From Philosophy to Finance: Funmi Oriji’s Global Career Journey

In this episode of Member Spotlight on FinPod, Funmi Oriji shares her inspiring path from aspiring doctor to McKinsey consultant and Amazon finance leader. With warmth, resilience, and deep insight, Funmi reflects on the pivots that shaped her career from counting cash in her grandmother’s textile shop to earning an MBA and thriving in corporate finance roles across continents.

You’ll hear how she broke into KPMG without a finance degree, navigated international opportunities, and built a strategy-informed approach to FP&A and business partnering. Whether you’re transitioning careers, aiming for a global role, or curious about the real skills behind financial leadership, this conversation offers practical guidance and inspiration.

Transcript

Meeyeon (00:01)
Hi everyone and welcome back. Welcome to an episode of Member Spotlight, a podcast by Corporate Finance Institute, AKA CFI, as most of you know it, as I’m your host, Meeyeon, and today I’m joined by our lovely guest in blue here, Funmi Oriji. And she’s here to talk about her journey into finance, the pivots, the lessons along the way, and any advice that she might give to those of us just starting out.

A Member Spotlight is one of my favorite series because we get to know people that we feel like we kind of see ourselves in and have that coffee chat that is made so accessible by the wonderful internet that we have here. And so, before it used to be very challenging. If I wanted to meet Oriji, I’d have to go and meet her. I’d have to go to Texas to meet her. But today I’m here in Vancouver getting to chat with her, where we have so much physical distance, but this is just like if we’re chatting together.

So today, without further ado, I want to get to know you and I want all of us to get to know your journey. How did you get started in your career? Did you have an interest in finance from the very beginning? Did you go to school for it? Did you have a parent who was in the industry? What got you interested in it?

Funmi Oriji (01:00)
Okay, good question. Thank you everyone for having me on the show. For everyone that ever gets to see the show, thank you so much for having me. So that was a very fantastic question. Funny thing is, I had no parents in finance. I myself had no business being in finance or at least so I thought. I didn’t think I wanted to do finance. I wanted to be a doctor. But thinking about it now that I’m an adult, I realized that I was really interested in finance because

I come from a family of strong businesswomen. My grandma was a big textile trader back in Nigeria. By the way, I’m from Nigeria. My grandma was a textile trader. And then I would go on holiday to be with my grandma. And then we’ll go to the store, come back every day, and prepare accounts for the day. I will count all her money, all the money that she made. I mean, back in the days,

my grandma would keep all her money at home. She didn’t used to go to the bank. She was our own bank, right? So every day we had to count the money because we needed to be able to tell the difference from the amount of cash we had yesterday versus the amount of cash we have today. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I looked forward to that every day because once we get back from the store, get dinner and then we just get seated in the living room

and then count the money. The same money we counted yesterday, we’ll count it again today, count the money again tomorrow. I mean, she had all the cash on her there. And then my mom as well was a business woman. back in high school, when I go to, I was in a boarding system. So I’ll come back for the holidays. And then when I come for the holidays, the only function I had in my mom’s business was the function of the cashier. So she would

put me in front, I collect all the cash, account for it daily, what was sold, how much cash we have at hand, what expenses we had. I did all of that good stuff without any interest whatsoever in finance. I wanted to be a doctor. That was my plan. I mean, going to college in Nigeria is not the easiest things to do. It’s not the easiest of things to do. So I ended up,

Meeyeon (03:35)
And why would you say that is?

Funmi Oriji (03:37)
I mean, so it’s not, don’t have as many colleges in Nigeria as you would find in Canada, in the U.S. So it meant that there was a lot more competition for the few colleges that we had. And then of course, for the choice programs, Nigeria is a society that appreciates professional courses like medicine, law, accountancy, know, those were the professions everybody wanted to be in.

Right. So there was a lot of competition and there were only so many universities that you could go to. Right. So it was, you needed to be extra smart. I mean, I think I was smart, but maybe I was just not extra smart. So I couldn’t get into medicine. So after high school, I think I spent about two years plus trying to get into medicine and then it just wasn’t happening. So I told myself, you know what? I’m tired of being at home. I’m just going to go study math.com.

or something else, get me into school, get me into college, and then somewhere ⁓ on the way out, I’ll find my way to medicine. That was my plan. 17 or 18 year old me, that was my plan. So I got into school to study philosophy. And then I ended up studying philosophy for four years, no changes. And then I graduated.

Meeyeon (05:01)
Did you love it?

Did you enjoy it? Was it everything? Did you enjoy the degree?

