How I Broke Into the World of Corporate America — and Tips to Build Your Career (for Beginners)

Branden Bedoya, 5/2/2020

This article is geared towards Finance, but could also work for Software Engineers, Management Consultants, and really any other career track that follows a similar format of needing to network your way into positions.

First, a little background about me

I’m from Miami, FL, currently attending Florida International University (FIU). I’m trilingual (Mandarin, Spanish, and English), and started off wanting to go into engineering, but soon learned it wasn’t the best route for me. I went from Biomedical Engineering to Finance and Business Analytics from my first to second semesters at FIU.

After starting at FIU, I scrambled to find myself and what I wanted to do with my life. I joined a few finance clubs and went to a space for entrepreneurs called StartUP FIU, and saw that I was pretty well fit for the industry. I always really wanted to be an entrepreneur to have the ability to be a disrupter and make a change, and figured that understanding businesses would be the best way to do so.

Main characteristics and skills I see are needed to succeed in finance, and similar careers:

• Analytical
• Driven
• Curious
• Ability to effectively network
• Intrapersonal skills and being able to articulate/communicate well
• Critical thinking
• Entrepreneurial — thinking ‘outside of the box’, leveraging mental frameworks, etc
• High emotional intelligence

And some skills:

• Coding: Python, R, Javascript, SQL to name a few (you’d be surprised how much monotonous work you can automate to save time!)
• Following markets and news. Ex. Bonds, stocks, forex, etc. Pick a field you like and follow the companies/countries that are in it!
• Microsoft Office: Excel and PowerPoint especially. Every team needs an Excel monkey, so it doesn’t hurt to know your stuff; Bloomberg Terminal (I got the Bloomberg Market Concepts certification)
• Other software (not necessary but can help you stand out): Tableau, Kibana, ThinkOrSwim

Some tips and strategies for success

• LinkedIn — This has to be badass. This is typically the first place people look to find you and consider hiring you, use it to network! I think this is absolutely essential, especially during times like this
• Being any type of minority: LGBTQ+, Hispanic, Black, Women, disabled… All of these firms want to show how diverse they are. So if you fall into any of those categories, the odds are already in your favor to get your foot in the door
• Going to a target school? Duh. Any ivy league, Stanford, MIT, University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, etc. will already make you a target; simply meaning that these firms will likely recruit from your school. Or at the very least, you’ll have a plethora of alumni working in firms that you would like to work at
• But if you don’t go to a target school, like me, networking is key. From diversity events, networking events, LinkedIn messages, phone calls, and emails. Really just befriend someone in the firm (Be genuine!) and pick their brain to see what it’s like working there — you have to make sure you’ll enjoy what you’ll be doing! Make sure to be genuine and not come off too pushy with networking
• Practice going to career fairs and talking to recruiters for firms you don’t necessarily want to work for. It can get you in the mindset of an interviewee and can give you insights into what questions an actual recruiter could ask of you. Also, make sure to leverage upperclassmen and have them mock interview you!!!
• Alumni networks could also serve you well — such as alumni working at a firm you want to work at, or programs like the CFA Society
• A “finance” (or similar) degree is not always needed. Having your CFA, CPA, series 7 license, etc. is regarded just as highly. Not to mention the emphasis on STEM majors — as financial institutions are essentially becoming tech firms too, looking for engineering backgrounds

A list of tools for success

These are a bunch of programs that are often paid by these firms to train and recruit students. Now, don’t feel overwhelmed. You don’t need to apply to all of these, but definitely go for some! And don’t worry, they don’t conflict or cost anything (for college students) so just apply to whichever one(s) has the companies you’re looking to work for!

• Management Leadership for Tomorrow (This is my personal favorite, hands down. Solid for consulting, finance, and software engineering)
• Jumpstart Advisory (Pretty solid for consulting and finance too)
• Wayup (Lots of recruiters tend to reach out to me here)
• Modern Guild (They send really good opportunities too!)
• Jopwell (Has a pyramid-type networking model, you can become an ambassador and make some easy money in college getting people to sign up with your link. But they do have opportunities too)
• Next Wave in Business (a non-profit program that works in media, tech, and financial services)
• Wall Street Prep
• Parker Dewey — *paid* Micro-internship opportunities
• Intern From Home — Virtual internships (ideal for COVID situation)

These I haven’t used personally, but I know people that have, and they have given good reviews, so I wanted to put them down

• Pillars of Wall St
• SEO
• Forte (For women only)
• Stout
• Inroads
• The most common “business laptop” I see is the Lenovo Thinkpad T480. Definitely not required, but Windows OS is most common.
• My personal favorite out of all of the programs above was MLT. It’s the one I stuck with that held my hand the whole way (once I had some cool stuff on my resume to show I’m worth the investment)

Online learning

And here are some really good ways to learn about coding and other skills:

• InsideSherpa — virtual work experience programs (ideal for COVID situation. I just started using it and I love it!)
• edX — Ivy league courses for free
• LinkedIn Learning — They actually get paid to do this, so it beats the YouTube tutorials…and it’s free! You can easily link it to your LinkedIn to showcase your work too
• Coursera — Haven’t used these yet, but I’ve heard these are good too
• Udemy — Mostly isn’t ‘free’ but this is (so I’ve heard) the highest quality online education you can get
• Udacity — Also haven’t used yet, but I have heard these courses are phenomenal
• Skillshare
• Pluralsite
• Scrimba
• Code Pen
• Grow With Google

What have I done thus far?

