Erika Taugher is a star soccer player at NJIT. After playing for just two years, she is poised to become the university’s all-time leading scorer. She’s also a stellar student. In her major, mechanical engineering, she has a near perfect grade-point average of 3.7.
It’s that combination --athlete and engineer – that has helped her get a coveted Wall Street internship. This summer, she’ll work as an intern for J.P. Morgan, a top investment bank in Manhattan. To get the internship, she competed against 500 students from colleges such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
“I was intimidated by all those Ivy League students,” said Erika, “but most of them were not engineering majors. And Wall Street firms want to hire engineers.”
Wall Street firms also want athletes. Erika is on her way to Wall Street in large part because of an assist from the Alumni Athlete Network. Founded by Ron Mitchell, a former captain of Harvard’s basketball team, the network helps usher college athletes onto Wall Street.
Over the years, Wall Street recruiters have found that college athletes possess characteristics that tend to make them ideal employees. Athletes tend to be competitive, driven and goal-oriented -- the characteristics one needs to succeed on Wall Street, a high-pressure environment where 80-hour weeks are the norm.
Mitchell’s network accepts 500 applications from college athletes. He then picks some 150 interview candidates, of whom 37 are placed in internships at firms like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.
What makes these internships so sought after and competitive, said Mitchell, is this: More than 80 percent of the interns are offered full-time jobs. The internship is the main avenue to a Wall Street career. So, these days, if you don’t come into Wall Street as an intern, your chances of working on the Street are dim, he said.
The most recent hiring trend on Wall Street, he added, is the influx of engineers into the financial-services industry. Engineers not only have quantitative skills but computing skills; they thus can handle the sophisticated software programs that power investment firms.
“What gave Erika an edge is her engineering background,” said Mitchell. “Wall Street is eager to hire engineers, whose analytical skills help investment firms make sound decisions. Erika also has a phenomenal personality, so when you combine her quantitative skills with her personality – that’s a winning combination on Wall Street.”
At NJIT, Erika winningly combines academics and athletics. She is a scholar in the Albert Dorman Honors College, and is vice president of finance for the Student Senate. She has a double major -- mechanical engineering and business management -- and though she is just a junior, she is already taking classes toward her MBA. The School of Management offers an accelerated degree program -- a BS/MBA – that helps students jumpstart their careers. She has worked as a teaching assistant in physics, tutoring students in the Educational Opportunity Program.
On the soccer field, Erika’s record is equally impressive. She is close to breaking university records for goals, assists and points. She has also played with the Portuguese National Women’s Soccer Team in the prestigious 2006 Algarve Cup.
And starting in May, when her internship begins, Erika will bring that competitive spirit to Wall Street. She is excited. She’ll be paid $1,200 a week, and live – all expenses paid – in a New York University dormitory. In one summer she’ll get a good sense of how an investment bank operates. She’ll work at J.P. Morgan’s Sales and Trading unit, where she’ll learn how capital flows from the world’s largest investors; follow the financial markets; attend weekly financial market meetings and meet regularly with senior managers.
The internship is ideal for Erika, since she wants to get her MBA and work in finance. She would like to one day work abroad, too. She has an international background. Her mother is Portuguese and her father is Canadian. She grew up in Oakville, Canada, just outside of Toronto, where in high school she excelled in academics and soccer. When she was a senior in high school, she visited a number of top universities in Canada and the U.S. But she decided to attend NJIT – her first choice. And now, after being chosen for the J.P. Morgan internship, she realizes it was the right choice. It was NJIT, she believes, that gave her the edge in getting the internship.
“NJIT is such a unique university,” Erika said, “and I’m just so happy to be here. The coaches and professors have helped me balance soccer and academics. The students here are so smart, and it’s such a supportive learning environment. NJIT sets you up to succeed: That’s why I got this internship.”
It’s that combination --athlete and engineer – that has helped her get a coveted Wall Street internship. This summer, she’ll work as an intern for J.P. Morgan, a top investment bank in Manhattan. To get the internship, she competed against 500 students from colleges such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
“I was intimidated by all those Ivy League students,” said Erika, “but most of them were not engineering majors. And Wall Street firms want to hire engineers.”
Wall Street firms also want athletes. Erika is on her way to Wall Street in large part because of an assist from the Alumni Athlete Network. Founded by Ron Mitchell, a former captain of Harvard’s basketball team, the network helps usher college athletes onto Wall Street.
Over the years, Wall Street recruiters have found that college athletes possess characteristics that tend to make them ideal employees. Athletes tend to be competitive, driven and goal-oriented -- the characteristics one needs to succeed on Wall Street, a high-pressure environment where 80-hour weeks are the norm.
Mitchell’s network accepts 500 applications from college athletes. He then picks some 150 interview candidates, of whom 37 are placed in internships at firms like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.
What makes these internships so sought after and competitive, said Mitchell, is this: More than 80 percent of the interns are offered full-time jobs. The internship is the main avenue to a Wall Street career. So, these days, if you don’t come into Wall Street as an intern, your chances of working on the Street are dim, he said.
The most recent hiring trend on Wall Street, he added, is the influx of engineers into the financial-services industry. Engineers not only have quantitative skills but computing skills; they thus can handle the sophisticated software programs that power investment firms.
“What gave Erika an edge is her engineering background,” said Mitchell. “Wall Street is eager to hire engineers, whose analytical skills help investment firms make sound decisions. Erika also has a phenomenal personality, so when you combine her quantitative skills with her personality – that’s a winning combination on Wall Street.”
At NJIT, Erika winningly combines academics and athletics. She is a scholar in the Albert Dorman Honors College, and is vice president of finance for the Student Senate. She has a double major -- mechanical engineering and business management -- and though she is just a junior, she is already taking classes toward her MBA. The School of Management offers an accelerated degree program -- a BS/MBA – that helps students jumpstart their careers. She has worked as a teaching assistant in physics, tutoring students in the Educational Opportunity Program.
On the soccer field, Erika’s record is equally impressive. She is close to breaking university records for goals, assists and points. She has also played with the Portuguese National Women’s Soccer Team in the prestigious 2006 Algarve Cup.
And starting in May, when her internship begins, Erika will bring that competitive spirit to Wall Street. She is excited. She’ll be paid $1,200 a week, and live – all expenses paid – in a New York University dormitory. In one summer she’ll get a good sense of how an investment bank operates. She’ll work at J.P. Morgan’s Sales and Trading unit, where she’ll learn how capital flows from the world’s largest investors; follow the financial markets; attend weekly financial market meetings and meet regularly with senior managers.
The internship is ideal for Erika, since she wants to get her MBA and work in finance. She would like to one day work abroad, too. She has an international background. Her mother is Portuguese and her father is Canadian. She grew up in Oakville, Canada, just outside of Toronto, where in high school she excelled in academics and soccer. When she was a senior in high school, she visited a number of top universities in Canada and the U.S. But she decided to attend NJIT – her first choice. And now, after being chosen for the J.P. Morgan internship, she realizes it was the right choice. It was NJIT, she believes, that gave her the edge in getting the internship.
“NJIT is such a unique university,” Erika said, “and I’m just so happy to be here. The coaches and professors have helped me balance soccer and academics. The students here are so smart, and it’s such a supportive learning environment. NJIT sets you up to succeed: That’s why I got this internship.”
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