In Our Words: Employees Talk About

Working at SNL

What exactly do you do?I work with our support teams to deal with client queries [and] keeping the frontline support team updated with industry trends, product issues and new tools. I also contribute to editorial publications such as Data Dispatches, which focus on new issues and hot topics within the banking industry. Just like any other member of my team, I act as a liaison for external media requests.

What skills do you need to be good at this role?Without a doubt, one has to be on their toes to survive in this jungle! Imagination and creativity are paramount for generating editorial ideas. Analytical and logical thought processes are vital. An understanding of SNL's clients and their expectations from us is critical.

What do you like most about this role?The satisfaction gained from the fact that there are people out there depending on me, who I am helping with my research, makes it worth all the hard work.

Tahir Ali, Senior AnalystSenior Analyst, Islamabad

Sudarshan AgrawalSenior Analyst,

Ahmedabad

What exactly do you do?I work in the Markets and Deals Product Operations team. My area of focus is mergers & acquisitions, capital markets and market data of all the industries under SNL’s coverage.

How does your role contributes to the larger company?Since I am in touch with the end-user directly, I ensure that their feedback and suggestions regarding the product and data quality reach the right audience and all possible steps are taken to cater to the expectations of the client.

What skills do you need to be good at this role?The basic skills required are client management, knowledge of the dataset and communication skills. Every client has his own standards and expectations from SNL. The importance of these skills varies with the situation and clients.

What do you like most about this role?The users of SNL product know their stuff and every conversation with our clients is a learning experience. The support surveys from clients are another motivating factor of this job. It feels great when our clients express how happy they are with our services.

Neil Powell Senior Analyst, Charlottesville

What exactly do you do?I mainly interface with clients who call in for help with interpreting the data and/or using the SNL website and SNLxl add-in. I also write Data Dispatches for the department.

How does your role contributes to the larger company?SNL packages data that helps our clients make informed decisions in their day-to-day work environment, and Product Operations analysts like me help clients realize the value in SNL’s product and what they can actually do with the tools we supply. We’re also a wealth of industry knowledge and provide clients with information about where the data comes from and how you can interpret it.

What skills do you need to be good at this role?As you might imagine, strong communications skills are paramount due to the large amount of our day spent working with clients. The ability to manage your time is also paramount because you are getting pulled from so many different directions.

Naseer Ahmad Nasir Manager, Software Development,

Islamabad

What exactly do you do?I develop software ranging from Acquiring files from servers, parsing and processing them and adding them to SNL Data Environments, creating data entry forms in SNL Products where client of SNL see those information. We get requirements of user stories from project managers and implement them; those are tested by software quality assurance engineers and UAT.

What skills do you need to be good at this role?A developer should have good software engineering skills ranging from requirement analysis, software design skills, analytical and problem solving skills, good communication and last but not least expert in software development technologies like ASP.Net, C#, WPF, HTML, HTML, JS, Database queries etc. That varies from one team to other.

What do you like most about this role?This role allows us to show our productivity in terms of solution to various problems. We analyze and think about the problem in our hands. We do research and find best possible way to create pages / controls and other tools, which can be utilized and provide the end user an easy way to work with SNL product.

Brian Kelley Software Developer,

Charlottesville

What exactly do you do?I spend most of my time developing software for the scrum team. This includes both the client-facing SNL web product and internal content systems applications. I tend to specialize on the product side.

How does your role contribute to the larger company?Everyone's role is important, but really we have the most important role in the company. We execute any change to our web product or content systems tools. We take ideas and designs and make them into reality. If you can dream it, we can do it!

What skills do you need to be good at this role?The most critical skills to succeed in this role are problem solving and attention to detail. Every new user story presents a new set of challenges to a developer. Designing a well thought out solution that will hold up over time and meet business requirements is akin to solving a puzzle. If requirements aren't technically feasible, software developers can play a huge role in coming up with alternatives that are. Beyond thinking outside of the box, developers need to check and recheck every pixel and every line of code for accuracy and adherence to the design and requirements.

What do you like most about this role?First, my work adds tangible value to our clients; I can open up snl.com, point to a page, and say, "I did that." Second, I'm always working through new challenges. I like that I'm presented with problems, and it's up to me to figure out how to solve them.

