JOB POSITIONS 
My first position was with a business services company in their management-training program. The program was not what I thought it would be, and the career path was very limited. Fortunately, I realized this early on and shortly after starting, I accepted a position at GE Capital, where I currently work.

CURRENT POSITION 
My current position is a risk manager, managing a portfolio of senior secured cash flow loans to mid and large size companies. 

TYPICAL WORK DAY
Read the news and any relevant research in the morning pertaining to the industry and companies I cover. Conduct my own research around anything that may be of need or interest. Typically working through financial statement analysis, industry analysis, underwriting, and general management of my portfolio takes up the rest of my day.  Based on my analysis, the end result is usually taking my projections and write-up on a company to our senior risk team to either provide an update on how the company and industry is doing or talking about investment opportunities in the company/industry.

POSITIVES 
My goal has always been to learn as much as possible, and my current job allows me to do that since everyday brings something new to the table, and in the environment we’re in right now, it’s a great learning experience.

NEGATIVES
I find I’m limited sometimes by my lack of experience in knowing how certain events typically play out, such as a bankruptcy, a recession, or just a simple transaction, because I have yet to live through certain events yet and reading a case study doesn’t help much until you’ve actually had to live with your decisions and see the impact from them.  I don’t have the years of experience some of my colleagues and managers do, so it’s tough to defend some of my ideas when I don’t have that experience of working through some situations. I wouldn’t say It’s frustration though, because I know I’ll gain this experience over time.

LIFESTYLE 
My job is pretty demanding and at times I work very long days and weeks.  A good work-life balance is important. It’s more about how efficient you are managing the time you have to accomplish your work. Even though I work longer hours, I stay focused on having a solid work-life balance and feel very happy with my current lifestyle.

COLLEGE PREPARATION
Learning how to manage my time in college between work, sports, and having fun was what really prepared me for this and any career. I think you always have to think about doing something different, otherwise I don’t know how you advance yourself and grow.  Weather it be a slightly different role building new skill sets, or really challenging yourself and doing something completely different. GE Capital has been very good about that with me.  I’ve been given a few completely different roles in the past few years. Each role challenged me in a different way, and looking at where I am now, I’m happy for it because I have a deeper experience and see things from different perspectives.   

CAREER ADVICE
Contact people you know in the field and see if it’s something you really want to do or learn more about.  There are lots of different opportunities in the field of finance, banking or anything related.  The more people you know and talk to will you give you a better understanding of what you might like to do. 

SHU EXPERIENCE
It was a different experience as I transferred from a large university.  It was nice to walk to class or around outside and know more than just a handful of people.  I enjoyed most of my classes, especially ones that seemed more practical to what I thought I would be doing in my career.  My professors were helpful, and made classes and coursework more than just test prep.  I had a lot of fun volunteering at SHU as well, with Habitat, Groundwork, and others.  I also met my wife at SHU, so overall I would have to say the experience was great. Definitely money well spent.