Employee Stories

Ali Bayraktar

A growth story: Ali’s career trajectory in our Warsaw hub

Ali still remembers taking pictures at the Standard Chartered Poland newly established office back in 2018.

“The numbers were changing really quickly – we are now 20 colleagues, we are now 40 colleagues… “

As one of the first employees in our Warsaw hub, he could witness first-hand a story of remarkable growth – up to 1300 experts that are working today across numerous excellence centres, from financial crime compliance, through cybersecurity, and treasury, to project management, resourcing, audit and HR.

Ali joined Standard Chartered in 2018, originally as a Specialist in the Financial Crime Surveillance Operations function. Just after three months, alongside the quick growth of the team, he was promoted to Team Manager in this department. His next step was moving to Quality Control in the area of financial crime compliance. Afterwards, Ali became a Senior Manager and currently he holds the role of Associate Director, managing the quality control teams across Poland and India.

What was the secret sauce to this impressive career trajectory?

“I strongly believe that the key was staying focused, open to new possibilities and dedicated to learning something new every day”.

Ali is a true advocate of the Never Settle behaviour which is vital in Standard Chartered’s values. Being committed to continuous development, he was eager to take advantage of various opportunities for upskilling and reskilling available for all colleagues at the company, such as the self-learning online platforms and coaching from his People Leader. He was proactively seeking areas where he needed to develop further, hone his skills and develop talents. On this journey, regular check-ins with his People Leader were really helpful.

“The leadership at Standard Chartered is truly special because our leaders are not only here to manage the business or workflows. They have the power to influence the people they lead in a positive, inspiring way”.

Ali could always count on directions, challenges and stretch goals from his managers that allowed him to step out of what he knew best and venture into completely new territories. This way, he could learn new ways of working.

One decision that had an immense impact on Ali’s career journey was to get involved in a mentoring programme.

“It was a good call to look for a mentor from outside of the financial crime compliance sector. My main goal was to get a new, fresh perspective and better understand various approaches to business”.

Ali believes that the combination of your own talents, dedication, support from leaders and mentorship is the recipe for success and he wants to share this approach with future generations of talents.

“When you are motivated, focused, and coached, success is not a challenge that lies far away – success is an achievement we seek every day. Believe in yourself, believe in your organisation, and #NeverSettle”.