Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Students' Magazine

After her graduation from SSE Riga in 2006 Lili started her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit department. After four months of experience in audit she moved to PwC Transaction Advisory department. Afterwards, after 1.5 years spent with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lili accepted an offer from Ernst & Young (EY) and joined EY Transaction Advisory department as a Manager. Less than two years later, after reorganizations at EY during the financial downturn, Lili became the head of the EY Transaction Advisory team in Estonia. Today, she is a Senior Manager.

Why did things change so fast?

The key words are:

- Economic boom – I started working at the time when young and energetic people were in high demand and were promoted at incredibly fast pace.

- Eagerness to learn and develop – I was extremely eager to learn everything very quickly and took full responsibility for all tasks, which was warmly welcomed by my employers during the times when there was a lot of work to be done.

- Financial downturn – during reorganizations my immediate superiors left the company and, as I was the most senior person in our team, I took over the leading role.

- SSE Riga – no kidding, I really mean it. Without the strong theoretical financial background I believe I could not have learned new things so fast. This factor was really crucial to me.

Why did things change fast?

My work in the EY Transaction Advisory department includes everything that is related to transactions – running sell-side or buy-side M&A processes; performing valuations of companies and preparing financial forecasts; doing the pre-deal due diligence (i.e. financial investigation) of companies; and assisting at the restructurings of companies.

I like that there is no routine in my work. Due to the small size of the Baltic countries and their markets you need to specialize in all the areas I outlined above and not in one specific industry. Therefore, there is never any threat that new projects will be just like the old ones. The best thing about it is that there is a continuous learning process. I know that I will probably never truly learn all aspects of my work.

That may sound scary from the first glance but after you take into consideration that I work at the global company Ernst & Young, it is more a challenge than a scare.  This means that I need to make just one phone call to reach a person who has enormous experience in almost any specific area or industry which I need to analyze and this person is always gladly willing to help our team. Having said this I must say that people I work with are the most important part of my work and it is really important to work in the environment where you feel good about the people around you.

That sounds like a lot of work...

True, but does it mean that work was the only thing in my life? Far from it!

Those who remember me from the SSE Riga choir know that I adore choir singing: I have been singing in choirs since I was five and today I am a member of the Estonian Concert Choir - one of the five professional choirs in Estonia. In addition, I sing in the Estonian Television Girls Choir and the performances and choir trips really demand a lot of my time. But I enjoy every minute of it!

Another big hobby that I have is teaching. I got the first try of teaching when I was a Teaching Assistant at SSE Riga of the Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and the Options part of the Finance courses. I liked it so much that I could not stop teaching after that. I have taught “Basics of Finance” at Tallinn Technical University. I have delivered presentations and trainings on valuation theories and practices at various business conferences and I have also returned to SSE Riga to examine the Finance course term papers.Recently I also took on studying again. Namely, for two years now I am a student of a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program. Next year in June I hope to take the third and final exam.

What about free time?

Managing all of this is definitely not an easy task and I must thank my husband Ülar for understanding and supporting me all the time. Ülar graduated from SSE Riga a year before I did and he is directly responsible for my joining SSE Riga. We got married after I finished my second year at SSE Riga. Ülar is also fond of choir singing. :)

What's next?

Who knows? I recall that I wrote in my SSE Riga 3rd year Yearbook page: “(…) it feels like the entire world is open to me”. I still feel that way and like the feeling. :)

Some words to the current students of SSE Riga?

Whatever you decide to do, do it the best way you can. If you do so, you will find yourself being good at this and others will notice and value it too. The positive emotion you get from this will ensure you like what you are doing and the sparkle in your eyes will never dim. I promise you that!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at lili.kirikal@mail.ee. I will try to respond to you.