Drexel junior Jo Chang never thought when she enrolled at Drexel she would be living and working in the nation’s capital. Her second co-op, with the company Goldman Sachs, sent her to Washington, D.C., and the chance to work in a new city, especially during an election year, was an opportunity she could not turn down.
“Moving to Washington D.C. had me completely out of my comfort zone, but I took the opportunity and gained a new job, friends and a new home.”
Chang, a third-year business major with a concentration in finance, is currently working for the private wealth management division of Goldman Sachs. Her role as a co-op deals with supporting the team of wealth advisors with their client portfolios.
Chang always knew that she wanted to be a business major and her first co-op, with BlackRock Investment Firm in the cash and liquidity funds department, gave her the chance to truly explore the different avenues of business. There, she was able to see the buying side of finance, where she worked with institutional investors who buy funds in bulk and sell them to individuals.
Working for the Goldman Sachs has been a great experience for Chang, she said, and both co-ops offered the opportunity to learn more about both the selling and buying sides of finance.
“I think the most exciting part of my [Goldman Sachs] co-op is the fact that this is an election year. Being in Washington, D.C., with all the action and political figure sightings, is amazing,” Chang said.
Working for Goldman Sachs, Chang said, gave her an understanding of what it’s like to be a part of a team. Her job often includes compiling quarterly reviews, which is a collaborative effort.
“When you’re part of a team, everyone is looking out for you because you are working together,” she said. “And the Goldman Sachs office in D.C. is a newer, smaller office, so I had a better chance to truly get to know everyone and feel involved”.
Chang said her most memorable moment of the whole experience was “the first day, being on Capitol Hill with the buzz of D.C. in election year, and meeting everyone was incredible.”
“Co-op gives you a chance to try new things. But it is certainly no joke; it sits you in the seat you would eventually be sitting in after college,” said Chang. “The most important part of succeeding on co-op is goal setting, know where you want to end and what you want to do; everyone has to start somewhere.”