Anthony Danielsen,Data Architect, Richmond

What exactly do you do?Like an architect of physical structures, I make the "blueprints" for new data structures and changes to our existing structures. I also review and approve other team members' work, train newcomers on using DBMS (SNL's metadata repository) and write most of the Data Architecture department's documentation and communications. What skills do you need to be good at this role?Anthony: Having a variety of skills and experience is a big prerequisite for being a data architect, and I don't mean just technical skills or experience. The data structures that we specify are not physical, but they are structures, meaning that their attributes, affordances, shortcomings and shelf lives are analogous to physical structures. Having a diversity of knowledge about how things function in the real world gives us that many more concepts to draw on when creating data structures.Something common with people who are good at this job is that they frequently tend to be, how do I say this, creative or unconventional in their life choices. What do you like most about this role?Anthony: My best days are the ones when I feel like I've gotten paid to be clever. When I manage to find a novel or elegant solution to a problem, and when looking from the solution back to the problem it feels like that solution was always the fit to that problem, it's a great feeling. These "bolts from the blue" don't happen all that often, but I love it when they do.

Chris RushtonSales Executive,

London

What exactly do you do? How does your role contribute to the larger company?My role is new business sales ... to find companies who do not subscribe to any SNL services and make them become clients of SNL. It is hard; it is challenging, but it’s the way that our business grows. My role directly influences the company’s bottom line.

What does a typical day look like for you?Each day is different. Mostly it’s a combination of speaking to current sales prospects, research and prep work. You manage a pipeline of prospective clients. My area of focus will depend on which stage a prospect may be at. Our approach — diagnostic selling — is about understanding the client’s business, the challenges preventing it from reaching successful outcome and how our product can help meet that outcome. It’s important that we take our time to really connect the value of SNL to our clients’ needs; a lot of that is done on the phone, in product demonstrations and in meetings.

What do you like most about this role?The variety of clients that we work with. I can sell SNL to an asset manager, a regulator, an investment bank. Each day, each meeting will be something new, and I’ll learn something different. Being versatile, flexible and able to adapt to different situations makes the job fun and interesting. I’ve learned heaps in the 10 months I’ve been here.

Lorenzo SpoerryReporter, London

What exactly do you do?I work from London with the EFIG News team reporting on the European banking and insurance space. My area of expertise is Italy. Our aim is to produce timely, accurate and comprehensive coverage of the sector, and we work closely to make sure we have all our bases covered. Our reporters tend to specialize in one or two geographies depending on the languages they speak, but we'll chip in elsewhere as need be.

What skills do you need to be good at this role?You need to write well and learn quickly. One day you might be writing about the impact of changing oil prices on Russian bank shares the next about private equity interest in Italian financials. It's important to spend a little time away from your desk reading up on the industries you cover and trying to spot trends.

What do you like most about this role?I enjoy working with my colleagues here in London. We have a good esprit de corps. I also like being able to interview experts in the field and pick their brains on subjects that I find interesting.

Nathan Stovall Senior Editor & New York Bureau Chief

What exactly do you do?I essentially have two roles at SNL. I cover and write about the banking sector on my own, but I also work regularly with the other bank reporters and editors and my fellow New York-based reporters. Through my own stories, I aim to produce actionable information for our clients by reporting on and analyzing news, trends and rumors in the bank space. I also work with the rest of the bank group to help direct our reporting efforts and work with a wider variety of reporters both in New York and Charlottesville to shape stories, find sources and develop new angles on our coverage.

What skills do you need to be good at this role?You need to have some reporting chops and a pretty decent knowledge of the banking industry. You also need to be able to work well with a wide variety of people. To achieve both, you need to regularly question your own abilities and work to improve them.

What do you like most about this role?I love how much I’ve gotten to learn doing this job for close to 10 years. I get to tackle market-moving topics on a daily basis, which requires me to speak to experts in the field. Thankfully because of SNL’s brand and the years I’ve spent covering the bank sector, I’ve gotten access to numerous executives and senior advisers. Those guys are smart and fun to talk to and their perspective makes me not only a better reporter, but a better teacher and source for our more junior reporters.