Students attending Bryant’s 21st Financial Services Forum last week received valuable advice from alumni on charting their career paths as well as high-level insights into the private equity and private credit markets, one of the fastest growing segments of the investment and financial services industry.
Moderator Kushagra Sachdeva ’19 kicked off the forum — an annual, alumni-led program intended to provide Finance students with real-world insights on industry trends and opportunities — with a panel on financial pathways. He acknowledged broad anxiety about AI’s potential impact on the job market, and panelists reassured students that bots are unlikely to replace financial advisors. However, they emphasized that developing soft skills was the smartest pathway to compete with both AI and other recent graduates in the job market.
“You should be focused on becoming well-rounded individuals with strong domain and AI knowledge,” Sachdeva, an account manager at EXL, a global analytics and digital solutions company, told undergrads.
Liz (Willmonton) Landsinger ’18, a wealth advisor with Nilsine Partners, added that while she can educate new employees about investing, she can’t teach individuals how to talk to people.
“Those are skills I learned at Bryant, along with networking,” she said. “Being able to relate to people is something AI can’t do.”
“Being able to relate to people is something AI can’t do.”
“Be interested rather than interesting,” she advised students, because truly caring about clients is what differentiates one financial advisor from another, regardless of age or experience. Likewise, building a professional network during college will give students an edge when applying for jobs.
Making connections
“With AI scanning resumes, having a personal connection at the company you are applying to is important,” said Landsinger. “People will remember you if they can relate to you.”
Natalie DiMichele ’20, a senior consultant on the business insurance sales analytics team at Travelers, recalled how a chance encounter with a Bryant yoga class instructor paid off when she attended a career fair and came across the same woman representing Travelers.
“She remembered me, and helped me get an internship,” said DiMichele.
Upon landing a first job, “Immediately start building relationships there, too, even with people who aren’t on your direct team,” suggested Lauren McSweeney ’22, a senior financial analyst at Fidelity Investments.
Panelists encouraged students to pursue their passions in school and in the workplace, and to be unafraid of changing course if something isn’t working out.
“Don’t be in a competition just to build your resume,” said Landsinger, who, during her time at Bryant dropped several activities to focus on her studies. “I was so exhausted by the end of junior year. It’s easy to compare yourself to others, but pick things that you’re genuinely interested in, especially extracurriculars.”
“Don’t be in a competition just to build your resume. It’s easy to compare yourself to others, but pick things that you’re genuinely interested in."
A primer on private equity
There was a time not so long ago that businesses needing capital had only one real option: ask for a loan from a bank. In the last two decades, however, private equity has become an increasingly popular way for companies — notably startups — to secure capital and grow their business while deferring principal and interest payments into the future.
The Financial Services Forum’s mid-morning panel discussion, as well as a keynote presentation by Gerald Cooper ’96, a partner at the private market advisory firm Campbell Lutyens, were rare opportunities to learn from professionals with decades of combined experience in a relatively young segment of the finance industry.
“At its core, private equity is writing loans and hoping you get your money back, but from a different seat than a bank,” which have been barred from this segment of the lending business by federal regulations, explained Robert Thompson ’04, principal and head of flexible capital at the investment consulting firm Prime Buchholz LLC.
“We’re not regulated, so we can do things others can’t,” albeit with higher risk than banks are permitted to assume, he added.
Thompson was a panelist on a private credit and financial markets session moderated by Kristen (Dessingue) Velasquez ’10, director of Bain Capital Credit. The panel also included Andrew Goldsmith ’11, managing director at Comvest Credit Partners, a private credit asset management platform; and Chris Schiavone ’93, head of private credit strategies at alternative asset management firm 400 Capital Management.
High net worth individuals have traditionally been the main retail investors in private equity funds, but a more “democratized” market is slowly opening, experts said. Despite higher levels of risk, institutional investors like pension funds and insurance companies have taken stakes in private equity, attracted by the potential for higher long-term returns than found in the stock market.
“Private equity is still in growth mode, and we continue to see different packaging to attract different customers,” said Schiavone.
The value of private equity investments is now estimated at approximately $2 trillion.
“The market has grown dramatically in the last 15 years, and that trend will continue,” predicted Cooper, who specializes in the aftermarket for private equity investments, in a onstage discussion with Cole Mellen '27, an honors Finance student and portfolio manager with Bryant's student-led Archway Investment Fund. “There are fewer companies going public, and companies are staying private longer. Private credit has become a much bigger part of the financial system and will continue to be a big part of growing our economy.”
"Private credit has become a much bigger part of the financial system and will continue to be a big part of growing our economy.”
Cooper added that students should consider getting into private equity, noting that less than one percent of all high-net-worth capital is currently being invested in private credit deals.
“Five years from now, I think that will be much higher,” he said.
“If you look at how quickly technology and AI is progressing, all of that has been funded by the private markets,” said Cooper. “Get involved as early as you can. It’s an exciting time.”