your skillsets or your capacity to learn. When I was at Wellesley, I spent a lot of time worrying and selling myself short. I hesitated to send emails because I did not want to take up someone’s time; I didn’t apply to jobs that I didn’t seem to hit all the qualifications for. But, at the end of the day, I took a leap of faith and applied to this job and it worked. To get into Wellesley, to survive at Wellesley, and to thrive at Wellesley takes an exceptional amount of hard work and intelligence. You’ve already proven your skills, just make sure you have the opportunity to convey them in the best light. Utilize all the tools you possibly can — go to Career Ed for resume help, reach out to alums, message connections on LinkedIn, and apply to that job you aren’t sure of. The worst people can do is say no or not respond, but you won’t know unless you try!
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