Madison Gordon, COL ’26, Stratford, CT
This summer, I interned within the Wealth Management line of business at a large bank and financial provider in New York City. I worked on a team focused on providing opinions, expectations, and recollections of current and projected market performance. It was essentially the “back house” when you think about wealth management. Financial Advisors rely on my team, as well as adjacent teams, to help contextualize current events and market performance so that they can best assist their clients. On a high level, my team served as the financial advisors to the financial advisors!
My days often consisted of a lot of reading. I would read about recent market trends, relevant geopolitical events, and any other significant events that could affect market performance and the actions of investors. This would happen as soon as I stepped into the office, around halfway through my day, and then right before I left the office. This ensured that I was constantly up to date with what was occurring in the markets.
Time that I didn’t spend reading was focused on assisting my team with developing various market reports (weekly, quarterly, monthly), summarizing key information for Financial Advisor presentations, and learning from experienced professionals within the business. I would say the most rewarding part of my 10 weeks was getting to chat with various people within the business whether they were analysts, vice presidents, or managing directors. I learned some of my most important skills and takeaways from these conversations because everyone was honest, invested in my growth, and wanted me to enjoy my time with the firm. It was evident that everyone wanted what was best for me, which definitely upheld my motivation throughout the program.
I spent the last few weeks of my internship focusing on a final project that focused on equity and fixed income behavior when the Federal Reserve makes a rate cut. I learned a lot working on this project because I was forced to look at historical data, primarily using Bloomberg, and then contextualize this data with the position that I was taking for my project. Working on this project taught me that it is okay and critical to know when to ask for help. It would have been impossible for me to learn how to export the data to excel, generate visuals for it, and then speak about my conclusions without assistance from my team and other individuals I had built relationships with. My confidence in regard to presenting my data was primarily due to the conversations I had with people who assisted me throughout the process.
This experience was possible because of the support I received from Career Services, and because of that I am very thankful. I had a great experience in an industry I had no idea I would end up in, and I am excited to see how I will continue to grow professionally using what I learned this summer.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2024 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
