Puja Modha

Citi has been working in conjunction with ELBA to engage a diverse range of participants in its Legal, Compliance and Control Summer Work Placement Programme.

The programme aims to engage young, talented individuals from a variety of backgrounds. One of the candidates who took part in the 2011 scheme was Puja Modha, who took to her 11-week placement with great enthusiasm, making a real impact with the Citi team.

Name: Puja Modha

Age: 22

Where do you live? I live in Watford (North West London).

Can you tell us a bit about your background?

I attended a local secondary school and have lived in Watford for most of my life. However, when I attended university I moved to Mile End (east London) for three years.

What were you doing before you took part in ELBA's women's network?

Before I took part in ELBA’s women’s network, I was studying an undergraduate degree in law at Queen Mary University of London.

During this time period I also completed:

  • a number of pro bono projects with law firms and other organisations;
  • volunteer work in Watford and Mile End;
  • participated in a student enterprise competition in which my team won and
  • completed work experience at a number of organisations including Thomson Reuters. The experience that I gained at Thomson Reuters is partly because of ELBA’s women’s network. This is because through the network I was paired with a career mentor who kindly gave me advice and offered me work experience in the organisation.

Where did you hear about the programme?

As I am a member of the ELBA women’s network, I received an email from the organisation stating that Citi were seeking candidates to recruit on their Summer Work Placement Programme in Legal and Compliance.

How has it helped you?

A place on the Summer Work Placement Programme at Citi has helped me in a number of ways:

  • I have been able to utilise my existing skills and further develop them. For example, I have been able to utilise my organisational and time-management skills and importantly, further develop these skills so that they are much stronger.
  • I have been able to further develop my understanding of the financial sector and the relationship that banks have with each other and their regulators.
  • I have also had the opportunity to meet a number of successful individuals from different cultures and backgrounds – all of which have been kind enough to provide me with advice and guidance in relation to my work at the company and with my career in general.
  • As the company have paid each candidate on the Summer Work Placement Programme, I have been able to use this money to help me fund a postgraduate degree in law which I will doing part-time from August 2011. This is because the company have recently offered me a job as an Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Analyst which I will be doing full-time from September 2011.

Tell me a bit more about the programme. Where is it, how did you get it, what will you be doing, how long is it? Is the law an area you have wanted to go into?

The LCC Summer Work Placement Programme at Citi is based in the Canary Wharf office and lasts for 11 weeks. Each of the candidates have been allocated to primarily sit in one department. The department that I have been allocated to sit in is Compliance. 

Whilst I have been working in Compliance, I have:

  • Reviewed, amended and drafted compliance advisories;
  • Ensured that the company is complying with financial regulation by reviewing contracts; and
  • Attended governance meetings, departmental meetings and external meetings.

Even though I have been primarily allocated to sit in the Compliance department, Citi have been flexible enough to allow me the opportunity to gain an insight into the other departments.

The other candidates and I were also assigned two tasks to complete as a team. The first task was to organise a summer event for all the employees in Legal and Compliance. The second task was to complete a presentation on mobile banking to members of Legal and Compliance’s Senior Leadership team, including the Heads of Legal and Compliance for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Do you think employers have preconceptions about people from East London? What message would you have for employers?

I think that some employers do have preconceptions about people from East London; however, I think that these preconceptions are now moving from being negative to being positive.

Although, for employers that have a negative preconception about people from East London – I think that it is now time for them to recognize the breadth of talent that they could acquire from people from East London (whether permanent or temporary residents).

My university was based in East London and I studied with a number of individuals from different countries in the world. If employers were to employ these individuals then it would give them a competitive advantage. These individuals have experienced different cultures and can speak different languages and importantly, they can help an employer as they can relate their cultures and language skills to the employers existing and potential client base.

There are many permanent residents of East London who are bi-lingual and as a result, employers should offer them opportunities. The ability to fluently speak another language is extremely useful and employers could benefit from these individuals’ ability to communicate with their potential and existing client base.