College Experiences That Helped An M&A Investment Banker At Houlihan Lokey Succeed

I am grateful that my family, and my grandfather in particular, pushed me to take jobs whenever possible. It just looks good on your resume.

I had incredible opportunities to do academic fellowships and summers here. My mentors and family pushed for me to work during the summers, even if they were oddball jobs. These proved far more important to ultimately securing the job I wanted post-graduation than anything academic I could have done in the summer.

I've had more interviewees ask me about being a trained conductor at Knott's Berry Farm than they have about any classes I took at Yale. Doing these internships was also good for my own personal learning.

I did internships for jobs I didn't fully understand, like how sales and insurance worked, or in areas I later learned I couldn't stand. I thought equity research was fascinating, but determined I could never do that job. I'm grateful I knew that, so when I looked for future jobs, I had no doubt that was not an area I would explore.

The final thing to consider is that doing this, I developed mentors who got to know me but could see further than I could. My last internship was in economic consulting. I liked it and thought it was interesting.

It was actually a mentor there who noted, "You should not work here. You're going to get bored with this. You like working with management teams. You like problem-solving with our clients. You should go work in M&A investment banking." They specifically advised middle market because "you're going to get a lot more volume clients that you work with."

As a young person, I just assumed they were right. Looking back, that was incredibly wise. I'm grateful I could benefit from the wisdom of these other individuals I worked with through my internships.

Absolutely the best advice I received was: when possible, try to work a job. They're incredible experiences and they pay off as you try to find employment post-graduation.