Employee Spotlight: Meet Alissa Teotico

For this month’s Employee Spotlight feature, we’d like to introduce Alissa Teotico, the Client Implementations Lead on FISPAN’s Client Experience (CX) team. Alissa first joined FISPAN in 2018 as a Co-Op student and continued to work with FISPAN as a Business Operations Analyst before being promoted to Client Implementations Lead earlier this year. In her new role, Alissa collaborates with FISPAN’s bank clients to develop a customized process for onboarding end-users to our platform and constructs workflows for handling customer service issues and inquiries. Alissa graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance and Management Information Systems (MIS).

Let’s get to know a bit more about Alissa, her passions inside and outside of work, and how she’s been able to grow, both personally and professionally, at FISPAN.

Alissa and the Winter 2019 cohort of Co-Op students — including now full-time employees Andrew Lor (Software Developer), Darren Li (Product Owner), & Suyash Raj Bhandari (Account Manager).

What factors attracted you to working at FISPAN?

I started my time with FISPAN as a Co-Op student who was looking to gain experience in the finance and technology space. I thought that if I got the chance to work in a start-up environment, particularly with a group of founders who were experts and widely successful, I’d be able to better understand the possible opportunities in the field, especially as I was still unsure about my career path at the time.

For my role in Operations specifically, I was most interested in the position because it was client-facing. It would ultimately allow me to work with multiple teams across the company, and required me to understand our product inside and out.

What has it been like to grow within FISPAN?

Being able to grow alongside the company has been the most exciting part about working at FISPAN for me. When I started in 2018, I had little to no experience in the FinTech and start-up industry, and the company was almost 10% of its current size. Three years in and counting, I can now say that I am much more attuned to this fast-paced environment. I always look forward to the annual reviews we have with our clients because that’s really where we can talk about the targets achieved over the past year and discuss how we can continue to help them succeed in the future.

What is your favourite part about working at FISPAN?

One of my favourite things about FISPAN is getting to work with a great team of such hard-working and intelligent people! On top of that, I get to work very closely with our clients (banks) and the users of our product as a part of the Operations/Client Experience team. There are also a lot of internal process improvement and compliance projects that I work on, and I really enjoy the variety of work I am involved in. There’s always something new to learn and challenge myself with at FISPAN. 

Alissa joins the FISPAN team for a company social at Flyover Canada. 

What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?

Since I work directly with our end-users and the banks, I get to hear firsthand a lot of great feedback that validates the work I do at FISPAN. Particularly, hearing the excitement from end-users about how our application really helps them in their day-to-day operations is incredibly fulfilling.

With the banks, I help implement FISPAN’s products that are designed to better their banking services. This means resolving and taking ownership of critical issues to ensure the success of the project and establishing FISPAN as a viable vendor for these banks. Throughout the process, I get to celebrate all of their successes too which is also rewarding to see and be a part of.

Has it been difficult making the move into a management position?

Our team has grown in response to the number of client projects we’ve added over the last year. As a result, there was a natural transition over to my current role as the Client Implementations Lead as a more senior team member. It worked out well that I was also able to leverage all of the experience I already had working with our roster of clients and end-users.

I work under our Client Experience Lead, Andrea Zand, and she's very open to hearing about my experiences and was, and always is, happy to challenge anyone willing to step outside of their current set of projects and responsibilities. Moving into a management position definitely has its challenges, but I think it was necessary in order for me to grow and further my skill set.

What has been a challenging aspect of building out your own team?

The recruitment process was very new to me, so it did pose a few challenges. I learned just how important it is to set the right requirements and figure out almost exactly what we’re looking for — both on the technical side and in terms of culture fit. FISPAN is part of a very new and growing industry, so finding and recruiting candidates has definitely been a learning opportunity, but one that I know I can continue to grow from as my team grows as well.

From Budapest (left) to Vienna (right), Alissa explores the sights of Europe, including the Belvedere Museum. 

If you were to give any piece of advice to anyone applying to FISPAN, what would it be?

If you are someone that takes initiative without having to be asked, is inquisitive, eager, and willing to take on new challenges, you’ll be a great fit at FISPAN. We’re given a lot of responsibility on a day-to-day basis, and with that, you have to assume ownership of the decisions you make.

I would advise not to just submit a templated resume. Our hiring process is a lot more personal— for both us and the applicant. Make sure you spend the time researching FISPAN and paying close attention to the job description. We get a high volume of applications, so if we’re able to pick out traits like ambition, passion, and eagerness to learn, along with the necessary technical skills, it goes a long way.

What are your main passions and interests outside of work?

Depending on the season, I like to get outside as much as possible. Especially during the pandemic, I made it a priority to find something to do beyond just watching Netflix after work. I really enjoy taking dance classes in Mount Pleasant, walking the seawall, and exploring the scenery on different hiking trails. Before COVID, I really enjoyed travelling and going to see live music and comedy, which is hopefully something I can get back to doing soon.

What is your favourite quote?

“The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day.” - Wayne Gretzky

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We invite you to get to know Alissa further by checking out her LinkedIn and exploring the many opportunities we have here at FISPAN for those looking to start, explore, and grow their career.