Meet the Budapest Team: Balázs Szirmai, Digital Transformation Lead Analyst

Tell us a little about your career so far?

My story is an unusual one because originally, I was a mechanical engineer and before joining Citi, I used to work as a design engineer. During those years, I obtained strong Lean and SixSigma experience and also earned an MBA in corporate finance.

I followed one of my former colleagues to Citi who recommended me an interesting and challenging Lean-related position within the CitiLean team. Using an internal mobility opportunity, I later joined as the second member of the newly-formed Digital Transformation team and we built an excellent team from scratch.

Currently, I am a team leader within this team, and we are working on process automation using various tools.

Why did you decide to join Citi?

One of my former colleagues introduced me to Citi. At the time, I was open for new opportunities and applied for a technical position, which was a Lean expert type of a job.

Despite being an engineer, I was always interested in finance and quickly found myself in a good position, where I could learn a lot about finance processes while putting to good use my analytical and engineering background.

As I got to know the company better, I was pleasantly surprised by how big Citi is and how many different career opportunities there are within the organization.

What is your role at Citi?

I was recently promoted to Digital Transformation Lead Analyst, where I am responsible for the technical aspects of End-User Computing (EUC) remediation projects. I lead a team of 10 people to provide process automation for teams across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region using a wide array of digital tools. Our main goal is to reengineer our internal processes and automate them to make them faster and more straightforward. We can also experiment with new software tools and promote them within the organization.

What have you enjoyed most about your time with Citi?

I really like the multicultural environment. I work directly with people from all over the word. I also value the high variety of internal opportunities where everybody can find a job for their personal preferences. In my experience, the work-life balance is excellent, and the management is really supportive with flexible work options.

What advice would you give someone considering a career at Citi?

Citi is a huge company with a lot of options for career progression. On top of this, the company provides great training opportunities as well as Udemy access with which you can develop yourself even further, based on your interests.

Hard work is always appreciated and if you are willing to go the extra mile with a solution-oriented mindset, you will definitely see your efforts rewarded.