Ryan Gormley dreamed of a job on Wall Street, and Career Development helped make it happen.
When Ryan Gormley arrived on campus, he knew he loved finance but wasn’t quite sure about his career path. It was a meeting with Career Development during that first semester that helped put it top of mind. So, when he noticed a flyer in the library that advertised job openings in investment banking, equity research, and sales and trading on Wall Street, he didn’t waste any time figuring out a plan.
Gormley had heard about the Bentley Investment Group (BIG), a club for students interested in working on Wall Street that hosts lectures and networking events with Wall Street professionals. He applied, interviewed and was admitted.
“Right away I was connected to upperclassmen with top internships who were able to explain the steps they had taken,” Gormley says of BIG members. “It was really surprising how willing other students were to help me. I remember having my first coffee chats at Einstein’s bagels learning about the investment banking recruiting process.”
But Gormley knew it was a tough industry to break into; and he turned to Bentley’s Pulsifer Career Development Center for help.
“The investment banking recruiting process is incredibly competitive,” says Gormley, a Finance major. “Your résumé needs to be flawless; the tiniest grammatical or formatting error can get you dismissed. The PCDC had an amazing understanding of what recruiters were looking for and offered genuine guidance.”
Gormley found it particularly helpful to work on his résumé with his Career Development peer adviser Alexandria Steinmann ’18. Mock interviews prepared him for his first interview by helping him craft his story and be ready to answer questions that came his way.
Programs like Success in the City, where alumni host students for a daylong New York City “employer blitz” focusing on networking, career exploration and city life, gave Gormley a platform to rub elbows with potential future employers.
“During one Success in the City trip, I remember being in Morgan Stanley’s office and connecting with some of the same upperclassmen who had helped me a few years earlier in the Wall Street Club,” Gormley says of alumni. “They were able to introduce me to their teams and help me get my foot in the door. I think the commitment to helping students land great careers is almost ingrained in the Bentley culture.”
It’s that kind of career development culture — typically beginning the first semester of a student’s first year — that pushed Gormley to do an internship every summer at top companies: Morgan Stanley, Skybridge Capital, Sphaeris Capital Management and Wells Fargo.
“The internships were definitely important stepping stones to landing my dream job at Wells Fargo,” Gormley says of the investment banking job he lined up after graduation. “I learned new hard and soft skills. I’ve noticed that Bentley students have an amazing drive to land top internships. For some reason, it’s something that everyone pursues. I haven’t necessarily seen that with my friends from other schools.”
Though Gormley’s success clearly takes a strong and focused personal drive, he circles back to the “career development culture” at Bentley. “I can honestly say I wouldn’t have the position I have now without that initial push from Career Development when I first arrived at Bentley, and the resources and relationships that followed for the next four years.”