Funmi Oriji (05:05)
I actually thoroughly enjoyed philosophy to be honest. So one of the things I enjoyed most about philosophy was logic. You know, it felt like maths where you write out statements and then write out like logical symbols showing the flow of the statements you’ve written. So you can form an argument. This is your premise. This is your conclusion. And then you can write out the symbols for all of that. It was very interesting to me, right? And it helped me to, ⁓

think critically if I’m being honest because every time you’re thinking about something or talking about it you then ask yourself if it makes you know logical sense does it flow logically can I draw this conclusion based on this premise that I have and stuff like so it helps you to do a lot of critical thinking right in addition to that philosophy is a course that makes you ask a lot of questions it’s you know it’s the open mind starter pack

As a philosophy student, you ask questions, a lot of questions, a lot of questions. And I think that’s something that has helped me throughout my career journey to where I am today, right? Because I’ve done a lot of different things, but every time I step into a new role or a new thing, I’m able to keep an open mind, right? And I think that’s some training that came from studying philosophy, right? Because, I mean, there were a lot of different philosophers that we studied that all had different things to say.

to make sense out of everything everybody was saying that was mostly contradictory anyway, you needed to have an open mind. Otherwise, if you formed opinions around the thoughts of one philosopher, then you would not be open to listening to the other guy. Right. So you needed to have an open mind at every point in time. Right. So that helped me. I loved philosophy. I did very well in it. I graduated top of my class.

So it was good. It was really good. So my plan was to. Yeah, please, okay.

Meeyeon (07:05)
And as a fun, sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. As a fun fact, one of our co-founders who’s now retired,

the wonderful Scott Powell, he also did a degree in philosophy. He did a master’s in philosophy. It seems like it’s kind of like an outlier in terms of something that goes into finance, but I find, just as you’ve alluded to, the critical thinking, they being open-minded, asking questions.

Funmi Oriji (07:18)
I need to find you. You need to find me.

Mm-hmm.

Meeyeon (07:32)
Those are all traits that I actually see so much of in Scott and I think it’s so valuable to have in not just finance, but really just kind of any working environment that requires critical thinking and an open mind.

Funmi Oriji (07:36)
Right. Right. 

Anywhere.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 100%. So where was I? So I studied philosophy, and then I was still trying to go back to school to study medicine. But at that point, my parents were like, well, we trained you through college. Hands off now. You need to start fending for yourself. I’m like, what? I knew that going back to study medicine was going to be on my own account.

Meeyeon (07:50)
So after you finish your philosophy degree.

Funmi Oriji (08:13)
So I told myself, okay, you know what, I’ll get a job. Let me get a job and then maybe work for a couple of years, one year or two, make some money and then go back to school to become a doctor was still my plan. So I went for, there’s something we call the compulsory youth service in Nigeria. I went to youth service and then I met a couple of friends that were writing the ACCA exam.

I don’t know if you know about the ACCA exam. The ACCA exam is one of like the ⁓ most prominent accounting and finance professional exams out there. So they were writing the certification at the time and it just sounded really interesting to me like, okay, maybe I could try to sit for the ACCA exam myself, which I never did. I eventually did at some point later in my career, but at that point I did not. But then I was focused on finding a job.

And I mean, luckily for me, I found a job with KPMG in Nigeria. So KPMG would bring you on regardless of whatever background you have. So they would bring you on and train you to become an accountant. Right. So I applied for the job.

Meeyeon (09:14)
Hmm.

And so this was your first step really into the working industry, right? Just general professional.

Funmi Oriji (09:28)
Yeah.

General professional, right. So I joined KPMG, I applied for the role, went through the interviews. And I remember one of my interviews with a senior partner at the time, he asked me a question saying, you studied philosophy, you’re coming to work in an accounting firm. Why should I hire you? You know, and I said to him, well, one of the things that I got out of my philosophy degree is the ability to keep an open mind and to ask questions.

So I’m like, if you’re bringing me into audit, you can rest assured that I would ask all the questions that there is to be asked. I’m going to come in with an open mind and I think I’m going to do an excellent job. Your accountants will come in thinking, or like the traditional accountants, people with accounting degree will come in thinking they know everything that there is to know. But you know that we work, mean, so studying accounting and working in accounting are two different things, right? Because

we work, it’s not always white and black. So I told him, your accounting people will come in thinking that they know it all because I mean, they’ve studied accounting for four years. I don’t know accounting, but I’m able to think critically. I’m able to ask the right questions. I’m able to keep an open mind. So you can trust me to bring me in. Anyway, long story short, I joined KPMG and that’s how life started. I worked in audit.

for seven years in total. I did my accountancy training for Nigeria. It’s called the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Nigeria. That was my formal finance training. And then eventually I went to do the ACCA, which I haven’t still finished for whatever reason. I have just one paper left. And then I came to the US at some point in there, did the CPA qualification in the US.

