RISK ANALYST
FOR MARKET TRANSACTIONS

Hi, my name is Leïla. I am responsible for a team of risk analysts and monitor market activities within Societe Generale. I started as a quantitative Forex engineer in R&D, then I was a trader for Forex Yen options in Asia, then I took a sabbatical year. Finally, I came back. I've been in my current manager position for three and a half years.

Overall, the position of risk analyst involves three parts. The first main part is what we call production. This consists of analysing and validating the PNL figures, risk analysts, value at risk trading teams which we monitor within Fixed Income and Equity mainly. The second component is responding to regulatory requests from the European and US central banks. Finally, the third part is what are referred to internally as special requests. These are requests from risk traders and other teams which need to be answered during the day or over several months as part of monitoring a project.

What really fascinates me about my work is the whole relationship with mathematics and mathematical demonstrations, because there are few professions where you get to do that. That being said, we are really working on practical questions. We can re-use concepts, get our instincts and brains working and face different challenges every day.

The skills required for the job of risk analyst are mainly a good knowledge of financial mathematics, risk analysis and programming skills, mainly in VBA and Python. Being a very good communicator and having strong English is essential because we have teams all over the world. Finally, having a high-level rigour, independence and knowing how to challenge the figures that are generally shared across lots of departments within Societe Generale.

If you join our risk teams, you will have the opportunity to work at the heart of the trading floor, in daily contact with traders, other risk teams, the R&D department, the middle office and the IT departments. Our teams are young. You will also be involved in innovative and creative projects within our teams and at Societe Generale as a whole.