This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2021 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here.
This entry is by Seif Nasereddin, COL ’23
With everything happening around the Summer of 2021, all the uncertainty, all the uncontrolled variables, all made it very demotivating for a student to apply to internships, jobs, and even have everything in control. With the help of the University of Pennsylvania I was able to peruse an internship position within the Costumer Care department at Lotus Financial Investment CO.
At first, I was very excited about working in Palestine with such a company that values my knowledge, still have the high paced office environment while being back home. However, do to the uncertainty of Covid, I had to live the experience remotely.
I Still managed to visit the company a couple of times, were I met fellow interns, as well as directors and managers, and got the opportunity to learn how a Brokerage Company looks like. From making an account, to trading locally, and then trading internationally.
Which is why I think working for a company as an unpaid intern really matters for a career development. For the sole reason of helping you figure out what you actually enjoy. And without the support and help from Career Services, I would have never noticed that I enjoyed the more interactive part of working in Investing. I found myself getting more and more intrigued in dealing with high-end customers, or even dealing with a new customer.
Without this opportunity, I would have never been able to understand how different Investing and the Stock Market are. It is like having an outsider perspective. Seeing people who are interesting in the US market wake up at different times than people working in the Arab Stock Market.
I always knew that I enjoyed this career path, but after my internship with Lotus Financial Investment CO, this enjoyment and love, turned into passion and vision. All of this would be possible without the generous grant from Career Services.