Meeyeon (11:05)
Mm-hmm.

Funmi Oriji (11:21)
went to business school to get my MBA in finance. And yeah, the rest they say is history. I’ve worked in finance strategy and that’s how I found my way generally into finance.

Meeyeon (11:34)
And that’s such a huge, so I’m so curious, like how did you get from being in Nigeria to where you are in the US today? Was there like a planned journey or were there any kind of fun surprises during those years? I could see a lot of RCFI members that might also be Nigerian aspire to be where you are today. I’d be curious, how did you make that leap?

Funmi Oriji (11:58)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely not planned. So my first exposure to international work was at KPMG in 2017. I think it was December of 2017. I got selected to participate in something we called Global Mobility Opportunities. So when you are like, I don’t want to say a high performer, but maybe a high performer, if you’re doing good job

in Nigeria as part of the opportunities to grow you and make you like a better professional. They provide you an opportunity to go to an international office to work. That was December of 2017. So I got the opportunity to go to the US. So I was in the US from January of 2018 to March of 2018. I worked in Kansas City and St. Louis in Missouri.

That was my very, very first exposure to business generally outside of Nigeria. Other than things that I read on the news, things that I saw on the news, I really didn’t know how businesses work, especially in a place like the US. So that assignment was my first exposure to international business, international accounting, just how things work outside of Nigeria. ⁓ That was my first experience. And it was very fascinating to me because

American companies are way bigger than Nigerian companies. I audited a company that is probably like times 10 or times 20 of my biggest clients back in Nigeria. There was just a lot to learn. There was a lot to know. So, for example, one of the things I found really fascinating was controls testing as part of the audit. We test controls back in Nigeria as well, but it’s not a requirement.

Right. So it’s not as, what’s the best way to say this, so that I don’t make it look like we don’t test controls in Nigeria. We do. I promise you we do. We test controls, but it’s a requirement in the U S to test controls around financial reporting, you know, so because it’s a reporting requirement, there’s a lot more attention to that. And just the level of work that I got to do, asking questions around processes.

and the controls that drive or guardrail those processes. It was just like a lot of fun things. know, the exposure was next to none. You know, auditing a big company, meeting with people from all over the world, doing things I had never really done before in my career. was, I found it very fascinating, you know, and I started to, when I went back to Nigeria, I really wanted to continue to stay in Nigeria, but at the same time I started to…

look out for like global opportunities, you know, like more opportunities to be anywhere else, maybe the UK or the US. I just wanted to get like some, you know, international exposure in addition to what I had.

Meeyeon (15:04)
Yeah, broaden your horizons. Someone with an open mind, you have an open heart, you have open everything. You kind of just want to explore the world.

Funmi Oriji (15:08)
Do you get it? Yeah. Exactly. So.

Sorry, you wanted to say something.

Meeyeon (15:16)
Yeah,

so I’m curious, like at this point in your career, if we’re going back to when you were at KPMG in Nigeria, you were, I get the impression that you’re very humble, but clearly you’re a very strong-willed, strong-willed woman, hard-working, high-performer. When you have the opportunity to go over to the US, is that when you kind of decided, okay, maybe I don’t want to be a doctor? I seem to be doing well in what I’m doing right now.

Funmi Oriji (15:32)
Thanks.

Meeyeon (15:45)
Is there a point in that chapter of your life where you decided, okay, I’m going to move the doctor thing to the side because you decided to pursue your MBA, which is also not a cheap endeavor. Like it’s pretty expensive to do an MBA program.

Funmi Oriji (15:59)
Okay, so I think I said a lot of things in a short time. And I mean, I lost a lot of details. Yes, so thank you for taking me back there 100%. ⁓ In my first year as an auditor, I loved what I did. Like I loved the work. It was super stressful. I walked a lot of late nights, even in my first year. But I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the work. And I saw a future there. I saw myself becoming a partner.

Meeyeon (16:02)
Hahaha.

Funmi Oriji (16:28)
at KPMG. That was my dream. And I’m like, Oh, this is super cool too. Nobody has to be a doctor. Like, these guys are as cool as doctors. These were cooler than doctors. I’m like, okay, being a doctor, nah, bye. I’m done. I’m moving on to something else. So that’s how I changed my mind about being, you know, a doctor. I was fascinated by the leaders that we had. They were super smart. Super, I mean, these are people that when they talk, you’re just

they’re looking at them like, my God, how are people this smart? You know, so I really admired them a lot and I wanted to be like them. So it occurred to me at that point that, I mean, I don’t think I wanted to be a doctor because I wanted to appear smart. That’s not why I wanted to be a doctor for a different reason. But at that point he appeared to me, you can have an impact without being a doctor. You know, I felt like the biggest point of impact

Meeyeon (17:12)
Yeah.

