In Focus with Cristina Hill ‘20
Sunday, November 26, 2023
Cristina Hill ’20 explains to editors of In the Lead magazine that critical thinking is the most important skill to being successful. It enables people to question assumptions, evaluate evidence, and mitigate risks.
In the Lead: Thanks for taking the time with us, Cristina. Can you describe your current position?
Cristina Hill: I’m a senior technology auditor in the internal audit department at a financial services company. When I tell people I’m in IA, their eyes tend to glaze over, so generally I say that I make sure everything works the way it’s supposed to. More specifically, I work on a team that specializes in IT application testing, and we support our main audit teams that focus on the different business units.
ITL: What attracted you to the field?
Hill: Honestly, I never wanted to be an auditor. I assumed auditing would be boring, but really, it’s like a more bureaucratic version of investigative journalism. It’s impossible to get bored; I am constantly learning about our diverse business processes, nuances among global markets, developing technology and the new risks that emerge with it. Each work paper is not just a piece of paper filed away and never looked at again until it’s time to roll it forward in the next audit; it’s an opportunity to tell a story and objectively evaluate how we are meeting our obligations to our customers and regulators.
ITL: How did the Buccino Leadership program prepare you to lead after graduation?
Hill: I think I entered the workforce years ahead of my peers in terms of soft skills. Through the array of projects and opportunities offered by the Leadership program, I learned to be agile, to work with different types of people and take on various roles. Balancing my involvement with the program with my classwork and other extracurriculars gave me time management and organization skills I use every day. Most importantly, the Leadership program pushed me far out of my comfort zone.
ITL: What moment or activity sticks out as the turning point in your leadership development at Seton Hall?
Hill: In my senior year, I worked three jobs, was involved in two Leadership initiatives and held a position in my Greek organization as a full-time student. And it was the most fun I had in college. I loved everything I was involved in and wasn’t willing to sacrifice any of my activities, so I had to make it work. That year tested all the skills I had been building, and it was incredibly difficult but completely worth it.
ITL: What specific skills allow you to be successful in your position?
Hill: The most important skill to being successful in my position is critical thinking. We have a saying in audit, “Trust but verify.” We must question assumptions, consider different perspectives, evaluate the validity and reliability of evidence and assess the risks that face our company and how we can mitigate them.
ITL: AI posits significant disruption to work as we know it today. Do you feel prepared to tackle the challenges that are forthcoming?
Hill: Absolutely: This is something that has been on my mind for years since our sophomore Ideas and Trends project that focused on AI. I know how important it is to be curious and push myself to stay ahead of the curve. When I graduated, I knew I had to enter a profession that does the kind of high-value work that AI can’t replace. As I said previously, critical thinking is paramount to success in my position. I think that within the coming years, AI will do wonders for productivity within my profession, but it will not be able to make the same informed analysis or conclusions that I make daily.
ITL: What leadership skills do you think recent graduates often don’t have but will need to be successful?
Hill: Being open and proactive to coaching. I didn’t fully understand how valuable Peer 360 was when I was in the Leadership program, but now I recognize the importance of being self-aware, internalizing feedback, and again, critical thinking. It is so important when you enter a new job and receive feedback to understand why you’re getting those comments and how to apply them to your future work. Managers can’t always give you that full picture in the moment, so don’t be afraid to set up a time to discuss feedback.
ITL: What advice would you have given to your younger self at Seton Hall?
Hill: If you knew me in college, you would know that I was notorious for having a messy room (let me be clear: messy, not dirty). My schedule was so packed that I rarely had time to fully clean my room, and when I did, I found the task so overwhelming I would do anything else to avoid it. I was so hard on myself because I couldn’t do what I thought I should do. In my post-grad life, I learned there is no one way you “should” go through life; do what works for you. I didn’t magically learn how to dedicate a chunk of time to cleaning my room from top to bottom. I discovered the most effective strategy for me is to set a 10-minute timer and get as much done in that time limit as possible. I don’t see cleaning as an overwhelming task anymore, and often those 10 minutes give me the momentum to keep going. Similarly, I learned to use the dread of doing one task to motivate me to cross everything else off my to-do list. I don’t deep clean my room every April because I should be spring cleaning, I do it because I don’t want to do my taxes.
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2023 issue of In the Lead magazine, from Buccino Leadership Institute. The bi-annual magazine focuses on leadership perspectives from the field of health care, with content that is curated from leaders across the industry who share lessons learned from real-world experiences.