Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

A Visit to Wall Street

This post was written by Chris Harrington ’15

The NYC Finance Trip is definitely something to add to your ‘to-do’ list while at Babson College if you have an interest in Finance.

Early Friday morning, we departed the Hilton hotel in NYC with a ‘must-see’ destination to start the morning: The New York Stock Exchange. I thought it was pretty remarkable to see from the outside, but today we were heading inside prior to the market opening. The trading floor was remarkably different from what one would assume. The floor was practically empty, and the handfuls of people working did not seem in a panic. They were just settling into their day. The trading floor itself has undergone significant changes over the past few years, and is much more automated today A few news stations on the center of the trading floor planned their scripts and prepped for the early morning casting. We toured the trading floor with Rick, a Babson alum, and got a first hand look at what it’s like to work on wall street. The tour concluded with breakfast and Q&A, which was a great chance to get the inside scoop on the NYSE Euronext. We learned more about their acquisition with ICE (Inter Continental Exchange) and wrapped up the tour. 

Next stop was Goldman Sachs. Waking into the main headquarters with a group of Babson students in suits gave a feeling of prestige to the group. It’s an experience you have to feel in order to understand. We took the elevator up to the floor where Goldman Sachs headquarters was, and upon entering the room, we saw the rows of computers and analysts going about their day. “This is incredible, this is my freaking dream” I heard a student say, as a few others agreed in conversation. The Goldman Sachs crew was very insightful in regard to landing a job in finance, and provided many pieces of information for us students. Across a long conference room, we chatted with several Goldman Sachs team members about the many paths in finance. You wouldn’t believe how many options you have in finance until you start talking with people working in the industry. The fields among the industry are vast. From there, we headed to Rothschild.

Entering into there new office was a phenomenal experience. We entered into a conference room with shiny, white marble floors, a large, white marble conference desk, and a row of beautiful, black, leather chairs, surrounding the conference room desk. We were treated to lunch here, and were given the rundown of Rothschild, a mid cap investment bank that provides consulting services. Rothschild wasn’t your typical Investment Bank. We were able to have a chat with some new analysts working for Rothschild, some of whom were Babson alums. It was great to hear from recent graduates about their experience into finance and investment banking. Finally, we headed to Bank of America / Merrill Lynch to conclude the day. 

Here, we learned about leverage finance, yet another field in the finance industry. Again, we were provided with a lot of helpful advice for getting a job in finance. The best part about Bank of America was the fact that they were all Babson alums. This gives Babson students a competitive advantage over any other school, because Babson students have the network with Bank of America through the alumni association. 

All in all, there were a lot of great takeaways from the finance trip. We were able to learn a lot about four different companies, and we were given many tools to add to our arsenal for the future to secure a job in finance. All in all, this is a trip you must experience while you are a student at Babson.