Her Story
About Safia
I came to the United States from Ghana to pursue my education and achieve the dreams I had planned for myself. Before my current role, I worked in Ghana with non-profit organizations supporting women entrepreneurs, focusing on financial inclusion and helping them access micro loans for their small businesses. What inspired me to get into my current field was my previous work experience - data was not as thin in Ghana, and when I wanted to pursue my MBA, I wanted to go right into data and solving problems. I believe data is powerful, but a lot of people don't know what data can do for them, so I decided to get into this field to solve problems through data and help companies make impactful decisions to support their business efforts. Now, as a Business Analyst, I focus on process improvement and building dashboards. My team is the technical team that safeguards the financial data of our institution. My day-to-day work involves troubleshooting for people who have issues accessing reports and systems, creating dashboards, and building apps and systems internally to support business growth and operational excellence. The reason I am in this role is because I want to solve problems, and being able to solve problems gives me fulfillment. Every day when I get up for work and know that I have solved a problem, I am always extremely happy and ready to come back to this job.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Safia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say my mother. Growing up, my mom has always been this ambitious woman who had done different kinds of trades to take care of us and to make sure that we go to school and get to the highest level possible. Growing up, I think I admired her so much that it made me want to go far, and that is why I left my family all the way in Ghana and came here to pursue my education and also to achieve the dreams that I've planned for myself. It wasn't easy - but I'm glad that I did it.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received was to make myself visible. I am the kind of person that used to be a back ground person - as long as I get the work done, that was okay for me. But I learned that I have to make myself visible. If not, no one would know how smart or intelligent I am, and all my ideas would not be out there. So I have to be visible, and I have to talk about my ideas and all of that. Ever since that time, I have been doing that, and I think it's amazing. I'm getting noticed for the work that I do, and I think it's good.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say to follow your dream and to ask questions. I think I've always told anyone that reaches out to me asking how I got here, how did I do this, and I'm always like, you have to ask questions. To get to wherever I am, I asked a lot of questions, so I would tell them to ask questions, to get to know people's experiences - it helps. So they should ask questions and learn from people's experiences, and follow your dreams. Everything is achievable if you make up your mind to do it.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say in the field of analytics, there's always a lot of opportunities, especially being visible. If you make yourself visible, there are a lot of opportunities you can pursue. As for challenges, I'm not so sure of challenges, because I am always just head-on and trying to learn and trying to fix things.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values I hold most important are responsibility and accountability. I hold accountability very dear to me because I take my responsibility very seriously. If I know this is what I need to do, I've got to do it, I've got to get it done. And accountability - I take my actions as accountable. I do not make excuses for my mistakes or whatever has happened. I have to take accountability for it. So I think these are the two values that are very important to me.
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