World Bank Group - Economist - req18322

1. Tell me about yourself (1-2 minute overview focusing on relevance to the position).

 I am an experienced expert and a research analyst at CBRT’s Structural Economic Research Department. I am a specialist in real sector analysis, risk, and banking. I am responsible for preparing ad-hoc reports and notes for the upper management about the systemic and credit risks of the financial and non-financial sectors, financial stability, and development issues.

I have also worked on establishing the departmental research and reporting data warehouse coordinating efforts with the Statistics Department and on the design. For the last year and a half, I have been tasked with managing the editorial work of the CBRT's online publication Central Bank Review, hosted by Elsevier. Recently, I was selected as a tutor/trainer for an in-house position to teach Data Analytics and Visualisation, Data Mining, and Machine Learning subjects.

Before I moved here, I have worked in the Statistics Department for about 19 years. I have worked on many projects along with many other duties related to real sector statistics. I have made a lot of improvements, led project teams and task groups, delivered projects of all different scales.  I have inspired the designs of many projects which are still in use in the bank and other institutions and represented the bank both abroad and domestically.
Over the years, my focus was on real and financial sectors within financial stability and macro-prudential policy-making framework. My work has been a crucial source of contribution to supporting the policy-makers.
I have always had a heavy workload spread around the year with challenging deadlines and tight time budgets. I could manage these challenges and be productive by being highly organized and thorough meticulous planning efforts. One last thing I should say, all these years I have dealt with large datasets and I have become comfortable in handling them productively and efficiently.

Over the years I have worked for the CBRT, my job has involved an extensive focus on the real and financial sector analyses in financial stability and a macro-prudential policy-making framework. In this endeavour, my work has been a crucial source of contribution in supporting the policymakers. My past and current work schemes have required a considerable extent of analytical skills, which have proved to be vital in the achievements of my practical experience as well as my theoretical work.

My particular work scheme in the CBRT has always involved a very heavy workload spread all around the year constrained by very strict deadlines and by very tight time budgets, all quite challenging. I have learned through the years how to manage these constraints and transform the stress and uncertainty along with it into productivity rather successfully by being highly organized and thorough meticulous planning. I have had longer than 10 years of experience in leading project teams successfully. I have also had inter-organizational experience in data management issues both within the country and abroad in meeting and/or co-working levels. As to statistics and data issues, I can comfortably say that the heavy workload I carried through these years involved dealing with very large datasets, processing them, and turning them into information for policymaking.

Currently, I am working as a research analyst in the Structural Economic Research Department of CBRT, and as a seasoned expert in real sector analysis, risk, and banking. My current responsibilities involve the coordination of the establishment and the development of research and reporting data warehouses. I am also responsible for preparing ad-hoc reports and research notes and papers for the upper management regarding the credit and systemic risks of real and financial sector firms, as well as the financial stability and economic development issues. I have also been responsible for editorial issues related to the CBRT’s online publication Central Bank Review hosted by Elsevier, for about a year. Recently, I have applied for an in-house tutor/trainer role and I hope to train the next generation colleagues in mostly data analysis and reporting issues.

For all the years I have worked at the CBRT, my job has always required meticulous work in managing the data. My approach to data, in general, is to put an effort to acknowledge the possible uses of the data in question, at first, if I have a first-time encounter with it rather than catering to it myself to fill a need. This usually, essentially means a reasonably deep mental focus on the whole process for me, involving all the details from the collection to possible outcomes/end products. If the need for data arises from an end-product or a prospective design then I look for the raw data, possible sources for it, and for ways of obtaining the most optimal way of collecting the cleanest data as quickly as possible. Further, I try to imagine the data processes, draw simple flowcharts, and write the pseudocodes as much as I can if possible.

