My post shall be in the format of a list (because I’m sure you know I love lists). Here are a few things I’ve learned in my week of shadowing in the Firm Analytics department at Edward Jones:
1) Finance is actually super interesting if you give it a chance (contrary to what actually everyone says).
2) Edward Jones manages over one trillion dollars in assets per year. For reference, that’s six percent of the GDP of the United States and larger than the GDP of most countries.
3) Adults are really impressed by teenagers who do basic things correctly, like showing up on time and asking questions.
4) Almost every country in the world is affected by currency fluctuations, but Edward Jones is not. They are an unusual company in that a) they do not sell a physical product that requires materials sourced from another company (i.e., and iPhone) and b) they are not a multinational company that generates revenue in other currencies and must exchange them for US dollars.
5) Graduating high school doesn’t magically make you follow dress codes. Probably 20% of people here definitely do not dress “business”.
6) A good career move would be to join a growing company after college. This way, you can advance by filling newly created positions. If you join a stagnant company, you have to wait for someone to retire (which literally takes a lifetime).
7) There is so much overhead at a large company. There are 79 people here who work in Firm Analytics–so their job is just to answer questions that Treasury, Sourcing, Marketing, or anyone else might have about the company’s profits, etc.
8) Mr. Rawlins handles over $10 billion of cash every day.
Anyway, I’m excited for next week in Treasury. This has been a much more interesting week than I expected, since I’m mostly reading reports and listening to meetings.
I love your list of things you learned!!! The ideas on working in a growing company sounds right. But here is a fact I heard from people — 49% of people are self-employed, the future work trend is self-employed. I don’t if it true or not, just sharing the news I heard.
P.S making a list make your words stands out from other long paragraphs!!
Haha thank you Melissa, I appreciate it! And yeah, self-employed seems like the way to go if you have the work ethic. There are definitely huge downsides to working for a big company.