Most Important Skills for a Director of Strategic Finance at Tala
Zu, a Director of Strategic Finance, emphasizes that essential skills vary depending on company stage, noting that early-stage companies prioritize "really good financial modeling skills," "data skills," and "being creative," adapting models beyond traditional three-statement formats to encompass operational, headcount, and sales pipeline analyses. Effective communication, simplifying complex models for diverse audiences using creative methods such as GIFs, is also crucial for success, as highlighted by their interview process's complex case studies.
Financial Modeling, Data Analysis, Communication, Problem-Solving, SQL
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Zu Daya
Director of Strategic Finance
Tala
University of Toronto
MBA, University of Toronto
Biology & Related Sciences, Economics
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Finance
International Student, Honors Student, Immigrant, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. Financial modeling skills are crucial, especially in building operational models beyond traditional three-statement models. This involves creating models for various aspects of the business, such as headcount, talent, sales pipeline, and product evaluation.
2. Strong data analysis skills are essential, including proficiency in SQL to extract and manipulate data independently. The ability to transform messy data into clear, well-formatted models and presentations is key.
3. Excellent communication and presentation skills are vital for effectively conveying complex information to diverse audiences. Simplifying complex models and using visual aids like GIFs can greatly enhance understanding and impact
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
The skills for a Strat Fin Professional are wide-ranging. It really depends on the type and stage of the company you're joining.
For example, if you're joining a very junior company, like a seed stage, Series A, B, C, or even D, the skills of a Strat Fin Pro are generally assumed. These include really good financial modeling and data skills, including data modeling. You also need to be creative.
About 90% of the work is done in Google Sheets or Excel. This isn't the same financial modeling found in investment banking, where you build three-statement models and do analysis. When you join a company and work in-house, you're not constantly building three-statement models.
Instead, you'll be building operational models, like headcount or talent models, sales pipeline models, and models to evaluate different products. So, it's not only three-statement financial modeling, although a good foundation from investment banking is helpful.
You have to be really good at all kinds of modeling and being creative. In today's data-driven world, you'll be given lots of data. Being able to take that data and put it into a clear, well-formatted model that can output different scenarios is definitely a key skill.
Modeling, financial modeling, and data analysis are important. Being good at SQL will really help you pull data, so you won't have to rely on your data team.
Communicating and presenting information well is also crucial. Strat Fin folks, from junior to senior, often have messy data and complex models. Most people they present to will likely not understand the full complexity.
Therefore, they have to spend time thinking through how to simplify. Personally, I like using GIFs or JIFs to tame the complexity of models. This is a crucial skill that some people overlook. We typically test this in interviews with a complex case study to see how a candidate can simplify.