When Toral Bhavsar was just four months into her job at Citi Canada, she was assigned to a big project. “I was really worried about the fact that I’d been there a short time, and what if I failed to deliver?” recalls the Java developer. In the end, the project was a success. Not only that, but the company celebrated her achievement.
“I didn’t expect anything, but my managers and my site lead sent an email to everyone, including senior management, congratulating me, and I was given an award. Suddenly, in the midst of the pandemic and people working remotely, everyone in the company knew who I was. Citi really shows its appreciation.”
In her 18 months with the company, says Bhavsar, she has been amazed by the commitment to employee growth at Toronto-based Citi Canada, a subsidiary of the financial-services multinational Citi. The Canadian entity hosts a large technology-development group, while the front office focuses on safeguarding assets, lending money, making payments and accessing capital markets on behalf of its clients.
Bhavsar has been able to take advantage of a multitude of training opportunities which have helped her advance from junior to senior Java developer. “When I started,” she says, “I assumed it would take me two or three years to get to move up, but I was promoted within my first year. Citi is always encouraging, motivating and rewarding you if you make an effort.”
“We take our talent very seriously,” says Ian Ng, operations and technology lead and Toronto site president. “Every year, the site’s leadership looks for employees who need extra support, development and mentorship, and we provide all those things to help them get to the next level. And we have talent development programs for people who aspire to be leaders. A big part of our growth has been to promote from within and progress the people who join us into more senior roles by giving them opportunities.”
Because Citi has been investing a lot in its Canadian franchise, observes Ng, opportunities keep growing. “When I joined Citi Canada, within the technology space, we were probably somewhere between 200 and 400 people. Now we have more than 1,500 technologists in Canada while the total staff in this country has grown to well over 2,000 people.”
Ng, who‘s been with Citi Canada almost 10 years, has himself been a beneficiary of that culture, which also includes a focus on cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. “I started as a junior technologist,” he says. “And since then, I’ve been provided with training and opportunities across the bank that have allowed me to grow my career within the firm. I attended leadership programs and travelled quite a bit to places like New York and London to get exposure to the global business.”
Citi Canada also places great emphasis on diversity, notes Ng, and is very committed to gender equity. “We were among the first to publish the salary differences between our male and female genders. And we ensure that when we hire a new group of graduates, we have at least a 50/50 gender split.”
Citi has numerous programs to foster female employees. And for Bhavsar, that has been a real boon. “Among other things, there are women-empowerment events like town halls for females, and you can participate in hackathons for women. These things boost our confidence and motivate us to think outside the box and present our ideas to senior management.”
