Alishah Ishfaq
Appearances
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
I think it's something that I developed over time, certainly. In high school, I remember I would just pick up a lot of self-help books, such as Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the classic, Thinking Grow Rich, a lot of psychology books.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
of this kind, and just like watching a lot of YouTube videos on, you know, like what it takes, you know, the mindset that you should have, like Jocko Willink is a great author, I kind of follow him as well. So yeah, just like having that mindset to put your emotions aside, get up and do what you have to do, just get after it. It was my motto. And reaching out, too, in terms of being persistent.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
I know a lot of students tend to get discouraged after they don't hear back. Like I mentioned, you replied back to me after two months. And that was just me being consistently reaching out on LinkedIn. I certainly did have that thought that he's probably bombarded with so many messages from other students like me. I didn't really expect him to get back, but there's always a chance.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
I don't give up. I think with everything else, I've always been persistent regardless of what the circumstances are, how I feel. I put all that aside. I know what the goal is. I just go after it. I think to have this mindset, you definitely have to have a lot of self-discipline.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
like I mentioned, I think in high school, reading a lot of these self-help books really helped me like build and grow that mindset over time.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
Exactly. Yeah, no, it's very, very essential to have a circle that's supportive and they're ambitious and have goals of their own. But yeah, I think it's also important to emphasize that it's a lot easier said than done. Like I just mentioned, I networked and I got these internships.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
It wasn't like that. So certainly ever since freshman year, I've been like building up to that level, right? Making sure that I'm part of activities on campus, you know, financial events that happen, you know, going on coffee chats, cold emailing people on LinkedIn. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can from books.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
YouTube is one of the biggest resources I've used, especially because I'm a visual learner. So just watching a lot of these videos, reading books, also doing well in my academics, I think all of that certainly adds up and contributes. you know, help me land those internships.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
Yes, so many. I've even got rejected for applications that I've applied to sophomore, freshman, and junior year. So it's just being persistent, not getting discouraged, keeping your eye on the prize, and every day waking up with a goal. you know, it's also important to have short-term and long-term goals, right? What are you doing on a daily basis? What is it that you have to achieve?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
So I think also just being organized, like I have two, three planners. I have, you know, a Google calendar, a physical planner. So it takes a lot of hard work and, you know, there's days you're not going to feel like getting up, but It's important to, like, you know, have your goal in mind and just putting your emotions aside. And, you know, it's OK. We all have bad days.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
And it's important to also get help and have people. I call it the board of directors, your board of directors, people that you can reach out to and know that they're going to be there on your side.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
I'm doing very well. Fantastic. Thank you so much for having me here. And actually, just to add on, it took you two months to get back to me. So I was just like cold emailing, trying to, you know, get a tour of the New York Stock Exchange because we're one of the largest clubs at Baruch. It's called the Finance and Economic Society. And so all of us, like, it's a dream to be here.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
So just consistently, I think just reaching out. And yeah, one day after two months, we replied. And that's kind of how we hit it off.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
Awesome. Yeah. Just to give you some background, I immigrated here with my family when I was about 80 years old and ever since I've been living here in Brooklyn. So I kind of grew up here, went to middle school, high school, and then college. And like Peter said, it's pretty hard and stressful trying to navigate college, trying to land an internship.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
I think it takes a lot of perseverance, commitment, dedication, and certainly I hope Just following those values, I've landed a full-time job at Citi. I landed an internship during my junior year at TD Securities. I was in the investment banking division. And then currently I'm interning at Commerce Bank as a corporate banking intern, along with Trademoss here at the New York Stock Exchange.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
Yes, I am also interning here with Benny Tuckman. And yeah, so that's kind of what I've been up to recently. But yeah, it's really been a lot navigating and trying to land your junior summer internship and then also landing, you know, something full time that I would love to pursue as my career and, you know, ultimate job.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
And yeah, so in college, I was going around to the course of different colleges across New York City. And Baruch was one of my best options.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
amazing school. I can't say enough great things about it. But yeah, so I ended up at Baruch and freshman year, I was attending a lot of like, we had career fairs. So we would have like recruiters from different companies come in and speak to students. So I was attending a lot of those trying to like get an idea of, Hey, like what is banking? What is investment banking?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
Because when you walk in, when you come in as a freshman investment bank, I feel like it's very glamorized. And so everybody's like, yeah, I wanted to do investment banking, but little do people know what it actually takes. Um, uh, And so I think just realizing that, trying to speak to people and ask them important questions like, what does your day to day look like? What skills do I need to have?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
Right. So try to match that with what your values are, what you essentially want to do. So I think a lot of networking was the key in like landing these internships, especially my junior internship. I actually didn't even do an application for that. It was straight through networking. So I was part of Fez and we have a lot of connections, alumni.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
a finance and economic society. So it's like the largest finance club, I believe. And that's who came to tour here. That's cool.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
We'll also be back on Wednesday for our second tour.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
It's a semester thing. Yeah. So, you know, I was just networking a lot and I reached out to somebody that was recruiting, doing a resume drop at TV Securities. And yeah, he was like, we love your resume. I'd love to like have, you know, a first round of interview. I was like, yeah, let's do it. So it was like the very next day they called me. I did a phone call interview.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
And before I actually even got to send a thank you letter, they're like, hey, we'd love to do a super day. So like I didn't even have time to send a thank you letter or like, you know, prep a The next morning, I had super days with the two MDs from TD. And, you know, it was a great casual conversation. Really enjoyed it.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Why the "Santa Claus Rally" Happens & How To Build a Career in Finance with Peter's Intern!
And yeah, before I even got to send them thank you letters, they're like, hey, we'd love to extend the offer. So it all happened very quickly. And yeah, that's kind of how I landed my junior summer internship.