Funmi Oriji (17:25)
or I mean, that’s the way I thought about it. Like the biggest point of impact was like saving people’s lives. You know, people walk up to you and then you’re able to help them overcome whatever challenge, health challenge that they have. I felt like that had to be like the biggest way to make an impact. But with more experience, more exposure, meeting new people, doing new work, I realized, okay, you could actually make impact without necessarily being a doctor. I saw how my leaders did it, you know.

I saw the amount of respect that it commanded with our clients and how they helped guide our clients around like their financial reporting and all that good stuff. So I told myself, then you can actually have an impact without necessarily being a doctor. So that’s how I dumped my doctor dreams to Chase Finance.

Meeyeon (18:15)
And then when you went and did the MBA, so a lot of, find a lot of people that are in the stage of our career where they’ve had a couple of years of work experience and they’re kind of, I guess the, not the impetus, but the motivation for an MBA often from my experience as being you either want to move to a new country, have a big geographical reset, or you want to switch careers, period. And people seem to do it for.

those two main reasons. For you, what was your main reason for doing an MBA? And when you were in the program, how did you enjoy the program? And was it everything that you expected? Did you have a goal going in? And just how did you end up ⁓ finishing the degree and then going into your next role? So a lot of loaded questions.

Funmi Oriji (18:57)
Thank you.

No, no, no, it’s totally fine. I’ll try my best to answer all. So the first question, how did I make a decision to go get my MBA? So I eventually got an opportunity to move to KPMG San Francisco from KPMG Nigeria. And I did about, so I did five years plus, almost six years in Nigeria. And I did almost two years in the US. So,

all my audit experience put together is a little above seven years. At that point, I was just tired. I was exhausted with the busy seasons, late nights, and I just wanted a break. I didn’t think I was going away completely from audits, but at that point I wanted a break. I wanted to do something else. So I started to look outside for opportunities and I saw that the best I could get were going to be like,

Meeyeon (19:41)
Yeah.

Funmi Oriji (20:01)
accounting rules, like financial reporting rules, which are not bad in themselves, but I wanted something that involved a lot more strategic thinking, where you have a seat at the table, you’re able to contribute into how the business works. know, accounting and financial reporting is, you’re reporting on things that have happened. You know, I wanted to be able to contribute to the company in a forward looking manner, where I’m involved in, you know, how we make decisions.

I’m able to influence the leaders in terms of numbers and all that good stuff. So I decided I was going to go do financial planning and analysis, FP &A, pretty much, or any other thing that is finance, investment banking, ⁓ just anything else that is not financial reporting and accounting, because I felt like I had enough experience in that from my audit years.

Meeyeon (20:31)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Funmi Oriji (20:55)
So I started to look out and I realized that to get like a management level role ⁓ in FP &A with the experience that I had, I needed an advanced degree. And what better degree to get than an MBA? There was no point getting a finance degree by itself or accounting degree by itself. The MBA was just the perfect degree that I needed because it had finance, it had strategy, it had like

Meeyeon (21:16)
Exactly.

Funmi Oriji (21:26)
investments, you know, it had, it’s just the big bucket of everything. He had sales, had marketing, just the good way to get like a complete overview of the old business. Because I mean, as an auditor, luckily, or as a consultant, generally, when you go to companies, you get like a broad view, because they walk you through the business. You see the operation side, you see sales side, you see everything. So I had an understanding of how businesses work.

Meeyeon (21:46)
Mm-hmm.

Funmi Oriji (21:55)
But the MBA was just the perfect degree to bring all of that experience, tie it all together. So that’s why I went to get the MBA in order to have an advanced degree in addition to my experience to be able to get like a manager level ⁓ FP and ERO. And then your next question was, did I enjoy my MBA?

Meeyeon (22:18)
How did you, yeah,

how did you enjoy the, like the program I find for generally anyone going to an MBA, the one key, the sign of a good experience I find is that people always say, I met some amazing lifelong friends there. People that are going to be not just friends in my network, but people I hope to work with in the future, build business together with. How was the MBA program for you? Did you come out with it with a lot?

more different experiences than you had anticipated.

Funmi Oriji (22:52)
So for my MBA, I echo what you said people say about meeting lifelong friends. That’s very correct. I think my best friends in this current phase of my life are from my MBA program. So I met like really amazing people that I’m currently doing life with, and I hope to continue to do life with even into the future. And beyond ⁓ my friends from my school, I met like other MBA friends.