The datasets I’ve worked on in particular have included the credit/loan data, bank financials, and individual real sector firm financials. Those datasets are mostly very granular and complex if not highly frequent (from daily to annual), and very large given the number of individual unique IDs and spanning a range of 15-20 years depending on the datasets. As detailed in my CV, my work has encapsulated all ranges of subprocesses including the data collection to the production of final reports published, ensuring high quality in the data in terms of integrity, validity, and accuracy at all times as much as possible.
During the years I’ve worked, at the Statistics Department particularly, I’ve either managed project teams as well as task groups or I’ve individually run projects which I independently designed. Those projects and tasks themselves involved extensive use of analysis and reporting applications (e.g. SAS, Business Objects, Oracle BI, sometimes Excel and VBA) which I also employed to carry out a considerable amount of work. I also have used statistical and mathematical analytic methods, especially in both project designs and in preparing report templates. I further employed data mining and machine learning methods both for data analysis, pattern recognition, and rule learning although not extensively. Also worth mentioning, I have designed numerous interactive and dynamic data forms, and reports as well as a web-based reporting platform using SAS, Business Objects, Oracle BI, VBA, and QlikView, and helped the crew maintain CBRT’s Electronic Data Delivery System (https://evds2.tcmb.gov.tr/index.php?), in the absence of now available data analysis and visualization tools like Tableau and MS Power BI.

 I am an experienced expert and a research analyst at CBRT’s Structural Economic Research Department. I am a specialist in real sector analysis, risk, and banking. I am responsible for preparing ad-hoc reports and notes for the upper management about the systemic and credit risks of the financial and non-financial sectors, financial stability, and development issues.

I am also responsible for managing the departmental data warehouse. I was transferred from the Statistics Department five years ago for this and my other capabilities relating to the real and financial sector research and statistics background.

For me, data analysis has two perspectives: researcher and end-user.
I believe a researcher should have an innate drive for data analysis before anything else, and a statistician should have more so. Preliminary data analysis constitutes an essential basis for any type of analysis. With this in mind, I have always valued data wrangling as the first and foremost step for analysis and decision-making. I have spent almost 60 percent of the time throughout my whole working life dealing with all the facets of the data exhaustively. It included all stages from the collection to analyzing and producing reports and further supporting the policymaking.

From a naive user's perspective, on the other hand, data comes last as they usually just want a result that would tell them almost exactly what they need to do. That is to help them make an informed decision. For an analyst, the needs and demands of the end-users are paramount as they determine the schema for data procurement efforts and constrain the data evaluation being part of the establishment of the objective function and targets. Therefore, for an analyst, though a clear-cut definition of the problem and a perfect data source would be the best, rarely do these two come together. Thus, especially data procurement can be defined as a dynamic and recursive process, that demands a continuous back and forth until an optimal model is built; therefore a model-driven one.

 

2. Why are you interested in this position/unit?
 First off, I should say that I believe, working in a place that values (Impact, Integrity, Respect, Teamwork, Innovation) challenge, collaboration, initiative-taking, self-development, and that fosters leadership would be a good one for me. I admit that I have not directly worked with any cash data before. But, I reckon for those who have dealt with large amounts of complex datasets with high granularity and frequency, any data framework has a high potential to be acquainted with easily and comfortably. Furthermore, I have more than 20 years of experience handling data about bank loans and financials, trade credits, individual company financials, and macroeconomic statistics like GDP, exchange rates, and interest rates on loans.

Along with the leading, mentoring, advising capacities, and I have considerable expertise and experience in data matters.  Besides, I believe my problem-solving skills, drive for perfection, and nimble-mindedness to improvise and innovate would be useful and my experience in the CB would align with this job's requirements if not perfectly. Let me explain. I have had numerous incidents where I had to deal with crises of different scales. (2011 Company Accounts Crisis). I guess this would make a sufficient example of how I could succeed in the advertised position.

