Inclusivity, work-life balance top of mind for young talent

Everyone has to start somewhere. For young adults, college is one place where their career paths begin, as many who were born in the early 2000s finish or start their academic adventures and move into the workforce.

In this time of exploration, some students enroll knowing what profession they want to go into, while others discover it while listening to lectures or trying new activities. They all commit to their industry of choice for different reasons, too.

In the case of students who want to work in money management, their interest comes from fascination, bolstered by participation in professional development organizations and courses. They’re ready to break into the industry and grow with it. But in interviews with students at six colleges throughout the U.S., Pensions & Investments found that they also want to see in-office mentorship opportunities, cultural diversity and sustainability measures when it comes to joining a particular firm.

Money managers are especially focused on courting this next generation of talent. As managers compete for the best and brightest, they are cognizant of the importance of building inclusive work environments, offering flexibility to foster work-life balance and enhancing training and development opportunities to keep early career employees growing and motivated, respondents said in the 2023 Best Places to Work in Money Management survey.

“There’s a lot of really strong ambition among our generation to work hard and be successful,” said Aidan Milroy, a junior majoring in economics at the State University of New York at Binghamton. “Everyone’s super hard-working, willing to help each other and push each other forward. … Our generation is really passionate about just giving back to one another.”

Milroy’s investing journey began with his grandmother, who was “really passionate about investing” for her personal finances and gave him finance books to read, particularly Benjamin Graham’s “The Intelligent Investor.” While in eighth grade, he was inspired by her to open a money-market account for his summer job earnings.

At Binghamton, Milroy initially intended on studying pre-med, but by invitation of a friend, he attended a meeting of the campus’ Finance Society. Listening to upperclassmen share their experiences working financial jobs on Wall Street, he was inspired to “tap into the world of the financial services industry.”

He serves as the financial sector head at the Binghamton Investment Fund, a student-run, long-only strategy managed by the society. The fund reported assets over $500,000 as of April 28, with assets contributed by the university’s endowment.

While in high school, Logan Colhoun developed an interest in value investing also from reading books from his father. Now a junior majoring in finance at Texas A&M University, he contributes articles to Seeking Alpha, produces his own investing podcast and runs an Instagram account focused on market news.

“I look back every three months, and I realized I didn’t know anything. Now I’m way smarter than I was three months ago. To continue to find a place and be in a room where everyone is smarter than me is super exciting,” Colhoun said.

At the university’s Mays Business School, he is a member of the Aggies On Wall Street, a program that introduces students to careers in investment banking. On top of that, he serves as the president of the Aggie Investment Club, which managed about $52,500 in assets allocated from a donation from alumnus Adam Sinn. He is also an IT analyst at the student-run, school-advised Reveille Fund, which managed $9 million in assets on behalf of the university as of Nov. 29.

Emigrating from Russia to New York, Anastasiia Klimova took an administrative role at a medical office to support herself and classes at Kingsborough Community College in pursuit of a different career. She thought about majoring in political science but said she wanted to study something more practical. She also tried accounting, but as someone who loves being around people, she viewed the profession as “a way of hiding from society.”

With the analysis skills she learned from her accounting class, Klimova found her footing in finance, which she currently studies as a junior at Baruch College. A member of the college’s Private Equity Club and Zicklin Undergraduate Tax Society, a student club, she’s taking as many opportunities to network and learn.

“Thinking of what brings me to the financial world, I think of the bright eyes of people who are working in it,” Klimova said. “Those people are eager to learn, and you can tell. You can literally sense it. That’s what I like about the industry as well. People are constantly evolving, they’re constantly learning something and they’re thinking of how to make things better.”

Much of Generation Z’s educational experience over the past four years was shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced schools to hold classes online.

After adapting to work-from-home practices during the pandemic, most Best Places to Work winners require employees to be at the office a minimum number of days per week. But students who spoke with Pensions & Investments said they prefer to work in person as much as they can.

The office provides a different environment compared to home, and occasionally, the perk of free food and drinks, said Zed Truong, a junior double-majoring in finance and real estate at the University of San Diego. When asking for help while working remotely, he noted sharing a screen can be “a mess.”

“For someone who’s more junior and just coming into the industry, I want this in-person interaction because you can just pop by someone’s office and ask them a question,” Truong said.

Truong serves as president of the Finance Student Association, a professional development organization for business-minded students on campus, and as a program manager at Project Destined, a program that trains students in real estate and digital marketing. He worked as a summer analyst at PGIM Real Estate, whose parent company PGIM ranked No. 3 among BPTW winners with at least 1,000 employees.

When applying for work opportunities at a company, young adults in Gen Z will look into the firm’s mission and values to see if it align with their own beliefs.

