Interview with a Graduate: Chairman of the Board at Expobank

16:30, September 7, 2020

GSEM UrFU graduate Kirill Nifontov: «It is important to be brave in the beginning»

– Mr. Nifontov, you are our graduate, and the university and our school are very proud of you. You are, so to speak, a friend of the programme Applied Economics and Finance. Please tell us, what knowledge and soft skills helped you achieve these high career goals?

– Thank you for these kind words. Answering your question, I would like to mention that the path of any person rarely looks like a straight line from A to B. Everyone will face their own turns, choices, and sometimes quite difficult decisions. At the beginning of a career path it is important to be brave, ambitious, as well as believe that you can change the world for the better. There is no need to be afraid, it is always worth trying, then analysing the mistakes in order to use this experience in the future. Time is more important than perfection, don’t waste it – move forward.

Personally, I find it helpful for personal development to be interested in everything I am doing at the moment, as well as new challenged, my team and people around me who always motivate to move ahead. There isn’t a single “success recipe”. We are all very different: someone makes great discoveries, someone helps people. The most important thing is to find your calling. This is one of the greatest life challenges – to understand what you truly like, what is interesting for you, to immerse yourself into this area and gain insight into it. This is why it is crucial not to be afraid to try something new, so that you choose the right thing to pursue in life, the one that you enjoy.

– Mr. Nifontov, the young generation of our current and prospective students are facing a choice of the correct study programme. As a top manager, what do you think, is it better to get a universal economics/finance degree and a general skillset, or to study a very specialised programme in order to be successful in the financial sector?

– Today the financial sector is changing extremely fast: new ecosystems, new products, breakthrough and unique technologies. However, you can always find your place in this area, whether you are highly specialised in a particular subject or have a general degree. There are many cases when people started with general tasks and found their niche later in their career, but there are counter examples as well. I believe in both scenarios you have to step out your comfort zone, to be open for changes and able to learn new things.

– In to your opinion, what is the future of the banking sector? How will it develop and what kind of specialists will your bank need in the future?

– Regardless of the future of the banking sector, most employers, including Expobank, will always look for «bright-eyed», inspired people. One of the advantages of young specialists is an opportunity to look at standard tasks at a new angle, to offer a fresh, unique solution. My main advice to students and recent graduates: don’t be afraid to suggest something new, be proactive and never doubt your abilities. You all have a chance, the one thing you need is to take it.