Alumni Insights: Ian Whear

My name is Ian and as cliché as it sounds, I was in your shoes not too long ago. I graduated in 2011 with a BBA in Finance and secondary major in economics. After graduating, I worked as an investment banking analyst where I focused on M&A, equity and debt transactions. After two years there, I left to join a private equity firm and focus on growth investment opportunities in software, internet and technology enabled services.

If you are currently a student, pat yourself on the back. You are in a good school. Sometimes it is easy to be negative when certain companies that you want to get in front of do not recruit at UMass. The reality is, where companies recruit is usually out of your control. One of the biggest pieces of advice I give to current students about interviewing is to NEVER be negative about your school or experiences.

Question I actually got in my investment banking interview: “Why did you go to UMass? Why didn’t you go to Harvard? You seem smart enough, why would you shoot yourself in the foot like that?” Take a second. How would you answer this? Not easy. Here’s what I said (probably not as eloquently as I have written out here but you get the idea): “Let me tell you why I WENT to UMass. First, by doing well on standardized exams in previous schooling, I was able to get the John and Abigail Adams scholarship that allowed me to go to the state university free of tuition. This made economic sense for me and my family. Secondly, I was not sure what I wanted to do after school. UMass Amherst had a bountiful amount of programs that would allow me to explore my interests. Lastly, I was excited to go to a university that would have people from all walks of life. I believe that my experiences have overall made me a more rounded person and have emphasized or deemphasized where I want to take my life and future education.”

Write that last point down. It WILL help you. And while we are on the topic of writing stuff down, that leads me to my second piece of advice: always take notes. This is as important in an internship as in a real world job. You are never going to remember everything someone tells you. Also, if someone is giving you advice and you write it down, it FEELS better to the other person.

I remember in one of my interviews I asked a question and the guy gave me a response. When he got to the key point in his response, I wrote it down. He asked me why I wrote it down. I told him that I didn’t want to forget it and that it was good advice. He smiled and wrote something on my resume. It must have been good because I got the job. Another example of a question I got in an interview: “How many gas stations are there in the United States?” There are a bunch of different questions like this that you can get asked. If I were sitting with you in an interview room in Isenberg right now I might ask you: “How many students are currently in the library on campus?” What the interviewer is looking for is HOW YOU THINK ABOUT THE PROBLEM. It is not the answer itself that is important, but how you arrived at the answer. This is where pen and paper come in handy. Write everything out. All assumptions you make. Draw a diagram. Do not think of anything without putting it on paper and talk it out with the interviewer.

I interviewed analysts for investment banking for two years. I have heard 20+ candidates give me their stories/answers. Good rule of thumb: only talk as much as you have to. Let me tell you why and then give you an example. Interviews are awfully boring for the interviewer. At the end of the day, we are trying to check a bunch of boxes and move people onto others higher up who really make the decisions. You have 20-30 minutes for the interview. If I cannot check all my boxes that I need to, then you are not moving on. If I ask you a question that should take 30 seconds to answer and you give me a seven minute response, then you just wasted six minutes and 30 seconds to impress me on something I want to get impressed on.

The last section of this post will seek to be somewhat motivational from someone who has spoken to plenty of alumni and gone through the transition to the “real world” that all of you will eventually make:

#1. The biggest part of “growing up” is understanding who YOU want to be and what YOU want to do. It is so easy for people to just follow the crowd. I am telling you now that if you want to be successful in school or interviewing for jobs you are going to have to plan time outside of class to get your homework done and/or spend time researching careers, networking, etc. I guarantee you this means you will have to miss a party every once in a while. Don’t let friends make you feel bad about wanting to study or do well. Some will, some wont. The ones that understand are worth keeping around.

#2. Think outside the box. As I said before, there are many paths up the mountain. Be different in a good way and you will most certainly stand out.

#3. Don’t be afraid of failure. I failed getting an investment banking internship my junior year. I used that failure to be much better prepared my senior year. Remember this quote: “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”

#4. Don’t listen to people who say things can’t be done. Just don’t. The walls in life are there to make us prove how badly we want something.

#5. Get ready to work your butt off. There are 30 more kids reading this that want the same job as you. NYU grades on a scale. Only 10% of those kids are getting A’s. UMass (for the most part) does not grade on a scale which can sometimes lead you to believe that if you just do what you need to you can “get an A”. Be careful of this way of thinking, only 10% of kids (if that!) are getting into banking.