Nuria Pauly

Name: Nuria Pauly
Employer: WestLB AG
Area of work: Risk management & control
University: Kaiserslautern University
Subject: BSc business and mathematics

At university I studied banking, finance and mathematics, which helped me to decide that I wanted to work in banking. I felt that risk management would be an ideal area to combine my interests in quantitative analysis and business.

My job

As part of the graduate programme I have been rotating through different risk management teams. Generally, the work involves calculating and managing risk using key figures. We have to validate the risk figure, check the profit/loss balance and do market checks.

At the moment I am working in a team dealing with emerging markets and credit default swaps, which means I am in contact with traders and other parts of the bank. I especially enjoy the analytical aspect of the work. I’ve been able to work in different teams while rotating through different parts of the business, which has meant that I’ve seen how they are connected and have met people across the organisation.

New challenges

I hadn’t worked in a bank before, so I found it a challenge to get acquainted with new processes, systems and vocabulary when I first started – it was all new to me. Luckily colleagues were very helpful and support was there for me. Working across different teams has helped me to build a network within the bank and see how processes relate on a larger scale.