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The Finance Department in the College of Business held its Fall Beach Fin Rising Finance Symposium last Friday afternoon, October 24.  This semester’s symposium was the best attended yet, with over 180 students preregistering for the event.  Speakers included David Bizub, VP with Robert Half, Heidi Benavidez, CFA, a Wealth Management professional and Shakya Harish, Principal with Napean Capital Group.

David Bizub, with 35 years’ experience in the job placement world, titled his talk “Your Career and How to Find that First Job”  He started out the afternoon talking with the students about jobs and how to go about getting them.  One revelation, was that it appears that, in spite of doom and gloom in the media, the job market for Finance, Accounting and Human Resource students is still very strong.  He talked about how students should approach the interview process, what to expect, how to answer questions and how to “win” the interview process which results in getting a job offer.  One interesting tidbit was that something as simple as speaking up can make a huge difference in an interview, so practice talking with a more forceful voice if you need to before you go for the interview as your first impression means a lot.

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Heidi Benavidez, titled her talk, “Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About Wealth Management” and with her years of experience both as an employee in the field and as an owner of her own wealth management firm, she was able to provide tremendous insights into all the potential career opportunities in the wealth management industry.  The talk ranged from an overview of her career, how students can work to get into the industry, all the different positions available in the industry and the future of the industry.  Heidi is always a great speaker and truly understands her industry well.

Shakya Harish, who also now teaches a class in the Finance Department talked about, “Smart Money Moves: Careers in Finance and Investing Tips”.  Shakya told a fascinating story of his career in finance, starting with where he went to school, the difficulties he faced in changing firms – 14 rejections until he hit on the right company and then how he came to be involved with Napean Capital Group and what they do in the investment world.  In the second part of his talk, he discussed why it is so important to start investing early and the difference it makes in one’s financial wellbeing later in life.  Part of his power point showed that starting at 25 to invest ends up with over twice as much money at age 65 versus starting to invest at age 35.  A real, eye-opening presentation.

Overall, the event went very well, the students were enthused and asked lots of questions and all the cookies were eaten.

Enjoy the photos of the speakers and attendance.