VP of wealth management: How I got my job and where I'm going

I'm originally from Nigeria. My family immigrated to the United States when I was four years old. I now call Houston home because I grew up in Houston and all my fondest memories are there. I went to Baylor University which is in central Texas where I studied economics. In college, I remember working with a professor who knew that because I was an immigrant to this country coming from a country that didn't have as many opportunities that I needed to challenge myself. He encouraged me to apply to internships. I interned for every single summer I was in college. And he gave me an opportunity to work on national research projects that he was working on. That totally opened my mind to what was possible. After undergrad, I taught for two years through Teach for America in Boston. I realized I wanted to learn about education. So I didn't want to rush to Wall Street. I moved to New York for my graduate program at Columbia University where I first started to explore the idea of what to do with my career. Some of my professional growth has definitely come out of the challenge of not being able to find work right after graduate school. I was super passionate, I was qualified. I graduated from a great school. However, I wasn't getting calls back about all the great experience I offered on my online application. I realized quickly that I had to make those soft connections and those warm connections. So I would go to networking events. I would reach out to my former professors to ask them for leads and opportunities. And it became clear to me that it's really important to do the ground work to find a new job not just applying online. I got this job while working as a staff member for Teach for America. So the fellowship was completed. I then came back to work as a strategist for TFA. While I was finishing my contract with TFA an alumni reached out to me and said, "I heard you're looking for work "And your next steps." You know, "Might I interest you in a role at my firm?" As I had mentioned earlier I had explored the idea of transitioning into finance. I knew that there's more opportunity for exposure with data science. A lot more technology and software options at big banks. So I thought about it, I interviewed with the team and I knew that it was a good fit based on the culture of the firm and also the exciting work that I would be doing. Some of the things that will come up in the interview process for financial services is whether or not you're comfortable with finance or numbers. Some of the questions you can expect to get asked is how many data sets have you worked with in the past? Tell me about the types of data that you've worked with. How do you know to build a report? What tools would you use? What software would you use? How would you present the information and your findings? This is to sort of unpack your experience if you've had any. Working with numbers, working with analytics in any way. Some of my long term ambitions include working in a more senior role. Using technology to drive business and policy decisions. I'm open to that being at different companies or maybe in a different sector. But I really am passionate about the use of technology to drive business and the role that data plays in policy and decision making.