What I can bring to the table .....
Data Strategy ......
Data Management Handbook
Projects Management (YEAGM, RSVFSAP,
Data Mining (Thesis, paper 

Our Core Values,    Impact, Integrity, Respect, Teamwork, Innovation

1. Understand the job: Look over the job description and note keywords that the hiring manager will want to hear that also align with your own skill set. This will reinforce that you're a perfect fit for the role.
2. Research the company: Doing so will provide a clearer understanding of various aspects of the company, its culture, and its long-term goals and strategies. Most company websites also include a mission statement and bios of company leaders that may inspire you. You can find keywords on the website as well that you can incorporate into your answers.
3. Explore their media coverage: Search beyond the company website and learn how the company and its leaders are viewed by the media and the public. Research media coverage, press releases, and social media presence on various platforms.
4. Reach out to your network: If you’ve been in a specific industry for a while, there’s a good chance that your network overlaps or has connections to the company where you’re interviewing. There are multiple social media platforms that will show those connections; create a list of people you can reach out to in order to get more information.
5. Outline your career path: Consider where you see yourself in a year, three years, and five years in your career. What are the roles you need in your career trajectory to achieve those goals?
6. Find alignment: After looking through all your research of the company and the people who work there, what aspects align with your career timeline? What keywords from their website and media coverage can you highlight to connect yourself to this company?
7. Find specific examples of reasons to work with them. This could include the company’s reputation, admiration for their products or services, wanting to work with their company values and culture, or being inspired by the company’s leaders.
 

3. What do you know about us?
The World Bank Group consists of five organizations:

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) lends to governments of middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries.

The International Development Association
The International Development Association (IDA) provides interest-free loans — called credits — and grants to governments of the poorest countries.
Together, IBRD and IDA make up the World Bank.
 

The International Finance Corporation
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, mobilizing capital in international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments.
 

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) was created in 1988 to promote foreign direct investment into developing countries to support economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve people’s lives. MIGA fulfills this mandate by offering political risk insurance (guarantees) to investors and lenders.
 

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) provides international facilities for conciliation and arbitration of investment disputes.

Projects
The World Bank provides low-interest loans, zero to low-interest credits, and grants to developing countries. These support a wide array of investments in such areas as education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management. Some of our projects are cofinanced with governments, other multilateral institutions, commercial banks, export credit agencies, and private sector investors.

Products and Services
The World Bank provides a suite of financial products and technical advice and analysis to address development challenges, helping countries find solutions to achieve sustainable and inclusive development.

1. Advice and Analytics
The World Bank undertakes analytical and advisory activities to inform country, regional and global development agenda in line with its commitment to the twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner.

2. Financing
We finance government programs to support achievement of country development objectives, and support policy and institutional reforms of national and subnational governments by providing budget financing and global expertise. We also finance public projects to build physical and social infrastructure, and develop institutional capacity.

 

4. Why do you want to leave your current position?
For a better job and for a better place in a more reputable institution. What more could I ask for?

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. This job, has as a key component, X. Give us an example of a time when you have had to…
(a component or function of the job as detailed in the announcement).
 

 

 

 

 

 

6. In this position, you will have to… (key challenge of the job as detailed in the job announcement). Tell us about a time when you have had to. (key challenge).
 

 

 

 

 

 

7. What would you do if you found you were unable to. (stress factor you have been able to identify from the announcement)?