You know, that’s the way we all have this like MBA community. You know, you’re not in the same school, but you’re all kind of like MBAs from the same year. So I have friends like that as well that didn’t exactly go to my school, but all of us are part of like a bigger MBA community. And then in addition to making friends, my MBA was very practical, right? So there’s this thing called, experiential learning in my school where

Meeyeon (23:46)
Mm-hmm.

Funmi Oriji (23:49)
you provide actual consultancy to businesses or government agencies. As part of my MBA, I worked for an agency that is affiliated with the government of Ecuador. They call them the financial clusters of Ecuador. And it’s made up of banks, ⁓ payment companies like Visa, MasterCard, other financial institutions just coming together and looking for a way to improve Ecuador

as a financial center. So think of London as a financial center, New York as a financial center, Singapore as a financial center. So they were trying to look for the same opportunities that those other financial centers have for Ecuador. So I had the opportunity to work with that group as part of my MBA program, advising them on things that we see that helped shape

London, New York, Panama, Singapore as financial centers. So the work was really study those other countries, see what they did right, and then advise that to my clients who then pushes the idea to the government of Ecuador. That was a very interesting thing that I did. I also was…

Meeyeon (25:03)
And that seems to really go into your idea of impact. That sounds like that would be a wonderful impact and opportunity as well.

Funmi Oriji (25:05)
Exactly. 100%.

I mean, I would never have thought I would do anything with Ecuador. Ecuador was not, it wasn’t even on my list of countries that wanted to meet it. Right? Right. I knew next to nothing about Ecuador and then getting involved at that level where you really had to study the economy of Ecuador, see how things are done, what’s their, you know, what’s the ease of doing business, for example, in Ecuador, what tax incentives do they have?

Meeyeon (25:16)
It wasn’t on your map at that point. Yeah.

Funmi Oriji (25:34)
You know, getting all of that knowledge was really enriching for me. And that’s one fantastic thing I came out of my MBA with. And then there was the Insight program that I was a part of as well during my MBA where he was doing the same thing, providing advisory to small businesses. So I worked with this small business owner that was into fitness, you know, for new moms. So she does like exercises and stuff like. Right. Right.

Meeyeon (26:00)
My god, something I would be into. I’m gonna have to ask you about this later.

Funmi Oriji (26:04)
So she was into like, this exercise and fitness thing for new moms and she was solely online from the pandemic. So she was looking for ways to break out and have like a first break and what a store. Right. So I worked with her with another student. Of course, we worked with her to help her design a go-to-market strategy for opening a first physical store. And it was really, really satisfying to see her actually open the first physical store. Right. So,

those were really exciting things that I did in my MBA that made the whole experience worthwhile. So I was not just going to classes. I was adding value. And then one fantastic thing that we did in my MBA as well, we traveled the globe. We went to Europe. We went to Spain. We went to France. We went to Chile, you know, as part like to do like some field courses. So we actually did explore businesses in those places. I know that we visited like wineries in France.

Meeyeon (27:02)
One has to do when one is in Europe.

Funmi Oriji (27:04)
Right, right. So I mean those were really fun things to do in an MBA program. And again, back to my friends, shout out to my friends from my MBA program. Love you guys.

Meeyeon (27:15)
And you have, you

have such, you’ve already built at, to that point in your life, so much global experience. Like you’ve started wanting to explore the world and you have already now been through so many places. And on top of that, after your MBA, you have, ⁓ for those of you who haven’t seen FunMuse LinkedIn, you have a lot of really big ⁓ major US corporations and employers on your resume. A lot of places that I know that are listeners who are listening right now.

Funmi Oriji (27:28)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Meeyeon (27:44)
would aspire to work at. Take us through a couple of the next steps that you’ve had in your career up to where you are today. Because I would love to hear how you’ve moved through such amazing large companies.

Funmi Oriji (28:00)
Yay, let’s just say I’m hotcake. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I’m not the next best scene. Sorry, I’ll talk to that thing. I’m not the next best scene after sliced bread. Okay.

In terms of working at the corporations that I’ve worked at, so after my MBA, I immediately joined McKinsey & Company. And that’s been, I think at that point, that was like 10 years coming

or nine thereabouts because I tried to join McKinsey in 2013 back in Lagos and the test, McKinsey test, McKinsey entrance test back then had to be one of the most difficult entrance tests to pass anywhere, right? And I studied for it, wrote the test and passed, got into the interviews. I went through the first stage of interview and then I think it was at the second stage that I didn’t make it through,

why I really, really wanted to work for McKinsey.

Meeyeon (29:04)
It’s very rigorous.

have a friend that’s a partner there now and it was, I just remember they, you know, it like a classic multiple rounds, lots of brain teasers, lots of critical thinking. It’s a tough place to be at.

