Waldron Career Conversation with Sijh Diagne '10 & Dora Zhang '26

Dora:
First of all, thank you so much for your willingness to connect and speak with us today. And to start off, do you mind briefly introducing yourself?

Sijh:
Yes. So my name is Sijh Diagne. I am a Weinberg class of 2010, did Economics and International Studies at Northwestern. Today I work as the advisor to the CFO of the African Development Bank. It's the largest multilateral development bank in Africa. Before that, I used to be in the Senegalese government as a senior advisor to the Minister of Economy, Planning and Cooperation. So the last five years I have found myself being at the intersection of policy and finance in Africa. Really enjoy playing some of my hobbies. I enjoy playing tennis. I enjoy playing a little bit of basketball, love watching tennis as well. Had a chance to travel quite a bit. So I enjoy traveling and trying out some new foods. So that's a little bit in a nutshell about myself.

Dora:
Sounds great. I'm actually going to play tennis and basketball later today.

Sijh:
Ah, fantastic.

Dora:
It's very nice out. Yeah, I'm a big fan of tennis and basketball too.

Sijh:
Very good.

Dora:
Thank you so much for introducing yourself. So I think my first question is that we're wondering how did you end up working at the African Development Bank Group and being where you are right now?

Sijh:
Yes. So my mentor I've had since I graduated from college when I joined Oliver Wyman as a consulting, he was an investment bank at the time in Dubai, Senegalese named Amadou Hott, and he became the Minister of Economy, Planning and Cooperation of Senegal in 2019. So I sent him a text message when he became minister. At the time I was at Harvard Business School. I finished my MBA and I was working at Credit Suisse in New York. And I said, "Congratulations." And he said to me, "You should think about joining the government, you'd be good to come home and serve your country." And I said, "Yeah, yeah, it's okay. No problem. I'm enjoying banking, but I wish you the best." And long story short, he did contact me and came to New York and said, "I need you. I'm building a team. I want you to join the ministry as my advisor. You're going to be in charge of private sector development."
This was at the end of 2019, had decided thinking about everything personally and professionally, that this was going to be a really cool opportunity to serve your country, contribute to policy, especially something that I've always wanted to do since my days at Northwestern. And he took me on board and I became his advisor. We did a lot of interesting things in Senegal, COVID-19 pandemic economic recovery plan, an emergency youth jobs plan, PPP law, and really put Africa on a map, at least Senegal on a map, especially when we were sharing the African Union.
And subsequently, he then moved on from government, went to the African Development Bank as advisor to the president, special envoy. And when the CFO of the bank was looking for somebody, had asked him and he suggested my name as somebody who had the profile, given my investment banking background, coupled with my policy and government background. And that's how I ended up at the African Development Bank. So it's a quite combination of personal interests, luck, but also relationships given the fact that it was a mentor who had recommended me. And this is a lot of times how the world works at a certain level. It's word of mouth, its connection, its relationships. And that's how I ended up where I am today.

Dora:
That's really cool. I think it's really cool that you ended up contributing to your own hometown by using your interest and skills and expertise. That sounds very cool to me. And you've also mentioned that you started off as a consultant at Oliver Wyman. What led you to decide that you want to do consulting when you first graduated?

Sijh:
So consulting was a little bit by accident, I would say. At the beginning when I was a junior at Northwestern, I had an undergraduate research grant to do studies. I was doing a thesis on China's economic involvement in Africa because I was surprised that when I went on vacation in Senegal, I saw a lot of people from China in Senegal. And Senegal was not a resource-rich country at the time. We did subsequently find oil and gas, but that was much later. And I was just quite interested in that new phenomenon.
And so while I was doing that project, I started talking to merchants and consumers about business, about trade, and I got very interested in maybe the business of giving advice on strategic advice. Instead of maybe going for a master's in international relations and doing diplomacy, I maybe thought maybe I should explore deep field in management consulting, especially in emerging markets because it was one of the fastest growing markets in the world and I wanted to get exposure to that, given my Senegalese background, the fact that I also had chance to spend also a study abroad in Egypt and wanted to also develop my Arabic.
So I looked at opportunities that will place me in the Middle East where I can be focused on at the time Middle East and Africa. And Oliver Wyman was recruiting in their Dubai office, and that was my top choice. Now remind you that this was in 2009. It was at the height of the economic crisis. So it was extremely challenging to find a job, and I just remembered applying to so many jobs at the time and just feeling completely agonized that what if I don't get it? Because a lot of my classmates were not getting jobs, people were getting laid off, were not recruiting as much. And I really thought that this is the only chance I have to differentiate myself because the US market was just quite challenging. And I practiced many, many hours a day. I only took three classes when I [inaudible 00:06:37] Northwestern versus four just to give myself a chance to get to that job. And so by God's grace, I got the job and then I moved to Dubai. And that's what I ended up doing for a few years.

Dora:
That sounds really cool. So you've mentioned that it was really hard to find a job back in 2009. And I'm sure it got a lot better now, but it's still a little hard for us because I'm a junior, so I'm also applying for jobs. It's still hard, especially for international students to find jobs. So is there any advice or suggestion you can give to the students seeking for a job in financial service or just seeking for a job in general?

