Her Story
About Shalini
Shalini Rajput serves as a Senior Analyst in Financial Planning and Analysis at Salesforce in Chicago, Illinois. She began her career path with an undergraduate triple major in economics, math, and statistics, followed by a Master's in economics from the University of Warwick, where she completed a dissertation on financial liberalization in India. After supporting public policy and her family manufacturing business in packaging, including establishing recycling units, she pursued a Master's in finance at Code U and transitioned to her first corporate role at Salesforce two years ago. Recently promoted, she now focuses on go-to-market strategies, M&A integration, and financial modeling that has reduced forecasting variances significantly. Shalini is pursuing her CFA and participates in networks including the CFA Foundation, Asian women in business, and women in finance at Salesforce. Outside her professional work, she volunteers with education support for underprivileged children in India, local nonprofits, Salesforce initiatives, blood donation drives, and food distribution for the homeless. She values respect, trust, and positive intentions in both her work and personal life, and advises that there is no better time than now to pursue one's goals.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shalini
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Everyone has their own timing, and if there's something you want to do, there is no better timing than now. Just do it now, whatever you're thinking, like, do not think about, like, you know, is it the right time? Like, whenever you think about it, is the right time?
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge with FP&A is that there is so much changing, especially with AI, and you have to keep adapting to new tools. The biggest opportunity is learning all these new tools, which is going to be a big game changer for anyone in finance.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Respect stands the biggest for me, like, even at work. The second one would be trust. If anybody believes someone, cool. You can trust with goes, like, a long way, like, even in terms of, like, communication and otherwise, like, just having the right intention.
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