An Interview with Fabienne Bull

Why have you decided to share your advice and experiences with Girl Economics?

Trying to navigate the world of finance (and graduate careers more broadly) can be really challenging. I’m the first to admit I felt overwhelmed when I joined university; a degree in PPE lends itself to a lot of different career paths, and I had no real idea of what I’d like to do most. Talking to others and learning from different people’s experiences was the most significant factor in helping me narrow down finance, and then global markets, as my ultimate goal. Without these iterative discussions I would’ve really struggled to identify the area that both most suited and most interested me. If you’re not from a finance background, or you don’t have friends pursing similar careers, there can oftentimes be an information barrier to fully grasping different options and routes. I definitely felt this gap, and so now try to help to inform others as much as I can.

What led you to decide to accept your full-time offer to work at Goldman Sachs?

Aside from GS’ obvious successes, I was genuinely surprised at the culture of collaboration and sharing that the firm fosters. Both within their trading academy, and then as a summer intern, I was given a huge amount of time by so many incredible people working in all aspects of the business. Having the opportunity to learn from and work alongside some of the best people out there is a real privilege, and for those very people to be so encouraging, and take an active interest in what I was doing was something I didn’t think I’d experience until I was considerably more accomplished. From my own experiences and the discussions that I’ve had with peers and professionals in other firms, this culture of collective responsibility and willingness to push one another seems singular to GS, and was the ultimate factor that drove me to accept my full-time offer to work there.

As president of the Warwick Think Tank Society, how would you describe the role of think tanks in shaping contemporary debate?

Think Tanks have a fairly unique role in shaping contemporary debate. Whilst each specific think tank can certainly vary, their research and analysis are key drivers of public debate and policymaking, and their presence can act as a critical means of holding government and other institutions accountable. Warwick Think Tank (WTT) has a particularly specific role. Given its university base, WTT serves as a dynamic and politically natural space to bring together a community of diverse students to engage in the world of policy. Aside from research reports and policy articles, WTT helps foster discussions and interests between students on all policymaking areas through the organisation of events, career advice, and competitions.

Having balanced playing sport at a high level with your studies and career aspirations, what is your advice to students on how to achieve a good work-life balance?

Firstly, don’t let anyone tell you that you won’t be able to keep a balance; over the years, I’ve had numerous people tell me how it won’t be feasible to keep playing netball nationally whilst studying, and (so far) I can confirm they were entirely wrong. You know better than anyone the limits of your own time and efforts, and so the key thing initially is simply committing to whatever it is that you’d like to do. After that, it’s a case of fine tuning. Most things in life involve some kind of compromise, so you may not be able to do absolutely everything. But you can work this out yourself, and then keep refining the balance as your situation changes. Whilst studying for the IB, I had to travel 3.5 hours each way to training twice a week. This meant, if I wanted to get the grades I was targeting, I needed to utilise this time to revise. I audio recorded flashcards that I could listen to whilst driving, or booked train journeys so that I could study whilst on the move. Finding solutions like this is sometimes necessary, and is absolutely worth it if it enables the continuation of something you love to do.

What would you recommend to students wanting to follow a similar career path as yourself?

Keep learning, keep asking questions, keep reaching out to people who can share their own experiences. Try to get as big a picture of the role you’d like to occupy, and then make sure that some of the things you’re doing currently relate to it. You shouldn’t do this simply because you have to, but because you want to; if you don’t enjoy any of the work required to get a role, maybe that role isn’t for you.

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Thanks for reading! See you in the next issue - Erin McGurk