Episode 4. Career & Life Insights from Tennis

Ivana Petrich is a client management professional at PGIM Fixed Income. She works closely with institutional investors, including defined benefit pension schemes and fiduciary managers, across a broad range of active fixed income strategies. As part of her role, she acts as a central point of contact to help deliver customised investment solutions and provide high quality service to clients. Having seen her grandparents dedicate their lives to securing their pensions, she applies the same dedication to helping clients achieve their investment objectives and secure the financial futures of pension scheme members. 

Ivana comes from a high performance sporting background, having played tennis from a young age and competed at an international level. When she was 5, her dad built a tennis court in their backyard and became her full-time coach for several years, travelling to tournaments across Canada and Europe. She was consistently ranked in the Top 4 in Alberta, Canada and regularly competed at national tournaments, reaching the quarter-finals of the U14 Canadian Outdoor Nationals. She was recruited to play on the NCAA Div. 1 women's tennis team at the University of Delaware, where she broke the school record for all-time career singles wins. Ivana is passionate about the links between sporting excellence and the workplace and is a firm believer that career paths are highly influenced by formative years dedicated to training.

Ivana holds a B.Sc. in Finance, International Business from the University of Delaware. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) from the CFA Society of the UK. She is currently a team captain at the Cumberland Lawn Tennis Club in London, UK and regularly competes in the Middlesex and National Club leagues.

I met Ivana whilst volunteering for the CFA Society of the UK and we found that we both had a background in high performance sports, in my case it was cricket. We both realised that there were a number of lessons from sport that we were able to apply from our sporting experience to our careers and life in general. We had an enjoyable chat and Ivana was generous with sharing her stories and experience and our discussion included the following:

Self-discipline and what it takes to be great,

How talent only takes you so far,

Dealing with pressure: how professional exams feel like a tennis match,

Resilience and learning how to lose but bouncing back,

Reconnecting with your 'why?' when the going gets tough,

The importance of preparation,

Redefining success: when winning isn't everything,

Teamwork and finding ways of bringing people together, and 

Developing new skills and trying new things throughout your Career

Resources mentioned

Playing Big by Tara Mohr

The Serendipity Mindset by Dr Christian Busch

Learn more and connect with Ivana here:

www.linkedin.com/in/ivana-petrich-cfa

*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*