Funmi Oriji (29:12)
Honestly, and at the time

that I was interviewing for it, to be honest, I didn’t really know much about what it did. If I’m being very honest, we all know that they are like a strategy consulting firm. They help you with, but once I got into like casing and because it’s part of the process, right? So you learn how to solve business cases. Once I got into the casing part of it, I became super interested.

Meeyeon (29:33)
Yeah.

Funmi Oriji (29:40)
because I’m like, wow, these guys solve really cool problems. Like you’re seeing like a real business problem, right? Okay, so my profit is going down by so, so, so margin. And then I need to bring it back up over the next three years period, very specific problems, you know? And they develop like a strategy. This is what you should do. Increase prices, reduce costs, blah, blah, blah. I mean, I’m sure you know all of that, but it was really interesting. I saw an opportunity for impact

there so I really was interested in working in McKinsey. Unfortunately that fell through so I told myself I was going to stay back in my current job and I two plans for my current job make partner which was fascinating to me I wanted to make partner but if I ever got tired my plan was going to be to go to business school and then try to work for McKinsey. By the time I went to business school, McKinsey was no longer on the radar for me. I wasn’t trying to go to McKinsey.

Till McKinsey visited my school. And I’m like, ⁓ my God, McKinsey. You’re here, you know? So I’m like, okay, maybe. Yeah, I think I should go to McKinsey. Meanwhile, you know I said I was looking for an FP&A role. And I had landed an FP&A internship with Microsoft at that time. But I still.

Meeyeon (30:45)
You’re here! It’s time!

Yeah, yeah.

Funmi Oriji (31:05)
Maybe call me Oliver Twist. I always want to try everything. I explore everything that is in front of me. I never let anything go. So I’m like, I should go to Microsoft, but my case is dull. My case is dull. So I went through their process again, you know, and it was, it just brought back a lot of memories for me doing it back in 2013, you know? So I remembered like the errors that I made back then. I just,

Meeyeon (31:16)
But McKinsey, we’ve had a pre-mance relationship.

This is like a warm hug.

Funmi Oriji (31:35)
you know, I did things differently this time around during my McKinsey process. And I got an offer. I spoke to people, did the casing. I had great friends. Again, shout out to my friends. We cased together. They got me ready. And I passed the interviews.

So like, okay, McKinsey it is. But I told them, know what, McKinsey, I love you. I really want to be with you. But I need to go to Microsoft as well because I already said yes to Microsoft for my internship. So I’m like, I’ll go to Microsoft and then I’ll come back to McKinsey. And at the end of the day, it all ties up very well for me because one thing, one cap you need to have, as a finance person is strategy.

If you are going to succeed as a finance person, you need to be able to think strategically. You need to understand your business and you need to know how whatever it is that you’re doing, how it fits into the overall strategy of the company. So it was really valuable experience for me. I’m glad that, you know, I did a bit of strategy at McKinsey.

which I have now left by the way. And now I’m going to Amazon to continue in finance. So let’s just say I’m a finance girlie.

Meeyeon (32:55)
My gosh.

So you have like these huge names that a lot of people that are listening, especially kind of coming out of university, whether it’s an undergrad program or a graduate degree program, people love to have the idea of stacking these big employers on their resume. For someone that is aspiring to go to McKinsey, what would you say was your biggest takeaway from your time there? Cause it’s a really big employer that a lot of people aspire to have.

What do you think you learn the most at McKinsey while you were…

Funmi Oriji (33:29)
one thing I learned the most at McKinsey and I’m still learning is being very, structured in my communication, whether it’s spoken communication or written communication. There’s a way to think at McKinsey. There’s a way to speak at McKinsey. You know, I learned to, if I’m going to have a meeting with you, these are the three things that I want to discuss one to three boom, boom, boom.

So we’re not dancing about the bush, you know, and then that, that structure, helps me even in my thinking, you know, I’m able to prioritize correctly and then communicate better. I’m clearer in my communication. So that’s one thing for sure. And then secondly, is just still tied to the first one in terms of structure thinking. helps you to think thoroughly in terms of maybe strategy formation.

Right? Because, as a McKinsey person, you would consider all the alternatives, at least all the possible alternatives, right? And then you can make a list of those and then start to work down that list in order of priority. You are more structured, you are more thorough, right? So those are things that I learned amongst a lot of other things.

My analysis is better on McKinsey. My PowerPoint making, my page making in PowerPoint is definitely better from McKinsey. So, I mean, there’s a lot to learn at McKinsey. McKinsey is, McKinsey is McKinsey. right, there’s a lot of.

