Teaching Science at Public High Schools
Helping Patients Cope with Complexities
Geological Approaches to Diverse Questions
Bryn Mawr to Co-Host Microsoft Robotics Institute
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Jamie Higgins '98 |
What is an article about global finance doing in S&T? Illustrating the wide variety of career paths taken by Bryn Mawr alumnae in mathematics and the sciences.
Consider how former math major Jamie Higgins '98 applies her analytical skills as a vice president and manager in corporate "repo" sales trading for Goldman Sachs, a global investment banking, securities and investment management firm. Higgins works with hedge funds, which differ from the mutual funds favored by average investors in a couple of important ways. Restricted by law to 100 investors or fewer, hedge funds typically require high minimum investments of $250,000 to $1 million. Exempt from many of the regulations governing other mutual funds, they are able to use more aggressive, higher risk investment strategies, such as short-selling, leverage, arbitrage and derivatives.
Take the short sale, for example.
Most investors follow the investment adage, "Buy low; sell high." However, profiting from a short sale depends on a falling stock price. Having identified a potential "loser," a hedge fund manager will borrow a security from a broker and then sell it, with the understanding that it must later be repurchased — at a lower price, the hedge fund manager hopes — and returned to the broker. The broker earns a fee for the transaction, and it is Higgins's job to analyze the market and identify potential transactions that will earn money for her clients and her company.
It's all part of a typical day on Wall Street for the corporate "repo" (for repurchase) sales trader, as they say in the business.
Bryn Mawr to Goldman Sachs
Higgins has found that her Bryn Mawr education has served her well during her eight years at Goldman Sachs. Take analytical and strategic thinking. "When we are working on a transaction for a customer, we are analyzing whether the risk we are taking on is worth the premium we expect to earn," she says. "We also face strong competition from other brokers, so we need to think months and years ahead to remain competitive."
There also are intellectual challenges, a hallmark of the Bryn Mawr experience. "Our business has evolved so much and so fast," Higgins says. "Hedge-fund formation has been huge. The amount of money invested in hedge funds and the number of hedge fund managers have skyrocketed in the past eight years. The investment strategies have changed. And there are also a lot of new regulatory demands on broker-dealers."
Teamwork and mentoring are also common to Goldman Sachs and to Bryn Mawr. "Bryn Mawr fostered the attitude, 'You are only as good as the weakest person on your team,'" Higgins recalls. "I feel a responsibility for mentoring my junior people, making sure they always feel challenged and have opportunities."
Smart women, too. "In the beginning of my senior year, Goldman Sachs held an event called 'Women on Wall Street,'" Higgins says. "I was so impressed with the women. They were kind and approachable, but powerful. It was obvious they had a presence, and that they knew what they were talking about.
"At the time, I didn't know exactly what Goldman Sachs did," Higgins continues. "All I knew was that I wanted to work with those women."
And Goldman Sachs has Quaker roots, like Bryn Mawr. Higgins researched the firm to prepare for the job-application process and learned that John C. Whitehead (Haverford '43), now chairman of The Goldman Sachs Foundation, had worked for the firm for almost four decades, retiring as chairman and senior partner in 1976. "I looked at Goldman Sachs' business principles, which were defined by John Whitehead," she says. "Based on Quaker principles, they encourage teamwork, hard work, consensus-building and honorable conduct."
Not an "8-to-5 Job"
Higgins said she didn't foresee working in global finance. "A lot of people encouraged me to become an actuary, so I took the first actuarial exam," She says. "The summer after my sophomore year, I worked at an insurance company, and it was such a depressing experience because my job was to enter death notices!" (She'd find herself worrying about the deceased's spouse and children.)
"Another thing that struck me was that it was a traditional 8-to-5 day with an hour lunch, and at 4:45 everyone would start to reach for their coats and mill around because they couldn't wait for the day to end," Higgins says. "I wanted to work in a place where the day would go by fast and I would have to pull myself away to go home."
Higgins, who started as an analyst in global securities lending at Goldman Sachs, found what she was looking for. "Certainly financial compensation is part of it, but that's just one factor," she says. "For me the greatest satisfaction comes from being with smart, passionate people who are excited about their work and being part of a strong team in which we push each other in a positive way. As long as the challenges keep coming and the business remains dynamic, it fits my criteria."
Dorothy Wright contributes news and feature articles on science, technology, engineering and general-interest topics to a variety of publications, including Civil Engineering and Engineering News Record.