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Economics and business major Brian Hobby ’03 (Chatham, N.J.) learned about investment and how to move up the corporate ladder during a nine-week summer internship sponsored by John Pallotta ’84, director of sales at The Principal Financial Group.
“Lafayette’s focus on real world business situations made me immediately comfortable in a corporate environment,” says Hobby. “(Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Professor of Economics and Business) Rosie Bukics stressed how important it is to pay attention to detail, and this helped me avoid errors common to other interns. By the end of my internship, co-workers never second guessed my figures.”
Hobby, who learned about the opportunity through the Job Vault maintained by Lafayette’s Career Services, worked primarily in the company’s Morris Corporate Center in Parsippany, N.J., spending a few days in its Jersey City office as well. He attended seminars on retirement plans, participated in sales and customer service meetings, cleared up ‘asset mismatches’, and worked on other projects using Relationship, a corporate software program.
“I was very surprised at how much work a team of sales and service officials can accomplish over a short period, and how important it is to maintain close relationships between customers and The Principal Financial Group,” he says. “Furthermore, it was eye-opening to me how changing technology and the Internet play crucial roles in running a corporation.”
In addition to the importance of investing at a young age to ensure “a safe, rewarding future,” Hobby learned that education is key in moving up the corporate ladder.
“The more you know about subjects pertaining to your job, the quicker you gain peer respect and become noticed by higher management,” he says. “Lafayette has definitely given me an edge.”
Hobby is interested in becoming a distressed/high-yield analyst and developing his own high-yield mutual fund.
“My internship showed me how important good mutual fund analysts are to a successful portfolio,” he notes. “Hopefully, I will help a lot of people make a lot of money.”
Hobby is an orientation leader, calculus tutor, member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and president of the Ice Hockey Club, which has won the past two Delaware Valley College Hockey Conference championships. He interned with Maloney Associates in New York during the January interim session between semesters of his sophomore year and maintains a relationship with the company.