Success story: Nailah Harris goes full-time at JPMorgan Chase
Areas of Study , Finance Success Stories | Dec 09, 2013 | Nicole Gesualdo
Nailah Harris (GSB ’14) has been with JPMorgan Chase longer than most seniors have been at Fordham.
Her work dates back to the summer after high school, when she began its Smart Start scholarship program for high-potential students. Since then, she has held full-time internships there during the summer and part-time ones during the school year.
So where does she go now? Nailah has accepted a full-time offer to become an asset management program analyst in funds.
It’s a position she knows she’ll like, because the Smart Start program features an intensive rotation. After trying out several areas, she has discovered that asset management is the most rewarding.
“I have worked more than I ever had previously at the firm, which caused less sleep, but I have learned so much,” said Nailah, a business administration major with a concentration in finance and a minor in business law and ethics. “It was my experience in this group that solidified my desire to work in asset management after graduation.”
Nailah said that JPMorgan Chase reinforces a principle that Gabelli School students are encouraged to adopt, too: the importance of asking questions.
“I was the type of person to be afraid to ask questions because I did not want to bother people,” Nailah said. But that has changed. Her JPMorgan Chase managers pushed her to be as inquisitive as she wanted. “Now I have no problem hounding my manager or teammates for answers, which has helped me learn so much at the firm,” she said. “I do not have a problem asking professors questions anymore, either.”
One noteworthy aspect of Nailah’s JPMorgan Chase job offer is that she was started down this road by her mother.
When Nailah was a high school senior, it was her mom who came across the Smart Start program and saw an opportunity.
“She actually forced me to apply because I had no intention of working in a bank, and now I could not imagine anything else,” Nailah said. “It has been a great experience.”
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