Alumni Story: A career at Bloomberg as data specialist

Data specialist at Bloomberg and Coca-Cola’s next CEO. At least the former is true. We had a talk with big dreamer Giacomo Reghelin from Italy about learning environments, programming and turning a financial interest into a career.

Giacomo, tell us about what you do today!
I work at Bloomberg as a data specialist. If you are studying at LUSEM you have/will probably hear of Bloomberg which is an information company designed to deliver financial and economic data to its client. The main product is the Terminal (you can find several in the LINC lab at LUSEM), which is how Bloomberg pursues its goal of providing the most accurate and timely information to the markets.

At a glance, the data department is responsible to ensure that the data available on the terminal have the highest accuracy and timeliness. In my case, the job can be summarised in two main tasks: the first is client assistance and the second is project time. Let me explain a little bit more what these tasks consist of: With Bloomberg, clients can reach out to specialists for assistance with the terminal. Here I leverage my product knowledge to help clients with confirmations and explanations on the numbers they see on Bloomberg. With projects, we analyse workflows and find ways to make them more efficient. This sounds very technical, and for some it is, but what you do during project time is really tailored by your team and interest. For example, given my background in finance and interests in the markets, one of the projects I am involved with is a collaboration with the news department to write short stories that present market events and show how to analyse them using the terminal.

What is the main reason why you wanted to work as a data specialist?
My big interest in financial news! My position requires me to always be up to date with what is happening in the markets and I personally find this very exciting. Through my job I have the opportunity to interact with a variety of market players and discuss with them the validity of financial data. When I started, I was not very confident with this part of the job: managing conversations with skilled clients was challenging and, to be honest, intimidating. But Bloomberg offered extensive training and I can always count on my intelligent colleagues who are willing to share their knowledge. It is definitely a stimulating environment that gives plenty of opportunities to explore my interest on what happens in the markets.

How did LUSEM prepare you for your career?
Through the good quality of education! It gave me valuable skills both in terms of financial knowledge that are necessary to be successful in the job, and in terms of studying approach. LUSEM was a great environment to “learn how to learn”. Lecturers and classmates developed my appreciation for the process of learning itself. This increased my intellectual curiosity, and I would like to think that is something I will be able to apply to every aspect of my job to keep learning and growing.

What advice would you give yourself if you started your studies now?
Programming! It shapes your mindset in a way that you develop a new, more logical approach to problems and you can apply this mindset to other aspects of your life outside of programming. A second advice, if you are interested in finance, definitely get in touch with LINC and join their events!

Tell us about your expectations for the future.
I have been asked this question infinite times and, with a good dose of sarcasm, I have always replied the same: I will be the CEO of Coca-Cola. Even if I realistically think this is unlikely to happen and I am not particularly attached to a specific company, this answer gives a good picture of my long-term career goal of being a chief executive in a big cap corporation. However, for the years to come, I definitely devote my time to the financial services industry.  

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