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Tell us about a project when things did not go as planned.
 Another thrilling example of a once-in-a-lifetime challenge happened about 11 years ago. I was at the banks for 13 years and was just a senior specialist and did not have a formal and official managerial title. My management experience was limited to leading roles in project and task groups in the division at the time. Honestly speaking, I was happy with the geek role since I have always thought I wasn't too much of a people person when it comes to managing. Anyway, important things happened that year. I was working as a part of a team with very experienced members, especially the middle and upper management. Those who once designed the first generation were all transferred to other posts at the bank. Unfortunately, the only person with all the technical details of the business was me. The Company Account Statistics Report was meant to be published exactly on the 15th of November, as it was made part of the official statistics calendar that very same year. Before then the publication date was flexible and usually two months after the new one. Another problem was that we couldn't find the storage media (CDs) with which we used to collect the data,  as the person responsible for the data collection was transferred to our post in London on short notice. All these, we have encountered when we only had about two months left to the publication deadline. After a thorough search when we finally found the CDs we had only 50 days left for production. So I made a decision to take the initiative and the responsibility for the publication on the advertised date. I made a broad and simple plan. I would process all the data myself by using VBA codes instead of letting my colleagues do it. Otherwise, they would have to use the VB application and process each form individually which would be time-consuming. Processing some 15000 individual forms in batch would seriously increase the speed and lower the labor time as well as lower the errors. So I wrote some 2000 lines of code in a week and processed the whole data myself. The only thing left to my teammates was to upload the data in the individual forms into the database. Since I did not want to lose time learning the specifics and break the integrity of the VB application, I found the solution to batch filling in the forms with error-free data again with the VBA codes. Then I let my colleagues batch process and upload these forms into the database. We ended up with some 13000 individual forms that could be used for the production of Company Accounts Statistics for that year. We had about three weeks left, and with some overtime spent, we could manage to finish the whole study two days before the deadline. We were all content since the CBRT did not have to lose its credibility by not publishing on a strict deadline. I was very happy too since I  succeeded to keep my promise to deliver on time, and for solving an obvious crisis. By taking the initiative, I ended up proving that I could operate the whole system very efficiently through meticulous planning.
I learned an important lesson from all these incidents. We had to carefully plan everything, especially the human resources. Later on, as we still did not have enough expertise in such a short time, I decided to do an HRAnalytics study I devised to determine the shortage of workforce, and I could manage to persuade the upper management and secure five posts to be filled with recruits to train for our work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Give us an example of a time when you had to work under pressure and tight deadlines. How did you handle it?
 

 

 

 

 

10. Describe a time when you had to face a conflict on a team and how you handled it.
 

 

 

 

 

11. Tell us about a difficult decision related to work that you had to make.
 

 

 

 

 

12. Give us an example of a time when you motivated others.
 Motivation isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, so I like to really get to know my team on an individual level.  I feel like this gives me a good feel for what works for each person.
I believe non fınancıal rewards are usually more effectıve than the fınancıal ones. Still, depending on an employee's character they may also substitute each other. Therefore, I would try to learn what would motivate them by asking them. Involving, trusting, inspiring, appreciating what they do, rewarding, challenging, and celebrating are ways to motivate the employees.
Once, I was leading a small task force with a lot of work to be handled in a very short period ofo time. Everyone was very stressed. I thought I could motivate the people by involving the members in the planning efforts. We planned together the work calendar with targets, resources, etc. This careful and naive behavior encouraged them to play by the action plan and fortunately, we could finish our duties by their deadlines.
 

 

 

 

 

13. Would you say you are more of an individual or a team player?

14. No one is perfect. Where do you think you might still need to improve? (Think about one skill that can be improved through learning and that you have worked on/are working on.)

I believe my greatest weakness would be my perfectionism when it comes to work. Regarding statistics production, perfecting the end product is not always achievable, since the input or raw data usually includes defects and errors. Endeavoring to serve the best outcome does not guarantee these results. Therefore, perfectionism makes you feel stressed at times. But now I can say through the years I have learned that given the data is not totally error-free or flawless, the optimal solution, not the perfect one is the best solution. I should again say, however, we should always look for continuous improvement in all types of processes including the output whether a set of statistics or a report, and internal processes to handle the input. For example, automation in data handling compared to a manual or a visual one, lowers the processing time, decreases the errors, and saves precious labor time that can be channeled to personal improvement and training. Therefore, it is one among many improvement efforts on the way to a perfect outcome.

15. What would your current manager say about your performance?
 

 

 

 

 

 

16. What would your colleagues say about you?
 

 

 

 

 

17. What has been the most frustrating part of your current role?
 

 

 

 

 

 

18. What would you consider the most significant accomplishment in your career so far?
 

 

 

 

 

19. What do you think you can bring to this department/unit? (How can you add value?)

 1. Professional experience in data analysis, as well as in the collection, compilation, and dissemination of statistical data: Through the years I have worked at the Central Bank (CBRT), my job description was not limited to data collection, compilation, dissemination, and analysis. During my 19 years in the Statistics Department, I have made significant contributions in various fields, from the design phase to the realization of many projects at diverse levels. For example, while working on the old system used in the production of the Company Accounts, one of the most important reports prepared by the Real Sector Data Division, I contributed to the design phase of the second-generation platform. After a while, all stages of the third-generation platform "Integrated Company, and Real Sector Analysis Platform" except coding, were prepared and implemented with my initiatives and efforts. I have also made significant contributions at every stage of many other principal studies and projects. 