Meeyeon (35:03)
Yeah, I find that generally

people that have gone through the major consulting firms, whether it’s McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or the main investment banks, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, whatever the local ones are. For example, when I went through the investment banking years, the thing that people take away the most and what I’m getting from you is that those type of employers give you a lot of polish, a lot of like very, very structured ways of communicating clearly, being able to do

Funmi Oriji (35:25)
Mm-hmm.

Meeyeon (35:32)
critical thinking and analysis in a really thorough fashion. And those are things that you really build on so much for the rest of your career. So it’s like, as soon as you have one of those big names, those big employers, makes it really, it sets you up for such a strong start for the rest of your career. Now,

Funmi Oriji (35:34)
100%. 100% for the rest of your life.

Right. And in addition to that, I think one important skill I took away as well was problem-solving. You know, just the ability to tear a problem apart and then get to the root cause and try to deal with the problem from the root cause. And, you know, it’s, it’s very helpful because even if it’s an ambiguous issue, there’s that confidence you have.

to take it on even if it’s ambiguous and start to tear it apart in bits, in bits till you get to the real issue, right? That’s such an important skill.

Meeyeon (36:21)
And you’re reminding me of a doctor here from me, because it’s just like you don’t want to treat the symptoms, right? You want to locate

and treat the cause of the issue.

Funmi Oriji (36:30)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so that’s a valuable skill that I definitely took away from my kin’s aid.

Meeyeon (36:37)
And then from McKinsey to where you are today. Take us through the chapters that you went there. And then I would love to talk about where your future is.

Funmi Oriji (36:40)
Mm-hmm.

Whoa, I think I would answer the future question first. I have found that I love finance. ⁓ I asked myself at the point when I was leaving McKinsey, I asked myself a lot of…

Meeyeon (36:54)
Okay, yeah.

Funmi Oriji (37:04)
critical questions, right? Because in my time at McKinsey, I got to do like a lot of different things, which could make you feel like you can work in operations, you can work in marketing, you can work in strategy, ⁓ but where exactly? I don’t want to, I’ve done more than 10 years in my career at this point, and I feel like this is the point where I need to focus.

Focus doesn’t mean I can’t pivot. If I wanted to pivot into strategy or something, I can make that pivot and then just stay there. But I needed to ask myself like very fundamental questions. Where do you want to build a career going forward? And, ⁓

after a lot of brainstorming sessions, I found finance is the place. I really love finance. I want to be in finance. And then in the new era that we’re in with finance, finance is no longer the backend. Finance used to be the backend where you were just concerned about the numbers, about the figures. Luckily going forward, finance is a lot more different. There’s a lot of, know, ⁓

Finance is a lot more dynamic going forward. You know, you are interested in the front end.

You are interested in the business, you know operations, you should know sales, pretty much everything. Right? So I’m like, okay, finance is like that, that best place to first of all, bring all the experiences that I have together. I have accounting experience, I have finance experience, I have strategy experience, I have a little bit of operations because I did like supply chain transformations back in McKinsey. So all that experience, believe finance is that place that ties it up

very well for me and then going forward I’m able to carry all my experience to you easily in finance. As a finance person you can find a place through business partnership, can find a place to contribute to operations, ⁓ marketing, HR, whatever. You’re relevant in any business. So I told myself, okay, finance it is.

That was my decision that going forward, I am going to continue to build on this career and finance. Where do I see myself in the future? Being a finance leader. You know, there are a lot of mentors when it comes to finance leadership. But yeah, that’s, that’s where I’m looking at being a finance leader, contributing to shaping the finance and strategy of organizations. then somewhere there, I want to do.

like consulting on my own to help small businesses, know, small businesses that need the kind of guidance that we give to like the larger corporations but cannot afford McKinsey, right? They need people that have gone through the McKinsey system that have the knowledge base that can then, and I feel like that’s one of the ways that these bigger corporations to pay it forward.

is one of the ways that they give to the smaller firms that cannot afford them. You train people to work for you and then they can go with the skills to help other people. So I see myself doing that to someone in the future. But yeah, to answer your question, the future is finance. This is where I want to be. And then what was the other question?

Meeyeon (40:21)
What are you going be doing in your, so you’re starting a new role, I want to say like next week. What are you doing in your next role? Like, or you’re not in it yet, so you don’t know exactly, but what are you going to be doing at the new spot that you’re in?

Funmi Oriji (40:25)
Yeah.