Sijh:
Do not underestimate the power of the alumni network and in your relationships. When I was applying for jobs at the time at Oliver Wyman, most of the people who were interviewing me were from the Chicago office, Northwestern alum. And so I really tapped into that network at the beginning. It's the only network really I'd had at the time, frankly. And so in any job you have to look at what is required of the job in terms of skill set. Does it match currently the skill sets that you've been building or working on?
And then number two, just really talk to alumni, talk to your network who work in those fields. Because oftentimes what might make a difference is just a person at the right time saying, "Oh, I know this person. I've worked with this person, I've interacted with this person. I can tell this person's character. I can tell this person's work ethic. I can tell about how assiduous they are. I can tell about how much integrity, how good communicator they are, and how consistent they have been in terms of reaching out, following up, asking the right questions and really putting in the work." Because at the end of the day, that might be what differentiates one or two candidates, what you do well, what you can control, having a good GPA applying for the job, but tailoring your CV, preparing for the interviews. But at the end of the day, sometimes the decisions are being made based on other emotional quotient. What were the interactions like with the people who you've met? Have you been very consistent at reaching out at talking to them? What has been your demeanor?
I found that these interactions really made a difference, and so I made it a point in my career to just continue to reach out to mentors, continue to reach out to people in my different circles. This interview that we're having today would not have been possible if it weren't for a Northwestern alum, my sister Nikki Okrah, who gave a brilliant commencement speech last year and to whom I'm being very, very grateful for to open doors. And these are the ways in which the Northwestern alumni has been used. Nikki and I have been friends for almost 17, 18 years, since freshman year of college. She's back in Ghana building Chaku Foods, which is a startup in the agricultural space. And so my point is just leverage the network, build genuine relationships with people, your colleagues, your peers, and these things will pay dividends over time.

Dora:
I definitely agree because I've been doing networking and coffee chats with a lot of alumni as well, and I know that they have also been reaching out and talking to a lot of students. But I don't know if this question might be a little repetitive. Do you have any advice or suggestion for students to maybe stand out in those conversations? Like you mentioned being consistent and always follow up, but is there any more things or specific strategies we could use to...

Sijh:
Yeah, and I think these times are very challenging times as you can see given what's happening at the global environment. Quite challenging, quite complex, but it's also a tremendous time of opportunities and growth. One way in which I differentiated myself at the time when I was graduating is that I knew I had a language differentiator. I was fortunate to speak five languages, including Arabic, which was a differentiating factor when I was applying for jobs in the Dubai office. Being from Senegal, having had good quality education from Chicago at Northwestern and making sure that you had a good academic performance, those were things that at least I could differentiate myself. So I also already felt like I was competitive on the international front.
I could make sure that I may not have been competitive on the local front in a Chicago office front because I think they were much stronger candidates. But for sure, I used my skillset, my international background, the fact that I did an international studies degree sort of understood some of the geopolitical implications at the time, to my advantage. And even when I was transitioning into investment banking, I gave myself that opportunity. So when I was at Harvard, when I was applying for my internship at Credit Suisse, again, the differentiating factor made it that I did an international degree, I had an international experience having worked in many different countries, being based in Dubai, covering Middle East and Africa. Having done consulting as somebody who's transitioning into financial services gives you the problem-solving skills, give you the ability to just synthesize dense information into small, consistent and simple messages to be able to tailor messages based on your audience.
And those were a few skillsets that I picked up from my consulting background that were really helpful not only for investment banking, which you're transitioning to the financial services, but even beyond, skillsets such as communication, skillsets such as the ability, like I said, to look at complex problems and breaking them down into smaller pieces that can take you from point A to point B, and your ability to explain to different audiences the key messages. If you're meeting with a senior executive, what is the message that he needs to hear? How are you able to explain that to him? When you're meeting with more technical people, what level of information do you need and how do you communicate that effectively?
Those are skillsets that are going to be very important no matter what you do, especially in financial services as well, because what happens is you're taking a lot of data from very, very different data sets and you're trying to synthesize them into something that can be actionable, recommendable for senior executives to make a decision about his company, his business, or for a country in the case of government.

Dora:
That sounds really cool and very helpful, all the skillsets you've mentioned. So how is working in consulting and financial service, for example, investment banking, different to you?

