Thinking about where I am in life now and how I got here. I've worked incredibly hard through school and through work to end up in the position I'm in now. However, to be honest when I think about how I got here, a lot is to be owed to the purely lucky circumstances I have found myself in.
I Couldn't Afford College
I went to a decent high school in Rhode Island and did very well. I got accepted into schools like UVA and Notre Dame, but I couldn't afford them. My dad is a cop, and my mom is a middle school teacher. Combined they never made more than $120k and I had an older brother and sister in college too. I wasn't thinking about applying to the University of Miami, but because I had family that lived there, I through an application in. I also sent it in late, as I didn't realize the deadline had passed. Not only was I accepted, but I was given so much money in grants and scholarships, that I really only needed to pay for one year.
I Never Thought About Pursuing Finance
I entered the University of Miami as a Pre-Med student. I lasted about half a day before I realized there was no shot I was going to become a doctor. I switched to Economics because I figured it was a good degree that can be used in a ton of different fields. I never thought about a career in finance until I started dating my girlfriend and learned that her dad owns his own boutique Investment Bank in Westport, CT. In a kind of superficial way, I felt so much pressure to become as wealthy and successful as my girlfriend's dad so that I could continue to provide for her what her dad provides for her. This pushed me to create a LinkedIn, try harder in class, figure out a career path to pursue, begin networking hard, and to just get my shit together.
I Barely Made Friends in College
UMiami is a very cliquey school. If you aren't in some group or a fraternity, it is very difficult to make friends. Through rush week I did not get any bids. After getting dropped by most of the fraternities, for some reason I just joined the Facebook rush group of one. I had happened to meet the president of the fraternity at a basketball pickup game earlier in the year and he recognized me in the group and invited me to come to one of the rush events. After joining that fraternity, I made all the lifelong friendships I have now, and all the college memories I could ever want.
I Couldn't Get an Internship
Going into my Senior year at UM, I still didn't have a single relative work experience on my resume. Covid was also just kicking off so internships were being cancelled and no one was hiring. I networked with everyone I had any sort of connection to, but still couldn't land anything. My uncle had a friend who's wife worked at a small firm that made market reports on different cities and industries. For no reason at all, other than they knew my uncle, they just let me come onboard as an accounting intern for 8 weeks over the summer.
I Was Dirt Poor through College
The internship I had was unpaid. I made 8 bucks an hour working at my school's library. The only way I got through affording anything was because my uncle who owns his own law practice put me on his company's payroll during Covid so he could collect a PPP loan. He essentially made money from my fake payroll and let me keep some of it. (This was probably illegal? but hey whatever).
I Couldn't Land a Job Offer
Through the fall and winter of my senior year, I applied to so many jobs I couldn't even count. I networked so hard every day and had a ton of phone calls, but even after that I couldn't get any interviews. I think I had one or two that didn't lead to anything. The way I got my job was due to a pledge in my fraternity. We were at a Superbowl party, and I was so hammered. I asked all the pledges to tell me what their parents do for a living. One ended up telling me his dad owned a PE firm and was also moving it from D.C. to Miami. Not only that but he was coming into town next week and was happy to speak with me. I talked to this kid's dad for like 4 hours at a Ritz Carlton and he ended up inviting me to join his firm as an intern in March. When I graduated in May I was invited to join full-time.
Never Thought I Would get the Big Bank Offer I Always Wanted
In September and October, I started throwing my resume around. I applied to a ton of positions that were related to renewables investing and tax equity financing (since that's what the firm I was at did). I didn't do much networking here at all. Through November and December, I had a bunch of interviews but couldn't get far. Most of these firms and banks were looking for someone with a bit more experience. On January 27th I was invited to do an interview for a role I had applied to on October 29th. I then had a second and third interview two weeks later and now they have offered me the position. I did zero networking.
You Can't Predict Where Life Will Take You
In High School I thought I was going to become a doctor. I thought I was going to go to UVA. I thought at Miami I would never make any close friends. I thought I would never land a job offer and have to go back home to my parents. I never thought I would end up getting the banking offer I wanted since I started this whole process. I thought I wanted to be in Miami and now I can't wait to leave. I thought I wanted to be in New York City but now I'm excited about the opportunity to explore the Bay Area. I could not have predicted a single thing that has happened to me in my life. It's truly crazy to think about all the circumstances that have brought me here. I consider myself to be one of the luckiest mtherfckers I know.
Hey man, thanks for sharing. Will just add that while luck may be a factor, I hope you give yourself more credit. All of those things you mentioned don't feel to me like they would just fall in someone's lap. Luck might have opened the door a crack but it sounds like you followed through with some serious grabbing it by the balls type shit. Good for you.
I love the optimism and "enjoy the ride" vibe on your post. All the best man, enjoy the Bay.
Don’t forget it. Let it keep you grateful, even when career or life go through their inevitable dips. You’ll be much happier.
Fortune favors the bold. In each of those instances, it seems like you put yourself in a position for those things to happen. Nice work.
Yeah def. The motto for my last name is “Audentes Fortuna Juvat.”
