Conversations with Turkey's Career Pioneers - Köksal Çoban

The second guest of this week’s Career Pioneers Talk was Finansbank Executive Vice President Köksal Çoban. Mr. Çoban, who started his talk by introducing himself, wanted to know more about the students attending the talk. He told students that after graduating from TED Ankara College, he was admitted into METU Mechanical Engineering Department, but once he started the department noticing that this profession was not suitable for him, he transferred to the Department of Business Administration. He said that when he graduated, he decided to pursue a career in the banking sector and first started working at Türk Eximbank. With a scholarship from the Turco-British Association, he received his MBA in Finance from England. Upon his return, he started working at Istanbul Demirbank. Çoban, who started working at Finansbak 17 years ago, talked about what he did at the treasury, what bankers do, the importance of determining strategies, how they closely followed daily financial news on the news channels, and how he advanced in his career in the banking sector.

He told students that they can be happy, energetic and successful only if they do the job they love. He added that internships are very important in terms of observing others, and told them to look into AIESEC internship opportunities. He indicated that the first years are very important to learn about a profession and that giving up one’s profession becomes more difficult and costly in the following years. He advised students to meet expectations by understanding procedures in the job they do, and that their contributions will definitely be appreciated. He told them to never stop learning, to carefully plan their future, to be open to the world, to speak English well, to have hobbies, and to read a lot. He also said that they should travel a lot since every person they meet will leave traces in their lives. Mr. Çoban ended his talk by answering student questions.