Experiences
High School
In early high school, I started working in the fashion industry. Fashion was always a passion of mine because it is an outlet for expression and a continuous representation of historical and modern times.
Nordstrom was the first company I worked for; I started out working in the junior department merchandising fashion board, which pairs industry specialists with younger teenagers to figure out sales, marketing and display strategies for the store junior department collections. I worked on the strategies for several seasonal collections and got the opportunity to proudly see my ideas in display across Nordstrom stores in New Jersey.
Shortly afterwards, I was hired to be a junior model for the Nordstrom B.P fashion collection and did runway modeling for junior fashion shows. Receiving this opportunity early on gave me confidence and taught me how I want to walk and carry myself throughout my career.
In late high school and early college, sales was my next venture. I became very interested in customers and how I can develop my personality and interpersonal skills to better help understand and serve someone else. I worked in the Nordstrom sales department and also worked for Gymboree as a Sales Associate. These experiences were foundational in me learning how to step outside of my comfort zone and interact with different kinds of people with ease. They also got me interested in numbers and how companies are running from a financial side, which influenced my majoring in finance in college.
College
At Rutgers, my first internship was with bridal gown designer Jenny Yoo. It was a sales internship in which I got to meet and interact with clients on the sales floor, help maintain company accounts, and work first hand with the Director of Sales to help meet sales targets and devise strategies for the upcoming product line. My favorite part of this internship was working during Bridal Fashion Week and having the opportunity to speak to buyers, designers, and models and understanding how the industry works as a whole.
I loved my time working in the fashion industry. I learned that the world is competitive, creative and ever-changing. I also learned that hard work, keeping a positive attitude and listening is how you overcome the intimidation of starting out your career.
Lastly, I learned that I so unapologetically want to be myself.
I did a really fun Corporate Branding/ Business Development internship in my sophomore year of college with the online learning platform, Course Hero. The idea was to train me on the resources they want to offer to students, and I do everything I can to gain subscribers to the platform. In the end, I did get 164 students to register, but only after I learned the power of effectively utilizing my network. I also further refined by organization skills by planning several large scale events to bring students together and teach them about the utility of this platform in their educations.
As time went on in college, I was proud of the years of leadership I had demonstrated and the incredible industry exposure I had gotten. I learned to work in so many roles, from strategy to business development to sales. However, one piece that was missing for me was learning the language of business: accounting and finance. Learning these fundamental skills would equip me with a more well-rounded understanding of the business environment, allowing me to excel in the next stage of my career.
I majored in Finance in the Rutgers Business School and learned a lot on the subject, but I wanted some industry experience in my major. Johnson and Johnson hired me to work in their Diagnostics and Oncology finance department for a six month co-op and this co-op exposed me to pharmaceutical businesses and their financial statements. I helped work on the capital budget for the research and development of drugs for brain, prostate and lung cancer. The work was fulfilling and showed me that the supply chain and start to end planning and execution of any product is impossible if it is not properly financed.
Full-Time Work
Wanting to learn more about how large scale financial institutions work, interact with and impact the world, I accepted an internship at Morgan Stanley. I’ve been working at Morgan Stanley ever since, and have worked in many roles, from governance and controls to sales to model development. I am grateful for my time at Morgan Stanley and being surrounded by so many intelligent minds. In my career thus far, I’ve spent the longest time at Morgan Stanley because the number of roles and opportunities at the firm are limitless, and I’ve added onto my interpersonal and technical skillsets by dabbing into model development, understanding and helping putting together firm financial statements, interacting and developing relationships with stakeholders in the business, and most importantly, understanding the value of a client.
My career has been vast and fruitful so far and I am excited to dive into my next adventure!