[ B I G I N T E R V I E W | K H U R S H E D A F A Z Y L O V A ]
What’ s the most important lesson you’ ve learnt so far in your career? It’ s hard to pinpoint the most important one, as all the lessons thrown at me throughout my career have brought a lot of value to my professional and personal development.
One I would highlight is adaptability. No matter how much experience one thinks they might have, there is always an element of unpredictability, especially in the line of work we do.
Markets shift, the macro environment can change in a matter of a single‘ tweet’, technology evolves and so does our role. If we don’ t adapt and constantly challenge and improve the way we do things we risk being left behind or left staying inefficient which we cannot afford given our fiduciary duty to our clients. So be it picking up coding and big data analysis or partnering with new emerging fixed income platforms we always keep our finger on the pulse. Being open to change, actively listening and adjusting the course is what truly drives the long-term success.
The second lesson I would highlight is one’ s attitude to hardships. It is not easy sometimes to deal with hardships and setbacks, especially early on in one’ s career. It might feel soul crushing to be close to achieving a goal and fall just a bit short of succeeding. Be that a dream role or a dream project or a desired certification. The key is to see those failures as stepping stones towards the future success as each failure teaches you about your weaknesses and areas where you need to improve. That is a very valuable insight, the one some people would pay for.
This year has been one for the books in terms of macro unpredictability, how has the Janus Henderson fixed income desk handled the volatility so far this year? It has been indeed! Our fixed income desk throughout the years has seen several volatile periods. But as we have discussed before, no matter how much market turmoil one might have lived through, nothing ever prepares you fully for the next one. One thing we always keep in mind is delivering the best outcomes to our clients.
Our desk is built around collaboration, transparency and feedback. We try to keep each other aware of important developments around the trades we are handling. It’ s important to keep abreast of what is going on around you at all times, as markets tend to go into panic mode during volatility and it’ s crucial to catch the moment and react very quickly. We are in the business of transferring risk in the markets and should always be extra aware and informed.
The other thing that helps us navigate such challenging times is our relationships with our counterparties. The sell-side is not only a source of liquidity for us but an important partner. To nurture these partnerships the team engages with street daily on the phone, avoiding being solely reliant on messaging services like IB chats. By cultivating trust and partnership with your counterparties in sometimes not the best and most liquid markets you
56 // TheTRADE // Q2 2025