“I’ll always read through (the company’s values) and will sift through how they make an impact in the world,” said Rachel Chu, a junior majoring in finance at DePaul University in Chicago and aspiring professional in the private credit industry. “I value that kind of social aspect and making sure that their mission or their values really align with mine because I would never want to work for and attach myself to a company that disregards that.”

As the incoming president of the DePaul Females in Finance Initiative, Chu said female promotion within a company is important to her, especially given the historic lack of female leadership in the finance space.

Diversity is another important value among people in Gen Z. For aspiring wealth manager Spencer Gordon, he wanted to experience a “new culture” while in college, so he traveled from his native New York to the University of Georgia, where he is now a senior double-majoring in finance and management information systems.

“I wanted to meet people who weren’t from where I’m from because I’m from a very homogeneous area,” he said. “I feel that a diverse workforce is great for a ton of reasons, but personally, I feel like I’m able to meet people with different ideas, and that’s always an interesting and exciting experience.”

Gordon is part of the Student Managed Investment Fund, a selective class in which students learn and manage an equity portfolio with real money contributed by the university’s endowment. The fund reported $2.6 million in assets as of Sept. 30.

Back in New York, Binghamton sophomore Brian Petz majors in accounting and participates as a education committee member at the student-run Management Consulting Group, a professional development organization that provides pro-bono consulting services for local businesses. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, he said he not only looks at a company’s values but also its programs, including employee resource groups, to see what is done to promote inclusiveness.

“(Diversity is) something that I want to see within a company — to be able to meet like-minded peers that are also interested in the same things, but also leadership opportunities and internship opportunities to get involved in the company from an earlier perspective because of your background,” Petz said. “It’s something that I look for in a company, just to be able to connect with peers and get connected with people from the same background.”

While studying in Budapest for the fall 2023 semester, DePaul junior Anna Wise saw how serious countries in the European Union are when it comes to abiding by sustainability measures. A finance and management information systems double-major, she said she’s more conscious about how her use of energy-demanding technology affects the world and wants to makes sure the companies she’ll work for “acknowledge that and are doing their best to decrease their impact on Earth.”

Aspiring to go into the private credit industry, Wise is a member of the Females in Finance Initiative in addition to being a member of DePaul’s collegiate chapter of Women in Business.

As they get their footing in the professional world, members of Gen Z want to make sure they’re in a place that allows for career development.

Most universities have mentorship programs in place where a current student is paired up with an alumnus in their industry and willing to help the student in their career.

It’s something available for students at the University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business, said Catherine Shih, a senior who is also the vice president of the Student Managed Investment Fund. A senior who is double-majoring in finance and management information systems and international business, she added that having that kind of mentorship continue in the workplace is important.

“It’s good to have someone that you can ask your questions to or just ask for general life advice,” Shih said. “I think it’s also important to develop your relationships and find people who you have a connection with, who want to invest in you and help you grow.”

Having the opportunity to grow within the company is a big factor in convincing them to stay, as opposed to popular employer benefits such as concierge services or financial support for continuing education, the students said. While she acknowledged benefits such as parental leave may become more important to her as she gets older, Chu noted that she doesn’t “want to stay in the same thing for the rest of (her life).”

“I want to be somebody who is able to learn more and take on more responsibility as time allows,” she said.

Petz and Wise added that having an office with a social environment to build camaraderie would make their work more enjoyable and add another reason to stay.

Gordon said the firm he wants to stay at would make him feel good, both mentally and physically. But what would be No. 1 for him is if his manager expresses goals and visions aligned with his.

While the future may come with uncertainty, this generation believes there are reasons to look forward.

For the most part, the students don’t think artificial intelligence will hinder their job prospects. Binghamton’s Milroy said AI will “be more of a complement, rather than a supplement” to the industry, helping get work done successfully, adding AI can’t replicate the same personal relationships human employees share with co-workers and with clients.

USD’s Truong said there will always be a human aspect to his work that AI cannot do, such as personally assessing what a certain number means.

Truong, who wants to break into the private equity industry through real estate, said he’s looking forward to when he applies the skills he gained through his career to give back to his native Vietnam, which he noted is “very undeveloped” but “growing really fast” in the economic frontier.

Colhoun, who wants to work in the hedge fund industry, added that he’s excited about to continue to learn throughout his career. He would love to start his own fund, too.

“Being at a hedge fund, investing and always following the markets, you’re at the front edge of what’s happening in the world,” Colhoun said. “Maybe you can drive change with your capital allocation. I think it’s just really fun to be always on the edge of what’s happening and be able to hopefully influence it positively.