For our final event, we’ve got Doyin Ishola, Senior Implementation Consultant at Alfa. We asked her some quick fire questions to get to know her ahead of the panel.

Doyin is the functional lead for one of our largest UK client-projects. Aside from my implementation responsibilities, she also co-chairs the Alfa for racial equity community, which exists to foster an environment conducive to racial diversity at Alfa through recruitment, retention and development of racial minority colleagues, and works with allies to instigate positive change, internally and externally.

Could you briefly describe your career journey?

I joined Alfa on the graduate program and have been here for over 3 years now. But my post-university career actually started 2 years before that, in a different graduate program in the semi-conductor industry. There, I enjoyed learning about the industry and working on my technical skills but was soon drawn to the Asset Finance industry and decided to make an early career pivot.
You could say my journey in Alfa is still in the early stages but I have been in some very different roles since I joined. I am currently on a project-focused implementation team and prior to that, I spent 2 years on the Support team where I was responsible for managing the post production relationship for two of Alfa’s clients. Before that I had a 6 month stint on a research and development team which was focused on assessing the viability of introducing new technologies into the company landscape.

What has surprised you most about working in your industry?

There is so much scope and openness to technological advancement. When one thinks about Asset Finance, it’s easy to think “oh that’s just loans and accounting”. While those are fundamental and important areas, there is also a lot of breadth for innovation. Because it is an industry that interacts with many other industries, there are a lot of exciting opportunities to improve the processes with which we make financing possible.

What career advice would you give 20 year old you?

Don’t be afraid of challenging yourself. You are capable and people around you know it.

You can catch Doyin at our ‘Mapping out Tech’ event on the 14th October at 4pm. Register for the event via this link