In this episode of Oracle Academy Tech Chat, we welcome Shashika Ramsany, Oracle Consulting Sales Director for Banking & Insurance in the Africa Region. Shashika shares insights from her career journey at the intersection of technology and financial services, offering a unique perspective on the evolving landscape of fintech. Listeners will gain valuable firsthand knowledge about the pathways, challenges, and opportunities available to tech professionals in the dynamic world of financial services. ------------------------------------------------------------ Episode Transcript: 00;00;09;02 - 00;00;28;29 Welcome to the Oracle Academy Tech Chat. This podcast provides educators and students in-depth discussions with thought leaders around computer science, cloud technologies, and software design to help students on their journey to becoming industry ready technology leaders of the future. Let's get started. 00;00;29;02 - 00;01;06;00 Hello! Welcome to Oracle Academy Tech Chat, where we discuss how Oracle Academy prepares the next generation's workforce. I'm your host for today, BigQuery Amazon. In this episode, we will be discussing building a tech career in financial services. Our guest, Shashi Karam Saini, is consulting sales Director, Banking and Insurance for the Africa Region in Oracle, and she will be sharing valuable insights on the most exciting and in-demand roles in the sector today. 00;01;06;02 - 00;01;36;25 And she would also discuss how these positions as shifted with technological advancements. She explores the essential technical and soft skills students and aspiring professionals need to succeed, and offers actionable advice to educators aiming to prepare the next generation for trends such as artificial intelligence and blockchain in finance. I guess Shikha has deep experience in the financial services industry. 00;01;36;27 - 00;02;26;05 She has supported commercial and retail banks in rethinking their operations, customer engagement and decision making processes through strategic data and AI transformation initiatives. How work has spanned process optimization, customer analytics and regulatory reporting, which enables institutions to unlock the value of their data assets and move towards intelligent, insights driven operations. She has helped bridge the gap between business objectives and emerging technologies, guiding clients through complex transformations and in an increasingly data centric world which is now being led by idiotic AI for various business objectives. 00;02;26;08 - 00;03;02;20 As a consultant in synergy, which is a line of business in Oracle that is laser focused on the financial services industry. Shashi specializes in crafting and implementing overarching solutions across enterprises, which includes data and AI strategies that creates measurable impact from designing enterprise data architectures to enabling predictive analytics, machine learning, intelligent automation to driving operational efficiencies, governance and regulatory requirements. 00;03;02;23 - 00;03;38;01 Her approach combines industry knowledge with hands on understanding of technology ecosystem, thereby helping clients navigate change while remaining compliant, competitive and customer focused. Whether she's advising on data governance, I use cases of scalable implementation frameworks. She brings clarity and momentum to transformation programs within the financial services sectors. So join me to welcome Shikha, who has, by the way, such a rich profile and we are so glad to have you join us. 00;03;38;05 - 00;03;42;23 Shikha, thank you for being a guest on the Awful Academy Tech Chat. 00;03;42;26 - 00;03;44;03 Thank you so much for joining me. 00;03;44;07 - 00;03;51;19 Can you share your career journey and what led you to work at the intersection of technology and financial services? 00;03;51;21 - 00;04;17;04 Man, when you ask me, that's that's quite an interesting question because my journey over the past 40 years of my career has brought experiences that were not only overwhelming, but stuff that I hadn't even envisaged. So where I landed up was not what I had anticipated or even seemed to be in an at times, situations that presented themselves to me seemed to be overwhelming and I stayed focused and persevered. 00;04;17;10 - 00;04;43;09 You know, when you think about where I started, I actually started working at a bank fresh out of school. And and that's where that's where my career started. Being in a state in that industry for at least about 18, 19 years and then found myself going into, into technology, starting off in a very focused, technology platform, solutions for contact centers and customer experiences. 00;04;43;11 - 00;05;10;15 And then 2 or 3 years later, just kind of moving into a space that covered all of technology solutions. When I joined IBM and, and, and the rest of history, you know, I'd never seen myself moving into a space, you know, we I'd be advising customers on how to leverage their technology architectures and platforms to drive business outcomes. 00;05;10;18 - 00;05;25;25 So so a very interesting turn of events in my life where I thought I, I studied psychology and ended up being in IT consulting for financial services. Very interesting turn of events. 00;05;25;27 - 00;05;47;07 Well, that's interesting to know. From psychology to I.T. consulting. Thank you for sharing your background with us, Jessica. Now, what are some of the most exciting roles for tech professionals in the financial services industry today? And how have these roles evolved over time? 00;05;47;09 - 00;06;15;12 Yeah, I tell you, we're at the cusp of change at every turn, and the industry is putting pressure, or customers are putting pressure on the industry to rise up to the challenge in terms of what the triggers are from a customer perspective, a regulatory perspective. So some of the most exciting roles for technical professionals in financial services, I would I would look at where the trends are now and then and see with confidence. 00;06;15;17 - 00;07;05;18 Data scientists, cybersecurity analyst, cloud engineers AI, machine learning specialists I mean, these roles are at the forefront of transformation and actually will play an active role in how financial institutions operate, how they operate. They offer new innovations in personalized banking, how they respond to fraud detection capabilities, and automated digital experience capabilities for customers across the value chain. And over time, we've also seen these positions have evolved significantly from traditional IT support roles that are focused on maintaining infrastructure to strategic and innovative, driven roles that directly impact business outcomes. 00;07;05;21 - 00;07;46;06 And with the rise of fintech, blockchain and digital assets, tech professionals are now driving competitive advantage. They are reshaping customer experiences and they are ensuring regulatory compliance through advanced technologies with a changing AI capabilities. Blazing the trend in the space. So lots of exciting things happening in the technology space. And you know, I'm sure everyone will agree with me that this evolution reflects the industry's shift towards digital first strategies in an increasing reliance on real time data automation and resilient infrastructures. 00;07;46;08 - 00;08;10;16 So I mean, that's what I've seen. And as we move into, the adoption of, of AI capabilities and creating very flexible and scalable, resilient technology infrastructures, those are the rules that are going to be playing a huge role in ensuring that we step change this industry to where it needs to be. From a banking perspective. 00;08;10;18 - 00;08;29;22 Thank you for sharing. Shashi Cloud, it's very interesting to hear the evolution of tech roles in financial services industry. Now, what key technical and soft skills you believe are essential for students aspiring to enter the financial technology sector? 00;08;29;24 - 00;09;01;12 In all of my career in leadership roles, even when I was in the financial services sector and managing operations and customer experience environments, the most critical, critical skill that I would, I would say everybody should have is a positive attitude. Attitude surpasses everything. If you have a positive attitude and you look at everything from a positive mindset, everything falls into place and everything you touch turns into gold. 00;09;01;14 - 00;09;38;11 So off the cuff that that is a it's a non-negotiable for me. But also, you know, to talk to, to other areas, the students that are aspiring to enter the financial services technology fintech sector, they need a strong blend of technical and fast skills to succeed in this fast paced, innovation driven industry. On the technical side, you need proficiency in programing languages like Python, Java, SQL, a solid understanding of data analytics, familiarity with blockchain, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. 00;09;38;13 - 00;10;07;11 I think those are essentials from a technology standpoint, because they also tend to have in driving customer transformation strategies, cloud adoption strategies, data transformation strategies, and then of course, AI capabilities that sit on top of that knowledge of financial systems and algorithms, particularly in areas like digital payments, risk modeling and algorithmic trading, is also