October 24, 2014
Tanning at the beach, waiting tables at the local diner or being a camp counselor are all ways many students spend their summers. However, for some students, the dream summer is a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. day of work in the fast-paced environment of New York City, dream of interning at banks like Bank of America Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and many others. One of the most coveted internships is at Goldman Sachs, a top firm for investment banking, securities and investment management. It provides a wide variety of financial services to a number of clients, which includes governments, corporations and some wealthy individuals. A summer internship at Goldman Sachs can be one of the most competitive in the business. Luckily for Hamilton students, however, there are many Hamilton alumni who work at Goldman and are ready to help.
Because of the large interest in finance among studnets at Hamilton, Joseph Simmel ’95 coordinated “Hamilton College at Goldman Sachs Day” on Oct. 17 for 45 students. This day gave students the opportunity to see the finance environment first hand by visiting the Goldman Sachs headquarters at 200 West Street in New York City. The event began at noon, and for the whole afternoon students listened to information sessions with alumni who work in different divisions of Goldman Sachs. Jeff Rabinowtiz ’12, Max Williams ’12 and Matt Sykes ’95 spoke on behalf of the Securities Division. Dong Yue Zhang ’07 and Robert Wang ’05 spoke about Investment Management, specifically regarding Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), and Katie Mann ’10 and Ned Ginty ’93 spoke about the Private Wealth Management side of the Investment Management Division. Further into the day, Ryan Beres ’13 and Lorraine Sperling ’08 presented on the Investment Banking Division. The last division that spoke was Compliance, from Laura Engelhardt ’95 and Susan Cramer ’93. After hearing about each individual section of the firm, the students heard from Matt Fremont-Smith ’84, the keynote speaker of the day. Finally, Gregory T. Hoogkamp ’84 provided the closing remarks.
The experience was meant to give students the chance to learn about Goldman Sachs and the finance industry in general. There are many areas within finance; within Goldman Sachs alone there are fifteen different divisions, and this day provided the opportunity for students to learn about these different divisions. Patrick Mullane of the Career Center, one person involved with planning the day, said that the event, “gave students a broad understanding of the types of jobs available in investment banks.” All of the speakers discussed the specifics of what their division does within the firm as well as what a typical day is like for an employee within that division. In finance, it is crucial to narrow down your path when looking for potential careers because there are several options, many of which students interested in finance do not even know about. As Landon Morin ’16 remarked, “even though I know a lot about asset management, I had no idea what the Alternate Investment and Management Selection (AIMS) Group did within the company.” Hannah Rubin ’17 also “went to purely gather more information and get a first hand sense of what the finance industry is like.”
Another aspect of the event was getting career path advice from the Hamilton graduates. Both recent and older alumni provided valuable insights on how to get involved in finance, considering the competitive nature of the business. Several of the speakers mentioned the importance of taking advantage of the open curriculum at Hamilton in order to gain a more well rounded education. Jeff Rabinowitz ’12, who spoke about US Shares Trading, pointed out that although work with numbers is crucial for the business, how one applies numbers, is a skill encouraged by a liberal arts education. Fremont-Smith said that a “liberal arts education will make you a jack of all trades,” which is crucial for the real world.
Another piece of advice stressed by all the speakers is take advantage of the alumni network. John McGonigle ’17 noticed that the alumni “have a real willingness to help out Hamilton students.” Contact with alumni is helpful while looking for internships and jobs or even simply searching for career advice.
The career center offers endless opportunities for students to gain career-specific knowledge. According to Mullane, Hamilton has done “Hamilton@” days, like the one at Goldman Sachs, for other organizations in fashion and arts administration, and they are planning even more of these events in the future. Also, Mullane stated, “there are always alumni returning to campus who share their career experience.” The day at Goldman Sachs was an great success for students eager to learn more about careers in finanace.
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