2. Experience in applying and/or developing quantitative research methods in compliance with standard statistical principles. In principle, a researcher should consider every viable approach in carrying out his/her work, both quantitative and otherwise. Hence, in CBRT’s Statistics and Structural Economic Research units, quantitative research methods have been the dominant design and operational factors determining the framework in the majority of the tasks I have carried out. Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and panel data models have been decisive in the empirical studies and reports I have conducted in the statistics unit. Correlational, causal-comparative, and experimental research methods have set the framework for conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies in the structural research unit and my academic studies in general. Additionally, Data Mining and Machine Learning techniques have formed the analytical framework I have used in some of my empirical studies since 2002. Recently, as an extension of Data Mining and Machine Learning methods, I started working on Deep Learning in the Google-Colab environment. 

3. Experience in using statistical software packages (e.g. STATA, R) as required: Research implores the same flexibility in choosing research tools just as in selecting the research method to analyze a subject. For me, the same principle applies where the content of the relevant research topic is the prime determinant of the software to be used. Therefore, though I am not an advanced expert in any specific software, I have had training in a range from introductory to advanced levels in most. I also had extensive experience in most common statistical, database, analysis, and reporting applications for a given field of research. While using MS Excel, VBA, and SAS software in data collection and processing, I employ Eviews, Matlab, Stata, and WEKA for analysis purposes. For Data Mining and Machine Learning analyses, I use WEKA and purpose-built Java codes, and for network research, I employ NodeXL. I also started learning Python, R, and JavaScript but they are still at an intermediate level. 

4. Experience in the management of international statistical databases and the production of statistical data at the international level: Having worked as the representative of CBRT before ECCBSO for three years, I made the necessary theoretical and conceptual preparations for the harmonization with the BACH database. We could not integrate the data with any of the databases during that period due to structural inconsistencies at that time. However, It is now possible to contribute to the current databases, and shortly, it will be possible to integrate with the BACH database, mostly based on the preliminary studies I did. The ECCSBSO databases for which Turkey's data are available today are the Trade Credit and Financing Cost Data Bases, which are under the responsibility of the ERICA and FSA Working groups. One can obtain information about those databases at https://www.eccbso.org/wba/databases. 

5. Experience in developing methodological statistical standards: My work descriptions had always involved using and manipulating/fine-tuning (if not developing) statistical standards at both usage and design levels, including all stages. Design efforts, like platform development, user interfaces, data forms, online manuals, and WIKI pages, all designate some sort of statistical standard for data to collect and use. Hence, though I cannot specifically identify a particular standard, I developed or helped develop; I can comfortably say that examples include some of them in a couple of my works. I can tell “Integrated Company and Real Sector Analysis Platform”, “Integrated Structural Economic Research Department Database, and Data Warehouse Research Platform”, to name a few. For details, please refer to the resume or have me refine the matter if needs be. 

6. Experience in project management, as well as evidence-based policy formulation: As described on my resume, most of the work I carried out in the Statistics Department, involved project management by definition. From the very early days on, I worked on all stages of several projects and managed the most. All, as they were meant to assist the policymakers in their decision-making, involved design criteria for policy formulation from the very start. “Integrated Company and Real Sector Analysis Platform” and “Integrated Structural Economic Research Department Database, and Data Warehouse Research Platform” were designed for helping them analyze the real sector, “Bank Financial Stability, Strength and Rating Estimation, and Evaluation Project” for the analysis of bank and real sector relationship, etc. Other projects listed on the CV can be further examples of those projects I worked on at all stages through the years. 

7. Experience in education and training of colleagues as part of personal development strategy: As a considerably recent development in my career, I have been selected as an in-house tutor for Data Analytics and Visualisation, Data Mining, and Machine Learning subjects. Though I haven't started teaching yet, in a couple of months this will probably be a part of my curriculum/agenda.