Students Gain Insight & Connections at Weekend Business Talk

In the first of its year-long series of career events, the Office of Career Advisement sponsored a talk on Sunday from two young professionals who shared their wisdom about finding work and fulfillment in the world of business and finance.

In an hour-long discussion with students in Albertus Magnus Hall, newlyweds Deirdre and Patrick O’Connell stressed that young, faithful Catholics can both make a living and contribute to the common good by pursuing careers in business. To begin with, advised Mr. O’Connell,a credit analyst on Alliance Bernstein’s Fixed Income Global Credit Research team, one should ask: “How can you use your unique talents to best help those around you in a really constructive way, helping as much as you can with the tools that you have that are unique to yourself?”

The O’Connells urged students not to be concerned that, because they have pursued a liberal education, and not business degree, they will be disadvantaged in the job market. “For a lot of these business jobs, you don’t need to already have business skills,” said Mrs. O’Connell, who has worked for USB Investment Bank and who, having recently earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, will soon join Monitor Deloitte as a management consultant. “Because a lot of the knowledge is so functional-specific to a job, they don’t care whether you have spent four years studying this — because you can’t,” she continued. “They want employees who have an A+ attitude and the ability to solve problems and learn.”

The key, Mr. and Mrs. O’Connell agreed, is being vigilant about networking and making phone calls, and being willing to hear the occasional “no” from a prospective employer. “All these options — they are all open to you,” said Mrs. O’Connell. “There are really no limitations.” The couple stressed that they would be personally available to the students to help them in any way with their career searches.

Married earlier this summer, Mr. and Mrs. O’Connell live in New York City and have been active in numerous Catholic apostolates, including St. John’s Basilica, where they helped to start a youth group with Thomas Aquinas College sophomore Siobhan Heekin-Canedy.

“We’re very grateful to the O’Connells for being so generous with their time and their insight, and we’re grateful to Siobhan for helping to arrange their visit,” says Director of Career Advisement Mark Kretschmer. “It’s a blessing for our students to know that they can put the gift of a Catholic liberal education to the service of pretty much any endeavor, and that there are good people out there who can and want to help them do it.”