Her Story
About Joy
Joy Ajayi is a banking, branch management, and financial services professional with 15 years of experience. She currently serves as Branch Manager at Citibank. She began her career in retail as a hotel concierge and in restaurants before entering banking as a customer service representative, advancing through roles as a teller, personal banker, and assistant manager. Joy studied finance in school, which helped guide her into the industry. She enjoys leading her team, assisting clients with their everyday financial needs, and providing financial literacy education. Outside of work, she volunteers with nonprofits in Northeast DC, mentoring students and promoting financial literacy. Joy attributes her success to her love for what she does, her focus and consistency, and her desire to inspire and help others, including mentoring aspiring branch managers. She advises young women entering the industry to never give up and always believe in themselves.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Joy
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think what pushes me is just the ability to really inspire and help, and I guess just being in love with what I do. Even while I'm doing this, I am also a mentor, so I do help other people that are inspiring to be a branch manager, showing them the ropes. What just pushes me is just loving what I do and being able to help people while I'm at work doing what I do. It's all about just being focused, consistent, and you have to love what you do. It's not a job for me, it's a career.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The best advice that I would give them, honestly, is don't give up, and always believe in yourself. The reason why I say that is because it can really be intimidating going into your career, especially coming out of college. It's competitive, you think someone else know more than you, and you probably don't know what you can bring, or what the other person can bring, but you always have to believe in yourselves. We can do as much as men can do, too, so we just gotta believe.
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