Arts & Sciences Career Development recently hosted a Career Conversation with Zach Ablon ’99, Partner at Goldman Sachs, about his career path and experience working in finance. This small event brought students together with Zach to learn about what a career in Finance might look like for them. Here are some key takeaways from their engaging conversation:
- Be Interested and Interesting – Zach likes to get to know his supervisees, his coworkers, and his clients – learn their interests and be able to find some commonality to connect on.
- Ask Questions – Zach highlighted that being curious by asking questions both of people and of your job is good! Zach sees people hesitate to ask their supervisors questions because they are worried a manager will think less of them, when not asking the question you have is more likely to make a manager think less of you.
- Make Connections not Contacts – With rising AI and technology, the human connection won’t go away. Find mentors to advocate for you and make connections with classmates, older students, professors, alumni, and supervisors/managers.
- Connections are a Two-Way Street – To make lasting connections you need to share about yourself while also getting to know them. Find people you admire and learn from them, in all aspects of your life. Zach emphasized that he learned his relationship building skills at Cornell through extracurriculars, like his fraternity, and connecting with students and professors in his classes.
- Say Yes – Take every opportunity you can to try something because trying new things is how you develop relationships and skills. Make a concerted effort to attend as many intern events and social outings as possible.
- Be Adaptable – Zach shared that in his time in finance many things have changed, such as traders growing from a role that only traded into a role that has a selling and client facing aspect. Zach observed that the people who last the longest and rise the ranks are the people who adapt to the needs of their firm and stay current on industry changes and trends.
Career Conversations are Q&A sessions hosted by the College of Arts & Sciences designed to offer a small group of students the chance to get answers to their most pressing questions about a particular career field from College of Arts & Sciences alums. Keep an eye out for future Career Conversations on Cornell Handshake.
