10月. 12, 2023, eleven CC alumni from a variety of areas across the finance sector returned to campus for the sixth annual Finance Symposium. The Career Center and the CC Investment Club hosted the event, where students had the opportunity to hear from and network with these alumni. The purpose of the event is to help students better understand the finance industry and how to prepare for applying to finance opportunities by connecting students with alumni and recruiters. The event organizers initially anticipated 25 to 30 students would attend. The final count of students crowded into McHugh Commons was 70.
The symposium began with a keynote speech by Jason Bogardus ’93, Managing Director and Private Wealth Advisor at Morgan Stanley. Bogardus started by asking the students how many of them were currently in their sophomore year. 近一半的与会者举起了手.
“太好了，”Bogardus说. “现在是时候考虑你的金融职业了. 我的策略是只考虑一个星期 后 毕业.然后他告诉我怎么做的, 离开CC后, he went to travel across Europe and spent weeks cold-calling anyone he could find who was a CC alum working in finance in Europe. 他的辛勤工作, and admitted unrelenting calling of one particular alum, eventually paid off and Bogardus got his first job working at Citibank Paris.
“There’s no way that would work today,” he said to symposium attendees. “但这里的教训是，利用你的关系网. However, you need to be thoughtful and targeted when accessing the CC alumni base.”
Bogardus欣然承认了这一点, 在纸上, it may not seem that CC sets up students for success in a finance career. Compared to other institutions where finance and number skills are drilled into their graduates, CC’s liberal arts focus does not initially appear to provide the same kind of foundation. 但Bogardus将其与跆拳道等运动相提并论.
“In Taekwondo, you use your supposed weakness and make it your strength. And you turn your opponent’s strength into their weakness,” he told the crowd. “How are you going to turn this apparent CC ‘weakness’ into your strength?”
He outlined all the skills and abilities that a CC education provides that set him apart from his peers in the finance world and allowed him to succeed in ways others could not. 比如他的批判性思维, 写作能力, and project vision were fine-tuned at CC to a level with which others just could not compete.
“David Malpass, the guy who used to run the World Bank, graduated from CC,” Bogardus said. “在这个领域，你能达到的高度是没有限制的.”
He also discussed how CC’s values of working for good and making the world a more just place suit today’s industry very well.
“Increasingly, a career in finance is a great way to affect social change,” said Bogardus. “工作太辛苦了，不能只为了钱. 你必须为了更大的目标去做.”
主题演讲后, students got to participate in group discussions with the alumni in attendance. Conversations focused on three main subjects related to the finance sector. Sam Sheridan ' 18(高级助理), Janus Henderson产品市场部), Orren Fox ’20 (Alternative Investment Analyst at Morgan Stanley), and Owen Brown ’24 (Incoming Investment Banking Analyst at Piper Sandler) spoke about the application process. Lauren Bieber ’16 (Vice President at FMI Capital Advisors), Jennifer Roca Newcomer ’18 (Investment and Portfolio Strategist at PNC), 皮尔斯·尼尔森19(副总裁, 企业发展团队(兆隆集团), and Vi Nguyen ’20 (Analytics Data and Innovation Associate at Morgan Stanley) spoke to strategies for closing the skills gap. 和Bogardus, Chris Haymons ’92 (Co-Founder/Partner at Industria Partners), Kishen Mangat ’96 (General Partner at Boulder Ventures), and Vaughn Blake ’03 (General Partner at Blue Bear Capital) discussed the development and utilization of a network.
The Career Center and the CC Investment Club are thrilled with how well the symposium came together this year and know that the outcomes will be beneficial for students and alumni alike. They look forward to hosting the seventh in this series of events next year.
If you’re an alum who works in Finance and would like to participate in future Finance Symposium events, 请联系 莎拉Reinbrecht 在CC就业中心.
