Students acquire Wall Street savvy

The dream of making it in the financial services industry attracted 200 Lehigh students to the eighth annual Financial Services Forum on Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Rauch Business Center, an event organized by the Lehigh Wall Street Council.

The event was designed to help students gain a deeper understanding of job opportunities, the recruiting process and the realities of day-to-day work. It also gave students the chance to network with accomplished alumni who have achieved success in the financial services industry.

A diverse group of alumni interacted with students in presentations, panels, breakout sessions and two networking periods, a feature that was expanded this year based on student feedback collected by the Lehigh Wall Street Council.

The council was founded more than 10 years ago by a group of alumni, including Michael Connor ’80 and Andrew Fife ’85, with help from James A. Greenleaf, associate professor of finance. The council, which has close to 2,000 alumni on its distribution list, organizes alumni networking events, educates students on topics related to the business sector and promotes internships and full-time employment opportunities for students.

“We feel very strongly that we want to help students in any way we can to get them working on Wall Street,” said Jennifer Miller ’83, a portfolio manager of international equity strategy at J.M. Hartwell and one of the directors of the Lehigh Wall Street Council.

“The more Lehigh grads we have on Wall Street, the better it is for the university. It gives them more exposure. All of the alums who are here are passionate about the school and that’s why we come back to try and do what we can to help them.”

One-stop shopping

One advantage of attending the Financial Services Forum is that students can seek information from finance professionals who are at various stages of their career, from entry-level to director. Graduates from as long ago as 1980 and as recent as 2013 were eager to help.

“I came back because I wanted to be able to tell students what my job is like, how I got there and—especially since I’ve only graduated within the last two years—really what the process was like for me,” said Allie Zamfir ’13, an investment analyst at Prudential Real Estate Investors.

“My advice is to make sure that you keep learning, to be willing to admit that you’re wrong, especially during your first year of work, and to make sure you find work that you like doing. You should want to go to work every day.”

“Lehigh gave me so much. I love this school and loved my experiences here,” said Marc Schneider ’85, managing director at Avenue Capital Group. “I got to the point in my career where I could give something back to the university and I’ve always enjoyed speaking to students, hopefully mentoring and giving advice.”

The advice from alumni ranged from finding a mentor, broadening horizons beyond finance to increase social currency, building relationships and even reading books like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, where, as they do in the financial world, people sometimes pretend to be someone they are not.

Students found the forum enlightening. Yusuf Erkli ’15, who is pursuing a master’s in analytical finance, said one of the great aspects of the forum was the quality of the interactions with alumni.

“They are way more generous in the way they talk to students here than they would be in any other setting,” said Erkli. “I’ve learned how to interact with alumni outside of a business setting.”

Sarah Xu Wei ’16, an industrial and systems engineering major with a business minor, said her main takeaway was learning “where I may fit in and where I may not.” Kaamilah Furqan ’16, a finance major, got a clearer picture of “how to transition from college to the workforce.”

The keynote address, given by Eric D. Needleman ’93, chairman of Sterne Agee Group, Inc. and CEO of Sterne Agee & Leach, Inc., contained three tips for success.

“There are three Ds in my life and career which have really put me where I am today and which I always keep in the back of my mind,” said Needleman. “They are desire, diligence and diplomacy.”

Needleman stressed the importance of identifying your true desires, setting goals around them and pursuing those goals while periodically doing “sanity checks on what your real desires are in life.”

In terms of diligence, Needleman said, hard work pays off. His first few big breaks happened as a result of what he called “a little bit of dumb luck, a little bit of hard work.”

Lastly, he encouraged students to be diplomatic. “No one has ever gotten ahead in life by being difficult to work with. Being diplomatic is being willing to compromise and being willing to discuss things even when you think you know you’re right. Being diplomatic helps you really build consensus around the people you work with and effect real change.”

One last piece of advice from Needleman: “When you go to an interview, you don’t need to impress anybody with your fashion sense. Wear a white shirt, a dark suit. Be conservative. Impress people with what you have to say rather than what you’re wearing.”

The forum was sponsored by John Carl ’89, president of the Retirement Learning Center, and hosted by the Perella Department of Finance, the Lehigh University Alumni Association, the College of Business and Economics and the office of advancement.

Story by Rosa Rojas

Photo by John Kish IV