It all started with a car ride with Jeff Beck and his student assistant to Chicago, Illinois on Sunday, March 7, 2010. Although I was one day late and had missed the scavenger hunt, the exciting car ride was an assurance of the best outside classroom experience for me.
On Sunday, we had the alumni connection which was very exciting. I met with my personal host, Katie Friedman, who graduated from Wartburg in May 2009. It was a great experience networking with Katie as well as other Wartburg graduates. The most impressing thing was seeing some alumni that had just graduated from Wartburg a year or two ago with good jobs and progressing careers. Some of the alumni had graduated 20 years ago and it was interesting to hear their perspectives of Wartburg College and how things were when they were students at Wartburg. I was also able to exchange contacts with some alumni and seek advice on my career goal – to work at an IT department in a financial services firm. At the end of the alumni connection event, I went home with Katie Friedman, Lydia Yisa-Doko, and SiRena Webb. Katie lived in a convent with nuns. I had thought that living in a convent for 2 days would be awful, but the nuns turned out to be the nicest nuns ever. They offered us refreshments as we all watched the Oscar Awards. I had just arrived Chicago and my experience in one day was great. I couldn’t have asked for a better start.
On Monday, Lydia and I rode the bus to our professional site, PFG BEST – a brokerage firm. Our professional host, Steve Schuster, took us on a tour around the firm. I found out that PFG BEST works with small and big clients including in-house such as other departments and external clients such as Goldman Sachs. I was able to shadow the software developer, Philippe Souvanheuane, and learn how he creates the website for easy user interface. He also showed me how he creates a program that shows the bid/offer prices of foreign exchange of different financial services firm in micro seconds. I also learned that the day starts at 4:00pm for the foreign exchange market which was interesting to see. At 4:00pm I watched PFG BEST restart their system and coordinate with their partner firms on the foreign exchange prices they were receiving. After office hours on Monday, Lydia and I explored downtown Chicago and we watched people who were ice skating and playing in the surrounding area. When we arrived the convent later that night, Katie was so excited for us and asked us about our experience. We narrated our day’s event to her and she was happy that we were getting the experience we wanted.
On Tuesday, Katie offered to drive us to work because we had to leave with our suitcases. Our professional host – Steve Schuster – was very nice to us and kept asking us questions. He made Lydia and I job shadow with other areas of the IT department. I was able to understand even more deeply what PFG BEST does – PFG BEST gets the best bid/offer prices from top notch banks and displays it for their clients to choose from in microseconds. By doing this, PFG BEST does not incur any risk. We left our site at 12:00 noon on Tuesday because we had to leave for our next destination on time.
My experience in the Orange Connection program threw more light on my understanding of the financial services industry. Through this experience, I have decided to pursue an IT career in a financial firm/Investment Banking firm. This is because the financial/Investment Banking industry is dynamic and as a Computer Information Systems major, I was able to witness how exciting and interesting an IT job can be in this particular industry. The Orange Connection program was the medium through which I was able to realize this, and I am grateful for the opportunity.
