Ten Weeks Working on the Trading Floor

My name is Talise Redmond and I am a rising senior from New Jersey studying Economics with a Markets and Management Certificate and Sociology minor. This summer, I am spending ten weeks as a Sales and Trading intern at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. I applied and interviewed for this position last July and August, and the recruiting team was very flexible with my abroad plans. I had my Superday the week before I ended my internship and heard back two weeks later before I left the US. First and foremost, I advise everyone to apply to as many positions as you find interesting. A resume drop never hurts.

Coming into my internship, I felt pretty unprepared to be on a trading floor as I had not taken any finance classes through my major. I’ve since realized that this might have been a blessing in disguise. Starting from scratch (somewhat) allowed me to soak everything in and pushed me to maximized my experience. I rotated through the interest rate derivatives desk, the foreign exchange desk, and the municipal bond desk. Each rotation had their own culture, product, and methods. I would really advocate for a rotational internship because of the variety of learning it encompasses. It also gave me the opportunity to see more of what I liked and did not like about the business.

Now, I could tell you how Brexit negotiations with the EU will affect interest rates and how that affects the direction currencies will move around the globe. I could tell you how interest rates, credit ratings, location, or almost anything else affects the cost of a municipal bond. I could also tell you why any of this is of importance/interest. It may seem that finance is straight and narrow, but in reality there are so many different aspects that can be fascinating once you get into them.

I have had experience in Wealth Management and switched to Sales and Trading to see if all the hype around the industry was justified. Now, I see that it is. There is excitement, teamwork, relationship-building, and a sense of pride in the work that people do here. While some parts of the job are more glamorous than others, there is room for growth in everything they do.

I would recommend this internship to others and Wells Fargo as a whole. This is my second summer with the bank and I have had a great experience both years, despite working in completely different divisions. I would also pushback on the idea that you need to be in New York City to work in finance. Charlotte is also a banking hub and I have had so much fun in this city. I honestly was not sure if finance was for me, but now I am confident in my ability to succeed in this industry and enjoy myself while doing it. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions about the recruiting process, my experience, or anything else!

Talise is writing as part of our Summer Guest Blog series. We will be featuring students in MMS all summer as they travel on study abroad trips and internships. For updates on future students' experiences, follow us on Facebook and Twitter!