Yes, this is a bit of a brag, but I also want the reader to have some sort of validation for even caring about reading this. And yes, I did this as a freshman *update, now into sophomore year,* and yes these programs flew me out so I had basically all costs covered to travel to various cities!

Branden Bedoya - SparkDev - DevOps Team - Upsilon Pi Epsilon at FIU | LinkedIn

Freshman year:

• Bank of America’s Ignite with STEM Program in Charlotte
• BlackRock’s Find Your Future Forum in Atlanta
• Global Asset Management Education Forum in New York
• Citi’s Freshman Discovery Program in New York
• Goldman Sach’s Virtual Insight Program (online)
• JumpStart Advisory Group’s Undergraduate Program in Chicago

But don’t think that all of this came right away — and don’t be discouraged if you get rejected by programs too. I was initially rejected by discovery programs from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and had no idea how to do a hirevue — but somehow got lucky and was selected for my first program with Bank of America. Then I just continued leveraging experiences forward! But again, outside of being a solid applicant and having some luck, I can’t stress the importance of networking enough.

Sophomore year:

• Management Leadership for Tomorrow’s Consulting Bootcamp in Chicago
• JP Morgan’s Sophomore Edge in New York
• JP Morgan’s Code for Good event in Plano, Texas
• Citi’s Sophomore Leadership Program in New York
• *Update* Coronavirus ended up canceling most of these 🙃 — Branden @Zoom University, April 2020
• And now, I am starting certification courses with Boston Consulting Group through Inside Sherpa

How do you start if you have no experience?

Leverage, leverage, leverage! Utilize past experiences to build your unique story and show people why you’re interesting and can add value! Even if your experience is working at a restaurant. “Fake it till you make it,” and show how your experiences have developed you as a person

Here’s what I did to start off my career as a freshman: (in order)

• Interned in my high school’s tech team — it was part of a class
• Got an engineering internship my senior year of high school — it was also part of an internship class offered
• Levered those to get my first college internship at StartUP FIU
• Started working with a startup that had a social purpose called Go Green Eco Bins. Again, network! I met the founder at a house party and showed how I was hungry for success, and he happened to be looking for new talent to join the team
• I used those experiences, and a stock pitch competition from a finance club I was in, to work with a hedge fund and learn about stocks and options (20-week program I started in January 2019)
• From there, I used all of these to get a vice president position in a finance club I was in from FIU, where I was able to pitch stocks every other week (3 total)

And all of these experiences opened up a plethora of doors for my summer where I had interviewed and got accepted to 2 private equity firms, 1 hedge fund, 1 venture capital firm, the Go Green Eco Bins startup, and an artificial intelligence startup called Liquid Carrot.

I ended up only picking the venture capital firm and one of the two startups, but having options is always great! Just make sure you’re doing things that will add value to you and aligns with your goals!

*Update* now fast forward to sophomore year, and I will be working on Wall Street this summer with Citi bank through the Sophomore Leadership Program (roughly 1% acceptance rate from 2,400+ applicants)

But this Sophomore internship wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t — (as a freshman from a non-target) — meet Citi’s campus ambassador at my university, drive to an event at The University of Miami (~35 min drive) when I found out the day prior Citi recruiters were going (I skipped class for this)— left a solid impression being the only non-UM student to raise my hand that knew who Jerome Powell was when the recruiters did a random ‘pop question’. Attend Freshman Discovery Day through Citi, kept in contact with my mentors and recruiters, and prepared for the superday interview with mock interviews

Some tips, not exactly finance related, but to get you in the mindset for success

• Look for an excel program to see how much money you want to make to have your ideal lifestyle. I personally used this one, I found it online and calculated how much I need to be satisfied. From there, found jobs that met that requirement, and then looked for whatever I found most enjoyable/bearable
• Keep a positive mindset (sounds cliche, but positive affirmations are real!) and always learn from your failures. I’ve met quite a few entrepreneurs, especially at eMerge 2019 and StartUP FIU, and the common trait was failing a bunch of times, learning from them, and then continually progressing
• Look to others for help. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to mentor you. Personally, mentors have gotten me much further in way less time than it would have taken me to achieve on my own. Often times, people love talking about themselves and get satisfaction from helping others
• Be driven. My mentor once told me to “have a goal in front of you that is moving faster than the fear that is creeping up behind you. That way, you’ll always be pushed to succeed and progress faster than you fail.” So just have a purpose with whatever you choose to follow. This is where the “finding your passion” comes into play

Best of luck with everything, you got this! :)