4 Ways to Climb in Your Career — According to This Seasoned Fintech Leader

How does someone become a Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Analytics at a fintech company? For Ginger Chang, the journey to this leadership position began by expanding her knowledge through working on various engineering teams, focusing on software development, analytics modeling, and product management. This experience includes over 15 years at Goldman Sachs, where she also widened her expertise by working in a variety of roles and departments before becoming a managing director.

Today, Chang is a leader at iCapital, which offers digital solutions that transform how private market investments are bought and sold. “iCapital is changing the financial industry,” she tells Fairygodboss. “We’re a leader in the space, and it’s exciting to be a part of and contribute to this evolution.” Here, she gets to take part in the company's innovative work and her day-to-day involves far more strategy than previous roles, as she oversees the company’s portfolio analytics area.

Looking back on her journey, Chang highlights four top ways that she continuously grew as a leader in the fintech space (and how you can do the same):

1. Always put your best deliverables forward. Do an impeccable job and show how good you and your team are. This will help demonstrate your value and build trust in the quality of your work. Be proud of it, own it, and make sure that you communicate what you’ve done.

2. Think and act like a leader even if you don't have the title yet. Take initiative to help others toward the shared goals and have the habit of contributing. Going the extra mile and coming up with ideas and solutions that could improve your business is a great way to make you stand out. Even if you are the most junior person in the room, share your knowledge and ideas effectively to make a difference.

3. Take risks, and don’t be afraid to fail. Coming up with new ideas or getting out of your comfort zone may involve taking some risks. With those risks might come failure and/or rejection. If you make a mistake, own that mistake, and grow from it.

4. Build your network and find others to advocate for you. Women are pulled in so many different directions so we may not prioritize this, but building relationships and making sure that the relevant people know and are supportive of what you’re doing is vital for your career growth.

Here, we caught up with Chang to learn more about how iCapital supports her and how she’s paying that forward by supporting other women.

To start, what role did iCapital play in your career growth?

iCapital is an organization that encourages innovation to create commercial value, and that’s one of the things I like most about working here. We are at the ground level of changing an industry, and I'm always excited to share and execute new ideas that could help this revolution progress.

In addition to the freedom and encouragement to raise your hand and demonstrate value, there’s a ton of support and flexibility. There’s also high collaboration between different levels of employees and different teams. This constant exposure creates many opportunities to learn new skills — it’s an ideal environment for women looking to grow.

As a whole, how does iCapital support women?

iCapital recognizes the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and is expanding its global women’s network to create a more supportive and empowering environment for women. I'm chairing the Global Women's Council which includes a group of senior women across the firm to establish programs to attract, grow, and retain women. I'm honored to be a part of this effort and look forward to inspiring and being inspired by other women as we work toward this.