Her Story
About Carissa
I started my professional journey with about 7 years at Ernst & Young in their tax technology and transformation department, where I became the youngest senior associate at the time to be early promoted to manager. During my time at EY, I had the opportunity to work with a diverse range of clients across insurance, banking, wealth and asset management, and sometimes private equity, which gave me tremendous exposure to different aspects of financial services. After my early promotion to manager, I decided to pursue my master's degree in information technology and data analytics, which had always been part of my plan. Following my master's, I worked in insurance for about a year with one of my former clients who I had built a good relationship with and who hired me right after graduation. However, I found myself drawn back to consulting because it was more exciting and challenging for me. Now, I'm at a startup financial services consulting firm where I serve as a manager within the finance department, managing the three different lines of defense at a bank and specializing in regulatory remediation. I've been in this role for about a year and continue to find the work both challenging and rewarding.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Carissa
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to hard work, persistence, and the incredible mentors I've had along the way. When I was starting out in undergrad, I began as a journalism major because I loved writing, but I discovered I was very good at technology and had an aptitude for working with computers. I was given the opportunity to take business classes as a trial run, and I put everything I could into those classes. I ended up discovering that I loved business and the tech concepts, and I did well enough to change majors. From there, I started hustling - going to career fairs, reaching out to different partners, and building my LinkedIn profile when LinkedIn was just getting started. I reached out to people I didn't know, friends of friends, and eventually my name got out there. That led to my first real accomplishment in the corporate world - an internship at the Federal Reserve Board in DC, where I got to work with Janet Yellen when she was chairman of the Fed. From there, I landed internships at IBM and eventually Ernst & Young. Throughout my journey, there were a lot of really influential women that I looked up to, particularly partners whose work ethic I admired. I watched how they spoke to people, took notes, and learned from them. I attribute my success to all of that - my opportunities, the people, and the great mentors I've worked with along the way.
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