Marta Batíková was a Femme Palette mentee who just finished our Mentoring program. After working full time at Raiffeisenbank and Better Stack, she decided to pursue another master’s degree. In this spotlight interview, we asked Marta about her decision to go back to university, what factors she considered when making this shift, what the biggest lessons she has learned from this experience and so much more.
Hey! My name’s Marta. I just started my second master’s in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen. So far I already finished my bachelor’s and master’s in Economics and Finance at Charles University.
I had lots of internships during my studies - auditing at EY, management consulting at Accenture, and innovations at Raiffeisenbank. After graduation, I worked full-time at Raiffeisenbank advising the CEO on innovations and defining and delivering the bank’s strategy. I have worked as a Head of Operations and Finance at Better Stack for the last few months.
Apart from my career in business and finance, I enjoy working on innovative positive-impact projects. For example, me and my friends won 3rd prize in a hackathon hosted by the mayor of Prague in 2020 and last year I spent the summer in the Social Impact Award incubation.
It was a combination of several factors. I have always enjoyed working on projects with positive impact in my free time but also any time when there was such an opportunity in my work. So adding the “environmental” component to my current skill set seemed like a great way for me to make these positive impact projects my full-time career. Furthermore, as I grew up in Prague and spent almost all my life there. I needed to change the city and my life perspective, and Copenhagen is one of the most livable cities on this planet.
To stay strong and positive that this is something I want even though it’s not always easy. Everyone is asking why do I do that when my career in finance was booming and I had so many opportunities ahead - and it makes me doubt my decision sometimes. But I know that life’s too short to do something you’re not fully sure that it’s your life mission.
Follow your gut feelings and it’s never too late to do something that you want - even though it’s not the most common thing to do.
It was when I started my full-time job in a bank shortly after I finished my master’s in finance. I think that at that time I realised that working in for-profit corporations is not always logical and transparent, as I was used in school. I felt very lost. I did not know if this was normal and everyone feels like that after graduation or if it was just somehow wrong.
So, I wanted to discuss the matter with someone from outside with whom I could feel safe and be honest. And at the same time, someone who shares the experience and life outlook.
If I remember correctly, I set a goal in a way that I wanted to find out if the job I did at that time in the specific company was the right one for me. Some subparts of this were to be relevant in terms of finance, innovations/tech, strategy and sustainability; and possible relocation from the Czech Republic.
When I look back from the current point of view, I think that my mentor Marco really helped me to achieve lots of it.
He was very patient with me, he gave me lots of courage to say yes to opportunities, he helped me to understand what my goals meant and what steps needed to be taken to achieve them. He pushed me to do my maximum to achieve my targets and always comforted me with some of his life experiences in situations when I felt lost.
Applying for the mentorship was one of the best decisions in my career life. Marco helped me to understand my career aspirations and goals and a strategy for achieving them. Almost everything in my life changed during (and thanks to) the mentorship, Marco was a match made in mentoring heaven - he brought a fresh international perspective to my career and that’s something I will always be thankful for.
Are you at current considering making a career pivot and are looking to surround yourself with the guidance of those who understand the field you are interested in? Get support from your mentor and get the support you need through our mentoring program.
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