You grew up in Italy and studied in Switzerland. What made you decide to do an internship in Luxemburg?

When I first started my university career, aside from the understanding of the subjects, I had two main goals in mind: gathering international experience by living in foreign cities and exploring different positions within the financial industry. The reason behind that was to shed some light on what job roles could suit me best. Anyone with these ideas in mind, despite not having thought about Luxembourg initially, could realise it is a place to consider, especially given its international openness and importance among international financial centres as the third most important European hub according to the Global Financial Cities Index. In a nutshell, I would say it is more Luxembourg itself that chooses who moves there by attracting people who are looking for what this country can offer.

What are your tasks at Clearstream?

I have been a part of the Issuer CSD Services team over the past few months – CSD meaning central securities depository. There, I have had the opportunity to work on several projects related to all products in our department, which include issuance, settlement and custody – the traditional domain of a post-trading services provider. By assisting my team in product management functions, I have had the great opportunity to deal with market and competition analyses, product strategy planning and implementation. Moreover, I have supported with creating materials to help clients understand our products and relevant markets, specifically, structured products and Eurobonds. This has made me develop both analytical skills (gathering data and creation of statistics e.g. using Bloomberg Terminal) and communicative ones (presenting, synthesis of complex topics).

What would you recommend to someone who is interested in product management, specifically at Clearstream?

The field of competence concerned by product management is rather vast. This may be the reason why most of its professionals have several years of experience before switching to this profile. Before joining a position in product management, first of all, you need to have a full understanding of what the business is, what projects and changes are ongoing, both internally and externally. Secondly, strong interest and curiosity for the product itself and the industry as a whole are essential. Otherwise, all the research and presentation activity may not be that easy to conduct. For these reasons, I would suggest anyone willing to work in this role to have the clearest possible picture of the company’s environment to deliver the most value to the team.

You are currently pursuing your master’s degree by writing your thesis at Clearstream. What is it like to write your thesis within the company?

Clearstream and especially my team are the perfect place for a student like me who wants to get an understanding of how the financial services industry as a whole is structured. This is essential to identify what topics are most relevant for your thesis in order to select the right information material to be used. The main difference between the first six months of my internship, which were not thesis-related, is the set of projects I work on: now they are more oriented towards giving me an understanding of matters useful for my thesis.

What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your internship?

The almost nine months spent at Clearstream so far have been very insightful in terms of the industry knowledge I acquired. Moreover, they have been even more important for the concept of working I pictured in my mind. A place like this that prioritises your personal growth as well as mutual help and that promotes community spirit is the best message a young professional like me can receive in the earliest stage of his career. Putting all of these parts together, they make you believe in yourself, making you understand that your contribution is an important part of a perfectly working machine. The result is a company people are proud to work for.