What stood out to you about BII?
I have always found social impact to be a key factor when choosing my career path and BII was the perfect way to integrate my knowledge, interest, and skills with my passion for creating meaningful change. BII's dual mandate of investing for development impact and commercial success really attracted me to the firm. The international nature of BII, operating in several markets globally, including Africa and Asia also really attracted me to the firm.
Describe your role at BII
As part of BII's Graduate programme, I get to work across both an investment team and an impact team through the rotation structure of the programme. Within my investment rotation, I worked in the Infrastructure & Climate Funds and Project Finance teams. I had the opportunity to take several deals through the investment process, learning the key considerations when assessing an investment opportunity whilst developing relationships with several people across the company.
In my impact rotation, I have been able to assess investment opportunities from a different lens, understanding how to evaluate the impact of investments and how that affects our investment decisions. This rotation has also allowed me to become familiar with BIIs' impact frameworks and reporting systems. The combination of these 2 rotations has equipped me well to continue my career at BII.
What skills are useful in your role?
Within both my investment and impact role, I have found proactivity and communication to be crucial for the successful delivery of projects and deals. Given the nature of work at BII, several different teams and stakeholders across the organisation are involved in the deal origination and execution process, requiring efficient coordination and teamwork. Therefore, these skills have proved key.
A second skill I have developed throughout my time at BII, that I have found to be key in everything I work on is critical thinking. Whether assessing an investment opportunity, evaluating the attractiveness of a sector / market, or defining the impact of an investment, problem solving and thinking critically are always crucial to the role.
My advice would be to approach work with proactivity and a positive attitude, with a continuous willingness to always keep learning and asking questions!
What training have you received?
As part of the Graduate programme, all Graduates received a 2-month training period, covering both technical skills and internal structures and processes of BII. This enabled graduates to be well prepared when joining our respective teams full time. During the programme, we also get ad hoc trainings on important soft skills and further technical skills to allow us to develop in our roles. I have personally found this very helpful as the trainings equipped me with valuable skills to add value to the teams and people I work with across the organisation.