Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

ALPFA National Convention 2019

This blog was written by Peer Career Ambassador, Julian Parra ’20.

From August 3rd to August 6th, I had the opportunity to participate in the 2019 ALPFA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. At a high level, this weekend was filled with workshops about topics like wealth creation, professional development, and Latino representation in the workforce. Over 50 recruiting companies and 2500 students were in attendance, making it a perfect opportunity to network with other ambitious individuals from all over the country.

I attended workshops like Strategies on Wealth Creation, in which financial advisor panelists encouraged the audience to focus all energy on your current role as opposed to always searching for the next opportunity, to participate in a 401k plan, and to have three buckets of savings. I also went to a workshop called Emerging Technologies, where Deloitte professionals shared the top emerging technologies to be RPA, augmented and virtual reality, blockchain, and machine learning, and how Deloitte is utilizing these to stay competitive in the industry. Finally, I attended “PwC Digital Upskilling,” where PwC professionals walked us through an exercise of how to use data analytics in our day-to-day lives.

After a Bank of America workshop, I introduced myself to a Bank of America recruiter, expressed my interest in working for a team within the intersection between business and technology, and handed her my resume. She invited me to a Bank of America dinner later that weekend. The next day, I received an email saying that I was confirmed for an interview within Bank of America’s Global Technology and Operations division on the last day of the convention. During the dinner itself, I interacted with more Bank of America employees and experienced the culture of the firm. I learned about the plethora of opportunities Bank of America has regarding technology. I also met a Senior Vice President of Bank of America’s audit practice at the dinner who was impressed with my previous experience in data analytics and ensured that I also got the opportunity to interview for his team on the last day of the convention as well. A few

weeks after the convention, the technology recruiter for Bank of America confirmed that I would be moving on to the final round for the Global Technology and Operations division that would take place on September 3rd. A few days after starting the Fall 2019 semester, I received a call from the recruiter extending me the offer for the Global Technology and Operations position. I share this information to highlight the incredible opportunities attendees of this conference have and how this can shape the rest of your career. I highly encourage all readers to participate in the ALPFA organization in any way that you can and to make any efforts necessary to attend the ALPFA National Convention next year- you never know where it could take you!

On the last day of the convention, during the career fair, I spoke with representatives from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and more. The recruiters would refer me to special links to apply to competitive jobs that would push my resume to the top of the pile.

All in all, I am grateful to the Professional Accelerator Fund for sponsoring my attendance at the ALPFA Convention. I left the convention motivated to pursue my goals, confident in my abilities and skills, and with friendships from students from other campuses.