Students on the Blog: Journey from School to Work - Part 3

This is part three of our series “Journey from School to Work,” where our Office Assistant Rudaiba Islam (BBA Finance ’21) is interviewing six Zicklin students and sharing their journeys from class to work.

Jiaxu Han
MS Finance '19
Interned as an Analyst at an Investment Bank/Brokerage


Did your internship meet your expectations?

Overall, my internship was important for my growth within the industry.


What has been the most valuable thing that you have learned at your Internships?

I was a research intern at a Financial Services company. I maintained and improved the company's extensive research database, and collected market and trading information from the database for company clients around the globe. This encouraged me to learn more about how to use the Bloomberg Terminal and analyze realtime financial market data.

In my second internship, I worked as an Analyst at an Investment Banking firm. I worked with Capital IQ and Bloomberg. In this internship, my skills were not used efficiently. But this internship was an eye-opener for me, because it taught me that in small firms if you don't ask for work, you will not get any work to do. I learned to always ask for work, which will help me in the future.
I firmly believe that an internship is a process which can lead to experience. You can say it helps you to gain more experience in the field.


How did you make connections in your internships?

In both my internships, unfortunately I could not make many connections. At one of the internships, the atmosphere was not welcoming. As an intern, you were expected to finish your work and that was about it. They did not show any interest in me to come back as a full-time employee. However, I am not great at communication, so that played a part in my experience as well.


After completing two internships, will you approach your career/school in any different way?

I am going to be more focused on how to make connections. I am also using the trading floor and other facilities such as the career center to get the most out of my college experience. I will be working on my communication skills as well.


What are you doing this semester?

I decided that If I cannot get an internship, I will focus on developing my skills and learn about the stock market. I also want to learn more about American business culture, while also working on my communicating skills.


Do you have any suggestions for a student like you?

As an international student, it is very important to pick up the language and learn about the culture. I am trying my best to do so. If you are also new to the culture, try to communicate as much as possible and learn about the culture, because that will help you move forward in your career.