“I landed four interviews and got zero job offers,” he recalled. Now an associate at US Renewables Group, a private equity fund, Danielewicz explained that he was able to use his personal network to locate additional opportunities and eventually secure his first job.
The experience of Dan Fishman ’04, however, was markedly different.
“When I was graduating, finance was booming,” he said in an e-mail. “Career Services lined up all on-campus interviews. The rest was up to the candidates. [It] certainly was not nearly as challenging as today’s market.” Fishman, now an associate at Goldman Sachs, has been with the firm since he graduated from Princeton.
The experiences of Danielewicz and Fishman represent just two ways alumni might begin careers in finance. Many alumni working in finance have changed their jobs several times during their careers and participated in internships as undergraduates. Alumni advised current students to network and pursue their interests.
A constant flux
Fishman has changed positions within Goldman Sachs several times during his six years with the company, which “keeps things interesting,” he said.
Danielewicz started his career in corporate finance as a lender before transitioning into investment banking and then private equity.
“I wanted to move over to investment banking because I saw the impressive experiences some of my Princeton classmates were getting, and how much they were learning compared to what I was learning, and decided the best way to make that transition [into investment banking] was to go to business school,” Danielewicz said. “I didn’t want to join as a first-year analyst and sacrifice the two years of experience [in corporate finance] that I did have.”
After gaining a “strong skill set” from working as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan for several years, Danielewicz said he decided that he “wanted to be on the principal-investing side rather than the I-banking side.”
“It seemed like a better fit for me, for somebody who wanted to make decisions and take risks rather than a sales person with a lot of interaction with clients but no real decision-making power at the end of the day,” he explained.
Howard Yu ’08 also left his first post-graduation job, which was with a private equity firm. At the firm, the physics major realized that the investing side of finance captured his attention. He is now working in venture capital.
“A lot of people major in physics and become ‘quants’ — they do quantitative finance, very mathematical, a lot of formulas, a lot of computation,” Yu said. “For me, long-term investing appealed to me ... It’s a little different from buying a little ticker that goes up and down all day long.”
John ’06, who was granted anonymity so he could speak candidly, explained that he thinks the first post-graduation job held by college students lasts roughly two years.
“At that point, one of two things happens,” John said. “Either you get promoted, which means new challenges, new responsibilities, more pay at the same job, or you begin to look elsewhere.”
Though initially satisfied with her consulting job at McKinsey & Company, Jennifer Ralph Oppold ’01, who works as a research analyst at Select Equity Group, Inc., said that she ultimately found the client-services lifestyle difficult.
“I found it to be unfulfilling in the long term — making recommendations without seeing whether they were carried out and worked out long term,” Oppold explained, adding that the job “opened a door to me in terms of graduate school, and it’s one that a lot of interesting people go for.”
Another way students can open doors is through internships. For some, these internships not only give insight into possible career paths, but also evolve into full-time jobs.
Tara Clark ’06, currently an analyst at Deutsche Bank, said that she decided to try finance as a career path after interning at the firm in 2005.
John, who is currently in graduate school, followed a similar path into finance.
“I frankly had no idea what I wanted to do when I graduated, and so I did a lot of internships in college,” he explained. “I did an internship ... as a junior, really liked that and got offered a return and took it.”
Advice for current students
For those looking to get a start in finance, either after graduation or between careers, alumni said that taking advantage of the alumni network can be invaluable.
The University’s Alumni Careers Network (ACN), which is also available to current students, is one such resource designed for this purpose.
“I use the ACN every time I’ve made a career transition, and that’s been about three times,” Danielewicz said. “I was very fortunate to get a lot of good advice on transitions, and one time, got lucky enough to have that turn into a full-time opportunity for me.”
Yu noted that he thought the ACN could be advertised better as a resource for students.
“It’s kind of scary to call somebody up out of the blue or send an e-mail to them,” he said. “I think people are very willing to talk. When I was in college, I talked to a couple of folks on the alumni network, and they were very helpful and took time out of their days to just give me advice.”
Nathan Harbacek ’07 emphasized the importance of students “proactively” approaching employers when trying to find a job.
Danielewicz expressed a similar sentiment. “What’s important is getting in front of people and shaking hands so they can put a name to a face,” he said.
Harbacek explained that students should pinpoint “what you’re looking for in terms of learning, what you want your life to be, where you should be located and then what industry you want to be in ... And once you’ve identified those things ... contact people and go after those disciplines directly.”
“Dream up what you want — you can probably find it,” John said. “Don’t get forced into choices because they’re easy. A lot of people spend a lot of money trying to hire you ... And it’s really easy to convince yourself that it’s the right answer.”
John added that it was important not to be “limited” in pursuing career options.
“Figure out what you want and then go get it, he said.” “Talk to people who have no self-interest in your career. Take a stab at where you want to be in 10 to 20 years and continuously refine that vision.”
Fishman stressed the importance of keeping an open mind.
“In this line of work, the only certainty is that the job and the environment are always changing,” he said. “I do not have any plans to leave the industry, but I also don’t have a definite path in mind. I have found that if I stay open to new opportunities, something interesting will come my way.”
This is the last article of a three-part series on careers in investment banking and consulting.
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