Employee Spotlight: Uliana Cherniavtseva, from Intern to Product Manager

Uliana joined us in our 2022 internship cycle and after making a brilliant contribution to our product team, subsequently joined us as a full-time employee in Amsterdam. We’re pleased to share her experience as an intern at Quantile below.

Please describe your academic background.

My academic background is a very global one! Having grown up in Russia, I initially studied International Economics and Finance with Chinese in Moscow, taking part in an exchange programme in Hong Kong whilst I was there. I wanted to get more experience in finance and study something more quantitative, so I took a Masters of Finance and Quantitative Finance at the University of Amsterdam, completing a thesis on the risks of labour income. I completed my internship with Quantile whilst finishing my Masters, graduating from the University of Amsterdam in August 2022.

What drew you to an internship at Quantile?

I first found Quantile via the career’s portal at the University of Amsterdam. After the initial role appealed to me, it was the interview process which drew me in further. The interviews themselves ranged from my personal achievements, technical aspects of the role and preparing and discussing an assignment. Each interviewer was from a different department at Quantile which gave me a great opportunity to learn about different teams and how they collaborate. Meeting multiple people meant I could get a good feel for the welcoming culture at Quantile and I can confirm that everyone is as friendly as they came across in my interviews.

What did a typical day in your internship look like?

The internship was very much in line with the initial description Quantile gave, focusing on communicating with clients, mixed with some financial modelling, allowing the best of both worlds for me. The best thing about the internship was definitely that Quantile immersed me into the day-to-day work, giving me a lot of responsibility and trusting me to do my job, whilst also making it clear that the support was always there if I needed it.

In terms of a typical day, first thing in the morning I would go through any emails which had come through from the teams in New York and Sydney, catch up on any client communications and complete any tasks to ensure that we maintain a 24/5 service, an important part of being a Product Manager. I was also involved in helping with run sign-ups and file set-ups and I was really pleased that part way into the internship, I was trusted to take over whole runs, under the supervision of a manager. That meant I was looking after end-to-end run processes, including liaising with other teams within Quantile to ensure that runs proceed smoothly.

I also got involved in client relationship building, creating scenarios to work out how clients can get the best run results. The rest of my time was spent working with different teams internally to feedback how the compression run processes can be improved and testing out new product features.

Aside from the work, something I particularly enjoy about our Amsterdam office is that working in a WeWork means that you have numerous social areas where you have the opportunity to meet people from all the other businesses, it’s a very social place to work.

What key skills did you learn in your internship?

I completed a course on derivatives in my Masters, which came in handy as it gave me an understanding of Compression as a financial process as well as how to implement data checks. What the internship added was the real life application that you can’t find at university. The soft skills which you learn in the internship are second to none, for example, getting to know individual clients, anticipating and prioritising requests from them and across the company. Quantile spend a lot of time on training, they make sure you never feel isolated in your work and give you tasks to help grow your capability, which is excellent training for wherever your career takes you.

Is there any advice you would pass on to future applicants?

First of all, go for it! As I said before, Quantile’s internships consist of real work, which makes a difference to the company, that’s what sets Quantile apart. As with any financial position, having a basis of financial knowledge is important, so make sure that you read up on derivatives. In my opinion, the kind of person you are is also important. A Product Manager must be open and able to communicate with people in and outside the company. In terms of the interview, be a quick learner, make notes and prepare for the interview. Above all, just be yourself, everyone at Quantile is.

Our internship application window has now closed. We look forward to welcoming our next cohort to Quantile soon, and nurturing new talent through our internship programme.