So I know it’s a business partnership role, a finance role, but partnering with the operations side of the business. I know that much, right? And I’m excited about it. I’m excited to work with the operations guys, the people that do the day to day. I’m excited to work with them and then just provide, excuse me, finance perspectives to what they do.

on your date because it’s very easy to get carried away doing what you do that you’ve always done and has delivered results to you. Right. But having someone come in with an outside perspective, especially as a release to finance, I think is always like a good deal for any company. So that’s what I’m going to be doing. You know, just providing finance partnership, I would say to like the operations guys at the new company that I’m going to.

Meeyeon (41:29)
And I just also, so this is going to be on a more personal note.

Get the impression, and I think it’s very clear, that you are a very hardworking, goal-oriented, successful, strong woman. What is something that you are proud of that people would not see on your LinkedIn, for example? Something that people would have to know you for?

Funmi Oriji (41:54)
My God, that’s such a difficult question. First of all, I want to address being called strong. I heard somebody say something this week that when you say, when you call yourself strong, it gives the people, it gives people, other people the impression that you can handle everything on your own and you don’t need help.

Meeyeon (41:59)
Hahaha.

Funmi Oriji (42:22)
So I’ve told myself, no, I don’t want to be regarded as strong in that way going forward, right? I do what I need to do. I don’t necessarily think I’m strong in that way. I just do what needs to be done. Maybe resilient. Would, you know, yeah, yes, resilient. I don’t take no for an answer. I don’t give up. I chase what needs to be chased. I do what I need to do pretty much.

Meeyeon (42:39)
The Brazilian, I was going to use that word too.

Funmi Oriji (42:50)
And then, in terms of what was the other question? You said this would be edited out, right? I’m just making sure. What was the other question?

Meeyeon (42:55)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think you are,

if I’m not going to use the word strong, would say resilient and very resourceful. Often the first thing that people get to know a spy, especially in like a professional context, is LinkedIn. You see what’s on their profile, what employers this person’s been at, and then you feel like you have a kind of a pretty good idea of what they’re going to be like. But for behind the scenes.

Funmi Oriji (43:02)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

Meeyeon (43:19)
Well, it’s something that you are really proud of that we wouldn’t know by seeing your LinkedIn profile and your resume generally.

Funmi Oriji (43:25)
Okay, so I’m proud of a lot of things that you don’t see on my LinkedIn profile or my resume. But one that I’m most proud of is how much of a people person I am. You know, I’m that supportive friend. I’m the caring daughter, the sister that looks out for our siblings. I’m that goodness. I’m just a people person generally. I love people.

Right. Maybe that’s why I wanted to be a doctor. really do love people. I love to be there for people. I love to be reliable. I want to be that person when you look around for help, you can immediately find help. Then you find me. It gives me some sort of satisfaction to be that person for the people in my space or people generally. So, I mean, I don’t think that’s something you would find on my LinkedIn profile.

Meeyeon (43:57)
Yeah, that’s why you went to be a doctor, of course.

And just out of curiosity, where did you learn that from? Did you have a mentor or like role model that helped kind of bring this out in you? Cause that’s such a special thing.

Funmi Oriji (44:33)
Well, so I am my mother’s last born and I was separated from my mom at the age of 17. So I’ve had to live with different people. And in most of those places, I’m the youngest. And in the African society, as a young person, you tend to the older ones, right? So you run their errands, you just tend to them.

I think that’s where I got that from living with a lot of older people where you’re, I won’t call it responsible for them, but you tend to them is the right word to use, right? You run their errands, just make sure that they are fine. I think that’s where I picked that up, you know, and I, instead of being upset about it, I enjoyed living with the older people that I lived with, right? I just enjoy when,

There’s a lot of people in a place. So there’s a lot of people living in my house. There’s a lot of people that I roll with, that I work with. Funny enough, I’m an introvert, but I love people’s teams. Yeah, yeah. I love my space. I agree. I totally agree because I do love my space. I really do love. I love to have people around. So there’s like 10 of us in this house, but you are not in my immediate space.

Meeyeon (45:40)
No way. You have to be the most extroverted introvert then.

Funmi Oriji (45:57)
I can just hear your voice and know that you’re somewhere there in the house. I’m happy. It makes me happy. I check on you from time to time. I see you’re doing fine. 100 % okay. But I don’t want you in my face. I don’t want you in my space. All right. So.

Meeyeon (45:57)
Mmm.

So that has been an amazing conversation. I think that we have covered so many parts of a creative. This has just been so uplifting and motivating for me. So I could only imagine what it’s gonna be for everyone else. Thank you so much, Funmi, for sharing your story and your insights with us today. It’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the show.

Funmi Oriji (46:14)
Thank you.

Thank you for having me. Thank you for

Meeyeon (46:33)
And to our listeners tuning in, we will be back with more inspiring stories soon from the world of finance. But until then, we will see you all next time.