Ok Matt Damon
So I guess your luck ran out when your girl found you pretending you were single?
Or maybe not since right after she found out, I got my offer
I can relate to this man. Fortune favors the bold. I remember I was in my early 20's hanging out in communities such as this one, and things just fell into place for me. Looking back, I really did get incredibly lucky, but the key part I played was putting myself out there for the opportunities to come find me.
Hold up a second....
1. YOU sent an application last minute to another college and got accepted.
2. YOU decided to try harder at school after meeting a girl....not as serendipitious as it seems....we all meet girls and realize we need to man up at a certain point in life.
3. YOU joined a rush group and wow, you got in touch with someone and then rushed.
4. YOU networked every angle from pledges to family and got contacts for internships. Because of your previous experience, you were able to impress these contacts.
5. YOU applied to jobs related to what you were doing....and you got one...wow some luck huh?
Yes, there is a bunch of randomness and luck to life, but I think that you're totally missing the point that if you don't send the application, don't try hard at school, don't network, don't reach out to the frat, and don't apply to jobs, none of the above happens. Luck by itself can achieve none of the above. Your decisions every step of the way led the outcome not luck which was a factor but not the primary mover of your direction.
Side note: Would not even consider some of your examples luck. Get experience at PE firm and then apply to similar jobs.....I would EXPECT you to get a job with that kind of background....in fact you would be "unlucky" not to get a decent job somewhere.
Eyyy another Rhody. I feel very lucky in my history, too.
Applied to my undergrad on a whim because a girl I was into asked if I wanted to skip physics to go to the school presentation. I really wanted to go to physics, but since she asked me I decided to go, turns out I thought the presentation was legit, I applied and got scholarship, got rejected from my first choice, and ended up going to that school (which was still a good school) because of a crush I had.
Met my best friend on our engineering trip they hold for the engineers before school even starts, his father worked in finance, he introduced me to that whole world, got my mind turning. Halfway through school decided I wanted to do something finance related, but couldn't switch my major since my scholarship was tied to the engineering school. Decided I'd apply everywhere and if I couldn't find anything in finance I'd just get the best job I could and get my MBA.
Got rejected from 16 jobs (mostly finance/consulting interviews), and finally got an offer for construction management which fit my major better (I told this story recently here about how I interviewed for that one, I was in town for a different interview, an interview from hell, and was in the right place at the right time). I was very grateful to get that opportunity, the summer was over and I said to myself if I couldn't find anything I would become a math teacher (something I still want to do) and change my career path dramatically) It was interesting work, but very intellectually dull, so I applied to MBA programs as soon as I could (I had only 1 year and 8 months of experience when I applied, R1). 4/5 rejected outright, last school let me in. At this point my interest in working in finance had waned pretty hard, but I still loved the theoretical aspects of it and wanted to deal with more of it, so I decided to pivot to real estate finance/development.
Networked as much as I could, didn't get anywhere with internships. Another student told me about the company he worked for before the MBA, and stupidly I didn't ask for an introduction, I just applied online. Still somehow got the internship. Then I got my current job offer in Feb 2020, right before shit hit the fan.
All in all, I've been very fortunate and try to help others as much as I can because I know how much of a crapshoot life can be. I worked my ass off, no doubt, was one of the top of my majors, worked hard and learned as much as I could in construction, studied a ton for the GMAT, etc. but still, in any of the steps above if one thing went different my life would be on a totally different trajectory.
Life is crazy man. Totally unpredictable. All we can do is follow opportunities as they come. Shoutout to Narragansett if you're originally from around there.
Providence, but Narragansett is beautiful!
I've been getting unbelievably unlucky recently, and taking L's left and right...but, this post gives me some hope, so thank you :).
You never know what's gonna happen man. just trust the process and put yourself out there
People who don't work hard get lucky too, but 9 out of 10 times won't be able to seize the opportunity. Your hard work and ability to connect with people well allowed you to grab every opportunity by the balls.
You make your own luck, and that is exactly what you did. Don’t minimize it.
You tried...and did the minimal reqs when trying, after that, it's a numbers game.
Also
*Whose
With such mindsert everyone's life can be attributed to luck. To put in other worda your perspective, instead of luck, is seeing opportunitiea and jumping on it.
your luck = good decision in the right circumstances
Luck is just the intersection of hard work and opportunity.
You were ready to take advantage of, and then make the best of, opportunities that arose, no matter they arose. Don’t diminish that
What this guy said.
Most of this forum over-index on the "hard work" part and ignore that they had a lot of "opportunity" that other people never had.
OP you're doing it the other way around. Be grateful for the opportunities you've had, but recognize that being where you are would not have been possible without putting in the work, and if you keep putting that work in you're going to see more "luck" come your way.
Fellow Cane here. Good job. UM is on the up!
Love this post. OP has provided a ton of good color/life experience on WSO.
+1 SB and good job sir!
Zeta Male?
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. - Thomas Jefferson
It is better to be lucky than smart. I've also found that I've been far, far luckier than I have been smart. But as they also say, you often make your own luck. Cheers.
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