September 9, 2021
In turn with Marc Bertolino
Marc Bertolino was pursuing a BSBA degree in finance when he put his college career on pause so he could apply his experiences in the financial markets to the launch of MyTiker Trading Journal, an SaaS application that was a community for active traders to import, analyze and journalize their trades. That platform was eventually acquired by a Rhode Island-based company.
“It was time for me to return to college,” the Nashville native told us. “It (MyTiker Trading Journal experience) will become the foundation of my lifelong career.”
That career recently brought him back to the College of Business and an internship opportunity with JPMorgan Chase, where he worked in the Liquidity and Escrow services division on the Virtual Account Management (VAM) product team. There, he learned about reporting and account rationalization. He worked with VAM product interns, VAM product teams and specialists, and the VAM senior management team.
“I concluded the internship with a final analysis and presentation to seniority on competitive offerings, features, scale, and capabilities compared to JPMorgan’s solution,” Bertolino said.
What was the most challenging thing you experienced during your internship, and how did what you learned in the COB help you overcome it?
The most challenging thing I experienced during my internship was working with such a large and complex team. I didn’t fully understand the nature of business divisions within a firm. There are so many dots, and your job is to determine how they connect, work together, and form a division that produces value. The COB helped me overcome this challenge because my degree work follows the same structure.
How did you apply what you learned in BUSI 1200, BUSI 2200, BUSI 3200, or BUSI 4200 to your internship?
BUSI courses were crucial to my success. The essential things I learned in BUSI courses were leadership, teamwork and business formality. I learned how to work in diverse teams and identify individual strengths and weaknesses. Knowing how to identify and utilize each individual’s strengths and weaknesses is how teams unlock potential and complete projects effectively and efficiently. BUSI courses also taught me how to write a professional resume, cover letter and email. With the world of technology, resumes and cover letters get sent through machines for preliminary analysis. It was vital that I knew how to organize and structure my resume, use action verbs, and ensure the piece of paper told a story about who I am and what I offer.
What has this internship taught you about responsibility?
This internship has taught me that personal responsibility is key to my current career and all that remains ahead. I was assigned portions of projects, and it was my job to do everything necessary to complete them efficiently and effectively. JPMorgan had the resources; it is my job to find them and use them. If I didn’t understand something, it is my job to go out and find the resources to answer what I don’t understand.
How will this internship benefit you?
The goal of an internship is to get yourself in the real world and absorb as much information as possible. You do this through learning, networking, working, and exploring the business where you have landed an internship. I will use these foundational skills I learned for the rest of my life. One thing I kept in mind throughout the internship is that it was a drawn-out interview for a full-time position. The internship landed me a full-time job out of college. I will be returning to JPMorgan after graduation as a full-time wholesale payments rotational analyst. I wouldn’t want to start my professional career anywhere else!
Why would you recommend a business student take advantage of an internship opportunity?
I recommend that all business students take advantage of internship opportunities. You may have a plan in place and know precisely what you want to do, but internships help you explore the validity of this plan. I thought, without a doubt, I would be a trader. I was good at it and enjoyed it, but sometimes you discover things you didn’t know you didn’t know. I didn’t know there was such thing as wholesale payments, but it turned out to be directly in line with my strengths, knowledge, skills and desires, even more than trading. Sign up for a lot of opportunities and don’t ignore the big companies. I got denied by multiple large firms before finding JPMorgan. Be sure to integrate the concepts you learn in BUSI courses and send your resume to all companies you desire to join. What is the worst that is going to happen? You are going to get an email saying, “Unfortunately…,” I got five of them! It only hurts for a few days. 🙂
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