This year we celebrate International Women's Day (IWD) with the theme "Embrace Equity". The theme moves away from equality and provides a greater awareness of acknowledging and accepting that in order to create an even playing field, women must be equipped with resources and tools that help them succeed, and the effort should be to allocate the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. These inspirational women representing Tiger Brokers AU challenge the stereotypes, draw attention to bias and seek equal opportunity and equity in the fintech industry. They also understand that what benefits one woman may not benefit the other; it's not a 'one size fits all' situation. We sat down and got to know the women of Tiger Brokers AU better and asked them about the challenges they face in the fintech industry and what they see as challenges faced by female investors.
Jenny, Head of Trade and Operations
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Can you tell us how you first got started in the fintech industry?
I got started in the fintech industry working for an Australian stockbroker company, the fintech industry involves the increasing use of technology in finance and it has grown rapidly in recent years.
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What's it like to work in the investment sector?
Working in the investment sector can be both challenging and achieving, it involves conducting research, analysing financial data and reports, and making informed decisions about buying and selling assets. The investment sector is fast-paced, and dynamic and requires a strong understanding of the global economy, financial markets, and investment strategies.
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Do you think there are challenges that women face working in the fintech industry? If so, what are these challenges? And how have you worked around them?
There are several challenges women have been facing in the fintech industry, for example, gender bias, lack of opportunities in leadership roles, and generally less pay. I have actively built networks, keep studying and developing my skills, and stay up to date with industry trends and developments.
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The investment sector seems to be more male-dominant than female. Why do you think that is?
This may be due to a variety of factors such as social norms, biases and historical barriers to entry for women, however, there are many underway to address these issues and increase gender diversity in the industry.
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Can you tell us what you think are the challenges faced by women when it comes to investing?
The challenges women face when it comes to investing mainly include a lack of confidence, they may think investing is too complex or risky, also certain family duties caused less time to study or gain the necessary information for investment. Women need to educate themselves about the basics of investing, start from small and pick trusted financial advisors for further help.
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What's your trick to a work-life balance?
Even though it’s not easy, I always try to set clear boundaries between work and personal time, prioritise and delegate tasks when need to work during personal time. It is also important to take breaks, travel when possible, and do more exercise to stay active and healthy both physically and mentally.
Jenny, Head of Legal and Compliance
Click to see Jenny's interview.Cindy, Head of Settlement
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Can you tell us how you first got started in the fintech industry?
I started my financial services career with an international bank, and this is my first fintech after serving in major finance and operations roles at investment banking. I love what I do, and when I was considering my next move, I love to apply my expertise in a completely new fintech environment.
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What's it like to work in the investment sector?
It is a fast-paced and intense nature offering a steep learning curve.
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Do you think there are challenges that women face working in the fintech industry? If so, what are these challenges? And how have you worked around them?
Yes. You have to work hard to deliver what you say you will do and earn trust. You have to be really passionate about what you do and work with integrity.
During the pandemic, the biggest challenge is virtually building up a new settlement function, business relationships and culture from scratch. Three months on the job, I led the team to successfully launch the automatic payment process. Without advanced technology and my talented colleagues, we would not be where we are today.
Gender does matter when you work in the finance industry, however, what also matters more is your expertise, passion, hardworking and perseverance.
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The investment sector seems to be more male-dominant than female. Why do you think that is?
It is true that the industry is improving, but there is still a lot of work to do. It is not uncommon to see that only a few women have seats in the boardroom or take C-suite roles.
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Can you tell us what you think are the challenges faced by women when it comes to investing?
Empower women and give women equal opportunity.
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What's your trick to a work-life balance?
It is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books. Find your passion, manage your time well, and take good care of your health.
Kat, Trade Associate
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Can you tell us how you first got started in the fintech industry?
I started my fintech career with Tiger Australia after graduating from USYD business school. While I was in university, taking the finance course I became interested in stock trading. Therefore, after graduating from university I decided to join the fintech industry, and then I found Tiger.
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What's it like to work in the investment sector?
For me, it’s a very interesting learning journey, every day I’m acquiring different knowledge from different areas. Since it’s my first job, there is a lot of investment knowledge that I never learned from the university and now I’m getting to know all this from the team training. Besides, taking clients’ phone calls every day brings me new challenges, and solving their issues allows me to learn more from the investors’ perspective.
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Do you think there are challenges that women face working in the fintech industry? If so, what are these challenges? And how have you worked around them?
I haven’t met any challenges that strongly affect my work as a woman, however, I guess families and child-rearing could be big challenges for women who have their own families, I just haven’t reached that stage yet.
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The investment sector seems to be more male-dominant than female. Why do you think that is?
Like mentioned before, there are some challenges women face now, and I believe traditionally the investment sector seems to be more male-dominant since these challenges have been there a long time.
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Can you tell us what you think are the challenges faced by women when it comes to investing?
I do find myself not that sensitive to numbers and technology compared to most males I know, investing always seemed confusing and intimidating before I started my career. I feel I can’t react to numbers and graphs very quickly compared to my male friends or colleagues. Therefore, in my spare time, I read more fintech-related articles and websites to improve myself, and I also trade by using the demo account that Tiger offers. I hope practice makes perfect.
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What's your trick to a work-life balance?
Focus on work while working, and leave everything behind it after 5 pm. I dance after work, sweat it out and it makes me feel good.
Crystal, Compliance Analyst:
Click to see Crystal's interview.
Stella, Settlement Associate
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Can you tell us how you first got started in the fintech industry?
When I landed my first finance job, it was a company which traded binary options, since then I started my journey working in fintech industry.
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What's it like to work in the investment sector?
Fast-paced, customer-oriented, an everchanging and dynamic environment
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Do you think there are challenges that women face working in the fintech industry? If so, what are these challenges? And how have you worked around them?
Yes, I think there are a lot of challenges women face, strong competition, and their voice doesn't get heard that often, especially for those that have kids, they will have more family responsibilities.
There are a few times when I reach out to our counterparties, and my questions and inquiries did not get prioritised which requires quite a bit of effort to follow up and get the results, therefore the challenges I faced that sometimes I do need to be persistent to get what I want.
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The investment sector seems to be more male-dominant than female. Why do you think that is?
I feel that men in fintech are rational and calm, confident and louder or willing to speak up.
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Can you tell us what you think are the challenges faced by women when it comes to investing?
Women are seen as emotional, sensitive, or even impulsive sometimes. The challenge faced by women I think is that women tend to follow their "guts" instead of the facts.
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What's your trick to a work-life balance?
I use a separate work desk for my job when working from home, will move away from this work desk once I finished work in order to physically help switch my mind to not-working mode, and play badminton regularly which helps build stamina and tackle stress. Over the years I found that regular exercises can help me maintain a positive mindset to deal with difficult work situations, and with life as well.
Maria, Marketing Associate
Click to see Maria's interview.
Disclaimer: This testimonial was provided by a current employee of TBAU. The content in the testimonial is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, a recommendation or endorsement for any financial product or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide financial product advice. TBAU makes no representations or warranties and takes no responsibility for the accuracy, truthfulness, legality, decency, or any other aspect of any comments and views shared in the testimonial. See risk disclosures, PDS, TMD, FSG and T&Cs via our website before trading and seek independent advice if necessary. Tiger Brokers (AU) Pty Limited (TBAU) ABN 12 007 268 386 AFSL 300767
