Bronco Spotlight: Safa Saeed
MBA and Fullbright Scholar, 2021
Senior Associate, JP Morgan Chase & Co.
I’m currently in a two-years rotational program, which I was hired into upon graduating from WMU. The program’s goal is to create general managers and senior leaders at the firm by exposing them to different teams and functions across the bank. My current role is in the Finance Data and Insights team, which reports both to the Consumer Banking CEO and the Office of the CFO at JP Morgan Chase & Co. My role will change twice within the next few months until I choose a team for my final placement.
If you had a campus job or internship, how did they impact your career development?
I’ve had both: an internship at a startup in Boston and a Lab Instructor TA position at the Haworth College of Business. They allowed me to take on more responsibilities and expand my interpersonal skills (especially the TA-ship, where I was the lab instructor for 150+ students in CIS 1020). I became familiar with different cultures around the US and more confident in leading diverse groups of people.
What experiences impacted the choice of your career path?
The elective courses in my MBA program enabled me with the skills necessary to pivot my career path into investment banking, an industry that’s otherwise extremely competitive. To be precise: MGMT6000 with Dr. Michelle Tokarz and Dr. David Brophy (UoM), and FIN5530 with Professor Daniel C. Haines.
What advice do you have for others pursuing a career similar to yours?
Do not self-filter yourself away from competitive opportunities. If you decide to go for it, though, you must go all-in with your full passion, time and effort. Ask many people for advice, then take some of it with a grain of salt. One of my career advisors said it’s too difficult for me to get accepted at the big investment banks, and it would be better to stick to companies where I had higher chances of receiving a job offer. I listened carefully, then proceeded to do the exact opposite.