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Classroom, Internship Experience Leads to Success on Series 7 Exam

Elmira, NY (09/07/2018) — This week's #SoaringToSuccess features Colin Morrison '19. Colin, an accounting, finance, and business administration triple major, had the recent opportunity to intern with Stone Beacon Capital in his hometown of Carlsbad, California. Let's hear more about his experience:

In the finance industry there are many ways to separate yourself from the rest, but in the end it boils down to who you know. This is one of the many concepts that my boss taught me about the competitive world of business during my internship at Stone Beacon Capital. I was very fortunate that I was chosen to be a finance intern at this firm in my hometown of Carlsbad, CA, where I learned a considerable amount about retail and institutional investing. During the internship I was thankful for the amount of material that I already learned in classes at EC with Dr. Irons, Professor Savash and Professor Brown. Without these courses, I would not have been able to make as significant of an impact as I did this summer.

The internship experience is like nothing else and is very different than being in a classroom. Over the course of my internship, I was included in a variety of different tasks and projects for the financial advisors of the firm. For example, I made a spreadsheet highlighting important information about the dividend history of companies in different exchange traded funds. I also was in charge of inputting clients' data in finance systems that we learned at EC like Morningstar and Reuters. Finding, locating and analyzing all this data was essential to my advisors' jobs and it felt gratifying that I helped them with their clients. One major lesson I learned is the process of client interaction. It is very vital in the retail sector of financial advising and no one wants someone they do not trust to handle their investments. Taking phone calls from clients was pretty alarming at first, but then it all began to get easier once I knew more about the industry and how the office worked.

What made the internship valuable was that I did not mind the work I had to do for the office or for the advisors. This internship gave me the confidence that I was entering the right field of work when I move on from EC. I am very pleased with all that I did over the summer at the internship and the opportunities it will grant me. My boss was even generous enough to sponsor me to take the General Securities Representative Exam, or better known as the Series 7. I was very pleased to pass the exam and to see how content my boss was with my performance. After this experience, I feel ready and confident to apply for jobs and to be in an office environment. The concepts and lessons I learned will stay with me forever and I cannot wait to apply them when I graduate and find a job.

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Colin Morrison ’19, an accounting, finance, and business administration triple major, had an opportunity to intern with Stone Beacon Capital in his hometown of Carlsbad, California.

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