Sijh:
Yeah, so consulting and investment banking, those are both advisory businesses. So in that way they're kind of similar. You are always looking at what are your client's most pressing issues, and you're trying to solve them. Maybe in a consultant you might be more thinking about the strategic issues, market entry strategy, cost-cutting strategies. Maybe if you're doing corporate finance and investment banking, you are advising them on what is the optimal financial structure that you have, maybe what are the acquisitions that you need to do in order to generate the shareholder return and meet your fiduciary duties towards your shareholders. Those are in a way similar but also different skill sets. What I love about investment banking in particular as a great training is that you're still problem solving. You become very financially savvy and you really pay attention to details. It is about having strong attention to detail that will really make a difference in a way.
You have to be able to understand the financial implications of your decisions of the data, while at the same time still have to communicate in a way that the senior executive in front of you, the CEO or the CFO or the head of business development, understand and also take your recommendations and action them. At the end of the day, the strategic advice needs to be actionable. And I really want to put an emphasis on the action part because you're getting paid to provide a service that he can take and say, "I can make this happen and I can generate returns and I can generate a results." So that's what I would say the similarities, but also the differences and what skill sets you need to pay attention to in order to move up the financial services ladder.
I didn't stay very long in investment banking. I only did it for a little under three years. But the skill sets that I picked up there in terms of just understanding finances, reading the balance sheet, the income statement, the cash flows, being able to quickly analyze that and then also help make a decision. When I came to government, one of the things that I really picked up, because we were doing the COVID-19 response for Senegal, we had to move really fast. We didn't know how the world was going because there was no playbook on how to do a COVID-19 response.
But the investment banking and the consulting approach made it so that I knew how to take data that was happening from different parts of the world, the benchmarking that was being done. If you're doing comparable transactions in banking, similar things. What's happening in France, what's happening in Germany, what's happening in Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, et cetera? And then thinking about in your country, in Senegal, how would some of these fiscal or monetary policies actually be useful, be actually be easily implementable and will have the intended results for your population?
So thinking very critically about those problems, analyzing data, large data and synthesizing them into simple, actionable items, that's what enabled us to move quickly to make recommendations directly for the president, for him to take action and for us to mobilize the resources from our partners, the World Bank, the IMF, the other bilateral and multilateral partners, for us to have a plan that can fight against COVID-19 response. So that experience was a combination of the consulting skillset, problem solving, and the financial services, attention to detail, understanding financial statements, thinking about client implications that made us have the results, and those are very invaluable skill sets no matter what industry you choose to always have.

Dora:
That sounds really cool to me. All of your experiences, either from consulting or investment banking are so helpful to your current role and your job. That sounds very cool to me. So thank you so much for sharing about the student alumni connection and your career. So another question as a student we have is that how do you stay motivated? Because we're still pursuing a job and seeking for a job, and sometimes it can be very overwhelming. So I'm just curious if you have any strategy or approach.

Sijh:
Look, the reality is you have to tell yourself it is hard. It is hard to recruit in these times that are very challenging where there's a lot of uncertainty, and understanding that it is hard first, and acknowledging is really first of all important. I probably applied to about 60 or so jobs and barely got more than five interviews. So you have to stomach the ability of rejection. I hear so many nos. It can be very disappointing. You can feel low about yourself. You can have, am I good enough? You can feel like, are you good enough? Were you smart enough? Did you work hard enough? You can really doubt yourself in these moments.
But the key is just to think about is to stay optimistic. Stay optimistic that after the bad times, good times will come. You just stay the course. You just have to have an objective in mind. You want to recruit for this type of position, and you just give yourself the best chance for you to do this. Recruit, stay consistent. Have maybe a peer to peer review so that your peers can also keep you in check. I had a very good friend of mine at Northwestern named [inaudible 00:19:38] in my class. We were recruiting together. We used to practice our cases together. We used to check in on one another. "How are you doing?" We were spending many, many hours together every day, but keeping each other in check, keeping each other accountable.
Having an accountability partner in this journey is also very, very helpful. And I found having that was really helpful for me to stay motivated. Leaning into your support system, your family, your loved ones, your friends, your professors, some alumni who can maybe give you comfort that, "Hey, tough times is part of life, but if you stay the course, things will work out." That there's always going to be bumps along the road, and I had my fair share of bumps along the road and continue to have bumps. But it's just the ability to keep at it, to stay, to be optimistic, to have a goal in mind, and just to give yourself a chance to work towards it while leaning on your support system, I think is what is going to carry you through some of the tough times you face as a student.
And I think the last thing I would say is just to keep perspective, because you might seem like this is the worst things, but at the end of the day, you're giving yourself a chance to have a great education. The Northwestern brand is really strong. To this day, 15 years out, I haven't reached the peak of my career yet. I still have ways to go, but I'm finding that how powerful it has been, how helpful it has been based on the resources that I tapped into when I was in undergrad, the connections that I made that enabled me to get to where I am today. As I mentioned, my friend, Nikki Okrah, who's building a fantastic company, who gave me this opportunity to speak to these students as a Northwestern alum, as a friend and a sister. Those are things that will stay with you. So stay the course. Tell yourself it's hard. You understand. But you will get to the other side.

Dora:
Thank you so much.

Sijh:
And this too shall pass, as we say.

Dora:
Thank you so much for saying all of this. It's really motivating and so nice of you to say all of this to students. I feel like it's very helpful for everyone who's seeking jobs or underclassmen figuring out what they want to do after graduation in general. But yeah, just thank you so much again for your willingness to connect with all the students and for coming to the Weinberg in the World Podcast interview. We hope to stay in touch with you. Thank you.

Sijh:
It is my pleasure.